Welcome back to Blackfish: our weekly Vancouver Canucks prospect report.

And then there were three.

At this stage of the season, only Braeden Cootes, Gabe Chiarot, and Ilya Safonov remain in playoff action. Naturally, that means we’re running out of games to break down.

But that hasn’t slowed us down on the Blackfish Prospect Show.

With what is shaping up to be one of the most important drafts in franchise history, our focus has shifted heavily toward draft-eligible prospects. Over the coming weeks, we’ll continue to work through the class and break down potential targets across the board.

Last week’s episode focused on the “big four” defencemen. This week, we turned our attention to centres — primarily Caleb Malhotra and Viggo Björck as potential high-end options, while also touching on Tynan Lawrence, who we don’t quite view in that same top-tier conversation.

Next week will be a big one. We’ll be dropping an early episode ahead of the Draft Lottery, where Tyson and Dave will unveil their top-16 rankings and break down each player. You can catch an appearance from us on the Canucks Conversation live show at Greta Bar YVR for the draft lottery show. We’ll also be recording a post-lottery reaction episode immediately after.

For now, let’s get into the playoffs.

Braeden Cootes and the Prince Albert Raiders currently trail the Medicine Hat Tigers 2-1 in the WHL Conference Finals. And this series has delivered a bit of everything.

Game 1 was all Prince Albert. They outshot Medicine Hat 39-24 and cruised to an 8-3 victory, with Cootes picking up two primary assists. His second helper came on a terrific backdoor feed from the flank.

Early in the game, we thought Cootes was forcing a few plays, leading to some unnecessary turnovers. But he settled in the second period, ultimately finishing with two assists, four shots, and going 9-for-12 in the faceoff circle.

Game 2 flipped entirely, as the Tigers pushed back in a big way with a 5-0 win. While two late goals (including an empty netter) made it look more lopsided than it felt, Medicine Hat controlled much of the game. Cootes finished a minus-3, but remained effective in the faceoff dot at 7-for-10.

Game 3 was a tight-checking battle that ended in a 2-1 overtime loss for Prince Albert. The Raiders dominated the third period but ran into a red-hot goaltender and couldn’t capitalize.

Overall, we thought Cootes was sharper in earlier rounds, but he’s still heavily involved shift-to-shift. Prince Albert is outshooting Medicine Hat by a wide margin, and Cootes has been a big driver of that, recording 11 shots in the series. Now, it’s about finding his scoring touch.

In the OHL, Gabe Chiarot and the Kitchener Rangers hold a 2-1 series lead over the Windsor Spitfires.

Chiarot has just one primary assist so far — a nice feed to the slot from his knees — but as we’ve said throughout these reports, it’s what he does away from the scoresheet that continues to stand out.

There was one shift in particular that summed it up well.

While shorthanded, Chiarot started the play with a strong poke check to steal the puck. From there, he battled through multiple defenders, regained possession, and at one point fought off nearly four Spitfires players to keep the play alive. He eventually drove the net and rang a shot off the post, coming close to a shorthanded goal.

That’s the identity he brings as a hard, relentless, and difficult player to compete against. It’s exactly why he projects as a potential third-line, energy-type forward at the next level, and why he earned an entry-level contract out of camp as a sixth-round pick.

Admittedly, much of our recent focus has been on events like the U18 World Championships, as Ilya Safonov is no longer viewed as a primary Canucks prospect.

That said, he and Ak Bars Kazan are in the KHL Conference Finals against Magnitogorsk and are currently tied 1-1 in the series at the time of writing.

By the time this report is published, one team will have taken control.

That will do it for this week’s instalment. This time of week, we will know whether the Vancouver Canucks will be selecting Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg or one of the many other candidates that could go in the top three!