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Blackfish: A couple of firsts in Abby, Cootes finds his scoring touch, and more
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Dave Hall
Oct 28, 2025, 13:05 EDTUpdated: Oct 28, 2025, 13:07 EDT
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Welcome back to Blackfish: our weekly Vancouver Canucks Prospect Report.
We have another jam-packed week of prospect news. Whether it’s troubles in Abbotsford, Braeden Cootes finding his scoring groove, a suspension in the OHL or a Russian finding his legs overseas, we have a ton to get to.
So, let’s not waste any time and get right into the good stuff.

Abbotsford Canucks

It’s been a tough start for the reigning Calder Cup champions, dropping four straight games after picking up back-to-back wins to open the season.
The truth is, are we really all that surprised?
Losing players after enjoying such a run is par for the course in a developmental league such as the AHL, and the Abbotsford Canucks are living proof.
Whether it be the player’s moving on in the off-season or a constant carousel of injuries which have plagued the parent club (Vancouver), it’s essentially a complete cast turnover from the team they iced just months ago.
But for a brief moment, that was all forgotten this weekend. It was banner-raising night in Abbotsford, as a packed Abbotsford Centre cheered on a momentous occasion, with a few returning players on the ice.
But those good vibes were sucked out of the arena quickly, as the team allowed a goal in the early minutes of the game and went on to drop both games by a 5-2 score.
Upfront, Ty Mueller was absent from Friday’s game after taking a nasty high-stick midway through a match in Laval last week. He did return to the lineup on Sunday, enjoying top-line centre deployment. Unfortunately, he went minus-2 but notched three of the team’s 15 total shots in a losing effort.
It’s looking like things may get worse before they get better, so expect Mueller to see a ton of minutes over the next stretch of games.
Also missing Friday’s game was Danila Klimovich, who appeared to be healthy scratched after generating little to no offence the week prior. That, despite being one of the team’s go-to producers.
He managed just one shot and took a hooking penalty in the effort on Sunday. If this dwindling team is going to score goals, it has to be Klimovich leading the charge, so his two assists through five games are certainly concerning.
Meanwhile, recently signed European forward Anri Ravinkis appears to have impressed his bench boss, as Manny Malhotra has used his talents on the top line in most of the games that he’s skated in.
He’s yet to produce any points, but he brings a clear motor and willingness to get to the dirty areas of the ice. Is he a top-line producer? That remains to be seen, and we are leaning towards no. But with a shallow roster, he should continue to get his minutes thanks to his strong work ethic.
Speaking of work ethic, Josh Bloom continues to offer a fascinating dynamic within this system. Having only dressed for a game prior to this past weekend, the 22-year-old dressed for Friday’s game.
Despite opening on the team’s fourth line, he had worked his way up the ladder and was seeing good utilization with the team’s top players by the final period. He was hustling back and broke up a few odd-man rushes in his own end, and even grabbed a few scoring chances of his own.
But on Sunday, he was back in the press box to take in the game as a healthy scratch. It was a slight shock, considering how he was being used in game one of the two-game set, but that seems to be the approach this organization has taken with him.
Believe it or not, there were some positives over the weekend.
Rookie forward Vilmer Alriksson deposited his first goal as a professional hockey player. After fighting for the puck below the goal line, he worked it up to Tom Willander before rushing to the net.
With his stick on the ice, Jimmy Schuldt found him backdoor with a perfect feed to open the scoring and collect his first as an Abby Canuck.
The young Swede hasn’t torched the league on fire, by any means, but he’s physically shown that he can handle the league. He’s enjoying secondary power play usage and getting in on the chances in the offensive zone. The goal felt like a matter of time, and the hope is that it gives not only him but the coaches confidence to give him more minutes to kick his development into high gear.
Picking up the secondary assist on that was Willander, which brings up an interesting situation happening within the system.
The 20-year-old played Sunday after missing Friday’s game as a result of a midweek call-up to Vancouver. He and Kirill Kudryavtsev swapped roles, with the ladder playing on Friday before receiving the call-up to Vancouver ahead of Sunday’s tilt.
Both defenders are logging heavy minutes in Abbotsford. For Kudryavtsev, he’s acting as a grizzled veteran at just 21, playing heavy minutes on his off-hand (right side) and leading the team in scoring with five assists.
With yet another injury to Victor Mancini, who was also a part of the defender carousel and played games in both Abbotsford and Vancouver this weekend, he may enjoy a fast track and make his NHL debut sooner than we thought.
The seventh round gem story continues to sit as a massive beacon of light on this scouting group.
As of Monday, both young defenders have been called up to Vancouver, leaving the Abbotsford backend a barren wasteland of misfit defenders.
But don’t forget about Sawyer Mynio, who continues to improve with each passