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Blackfish: Cootes the Teddy Bear whisperer, Mynio’s heavy lifting, and Björck’s sleeper appeal
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Dave Hall
Nov 25, 2025, 18:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 25, 2025, 15:44 EST
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Welcome back to Blackfish: Our weekly Vancouver Canucks prospect report.
Abbotsford’s struggles continue to test the depth chart as they drop a pair of games, but the play of their young defenders remains a genuine bright spot. Over the Western League, Braeden Cootes made the Teddy Bears rain. Meanwhile, Wilson Björck scored a beautiful goal in overtime and serves as our player highlight this week.
Let’s dive right in.

Abbotsford Canucks

Oh boy. The Abbotsford Canucks hit the quarter mark of their season on Saturday night, playing their 18th game and adding another loss to extend their latest skid to four straight. Through those 18 games, they’ve managed just three wins, two of which came during opening weekend back in mid-October. To say times are tough may be an understatement, and that sentiment is stretching clean across both tiers of Canucks hockey right now.
If you’re hunting for silver linings, we might be diving into draft-eligible chatter far earlier than expected this season. And that’s music to the ears of prospect enthusiasts.
On a more serious note, the one genuine bright spot in Abbotsford remains the play of rookie defender Sawyer Mynio. He began the year as a sheltered third-pairing option, but injuries and call-ups vaulted him into low-to-mid-20s usage just weeks into his inaugural year. Even with recent reinforcements in Kirill Kudryavtsev and Victor Mancini returning to the farm, Mynio is still holding down the fort as the team’s go-to option on both the top power play unit and the penalty kill.
Mynio picked up three assists over the weekend and now sits second on the team with nine points (two goals, seven assists). That total also puts him in a tie for second among all AHL rookie defencemen. He’s being trusted in every situation and continues to shine as a small glimmer of light in an otherwise dark season.
As mentioned, Kudryavtsev is back down, and while Mynio has taken the reins as the top dog, the Russian defender has quietly continued to do his thing. He scored his first of the season over the weekend — part of a two-point outing in San Jose — and looked poised throughout.
It’s not easy to walk away looking positive in Abbotsford games these days, but the two young blue-liners are nowhere near the source of the team’s struggles.
Up front, there were encouraging signs as well.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki, still working through what is very likely a conditioning stint, collected his second goal of the season and finished with a two-point effort.
He fired five shots on target and once again stood out as one of the most dangerous Canucks on the ice. The club spent too much time in the penalty box over the two-game set, cutting into his minutes slightly, but he remains one of the few pieces of genuine excitement in an otherwise stale offensive corps.
With Nils Aman out nursing an injury, Ty Mueller stepped up to centre the Swedish sharpshooter — and he’s heating up. Mueller added another goal and assist over the weekend, giving him five points in his last five games. Unsurprisingly, those points are likely the direct link to a boost in play lately. His board work, puck patience, and overall presence all seem to have taken a step forward.
Vilmer Alriksson chipped in offensively too, scoring a goal while also collecting two separate 10-minute misconducts. As noted in the last few instalments, he’s been used heavily as a net-front presence and has earned top-six minutes for a decent stretch of time now.
With his big frame, he’s generated a steady diet of chances from the bumper spot and finally buried one. Now sitting second on the team with 33 penalty minutes, he’s showing real snarl — and honestly, we love it.
In goal, Nikita Tolopilo returned to the crease and started both games of the back-to-back. He played well — making 31 and 28 saves respectively — but didn’t get the offensive support needed to push either game over the line. Given how this season is trending, it might be time to judge Abbotsford’s goalies more on their difficult saves than their stat lines, because those numbers are destined to look rough behind a team carrying a league-worst minus-45 goal differential.
He’s back up in Vancouver and will join the team on their upcoming California road trip.

CHL

The Vancouver Canucks’ 2025 first-rounder, Braeden Cootes, may need to be rebranded as the Teddy Bear Whisperer. Seattle held its annual Teddy Bear Toss night over the weekend. To the delight of Canucks fans, it was Cootes who pulled the trigger to unleash the wave of Teddys. Driving confidently into the middle of the ice, he spun and snapped a shot on goal — one the netminder would certainly want back — and the bears rained down.
Just look at this mess…
That was one of two goals he scored on the weekend. The night prior, he won an offensive-zone faceoff cleanly back to the point, then quietly faded into space into the slot as the puck worked its way down the wall. When the pass came, he was loaded up and ready, hammering a one-timer home: textbook centre support, perfect timing, and another tick on the scoresheet.
Cootes wrapped the weekend with two goals, nine shots, and a plus-3 across two games. He’s now tied for fourth in Thunderbirds scoring with seven goals and 17 points in 12 games.
We’ll have a full breakdown of his overall game soon, so we’ll leave it there for now. But it’s hard not to like what he’s bringing as a centreman who seems to be everywhere, all the time.
Alexei Medvedev cooled off slightly this past week — if we can even call it that. He split his two starts, stopping 32 of 36 in a 5–2 loss (with an empty-netter against) before bouncing back with a tidy 21-save win.
If you prefer the glass-half-empty view, Medvedev hasn’t strung together back-to-back wins since early November. But with the glass-half-full lens, he hasn’t suffered back-to-back losses all season, either. Every time he drops a game, he’s answered with a win.
Over in Brampton, Gabriel Chiarot is charging up the Steelheads’ leaderboard thanks to a few more points that included a shorthanded goal. He now leads the club with 10 goals, sits second with 18 points, and is second with a plus-8, one of the few forwards on the roster with a plus rating.
And in Edmonton, Parker Alcos is fully back. After easing in on the third line following his return, he jumped right back onto the Oil Kings’ top unit and didn’t miss a beat. He added another plus-3 to his ledger and now sits at plus-16 on the season, putting him near the top of the WHL’s defensive leaderboard.

NCAA

Player highlight – Wilson Björck
There wasn’t much happening for Canucks prospects at the NCAA level this past week — except for Wilson Björck, who delivered one of the nicer overtime winners you’ll see this season.
After collecting the puck in his own end, he built speed through the neutral zone, got it back on the return pass, slipped around the defender with a quick inside move, and snapped a shot under the bar to end it. There’s nothing quite like the ping of a perfectly placed shot like that, right?
If you missed it, we ran a full breakdown on why Björck’s game has become so intriguing. It’s not because we’re projecting stardom. In fact, we aren’t even sure how far his ceiling goes just yet. But the intangibles and foundation he plays with are precisely the traits that can build a dependable pro.
As we highlighted in that piece — and as his OT winner showcased — Björck keeps his head up at all times. That might sound obvious, but it’s not a universal skill. Whether carrying the puck or playing away from it, he’s constantly scanning, shoulder-checking, and identifying options early. It allows him to play fast without rushing, and to make plays on a dime because he’s already processed the ice before the puck arrives.
With the puck on his stick, he maintains pace without ever needing to look down, which gives him a natural advantage in transition and small-area situations.
The other cornerstone of his game is his motor. Björck plays with edge, refuses to quit on pucks, and brings a level of compete that jumps off the screen. Pair that with a strong hockey IQ, and you get a player whose details give him a real shot at developing into something.
There’s some skill there, too. Will it fully translate? Hard to say. But he has a good shot, he thinks quickly, and he’s got the hands to activate when he needs to. He works the half-wall on the power play for a reason. At minimum, he’s a fun player to track — and for a fifth-round pick, he’s shaping up to be an exciting long-term bet.

Rest of the world

Over in Switzerland, Basile Sansonnens continues to skate with Lausanne’s men’s team, where he’s averaging just over 10 minutes per night. The usage is limited, but within those minutes, he’s been quietly effective in a shutdown role and has handled the pace and physicality of the National League surprisingly well for a teenager.
At 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, Sansonnens already looks the part of a pro, and the strength he brings at just 19 years old stands out immediately. Despite the heavier competition, he’s held his own in board battles, stayed composed in front of his net, and shown the ability to make simple, reliable plays under pressure. The offence and puck control are still non-existent in his game, but his value comes from being hard to play against and his skating.
He remains a near-lock for Switzerland’s World Junior roster, where he should see top-four minutes and take on a primary shutdown role.
Until next time — stay tuned, stay curious, and stay on the prospect hunt.
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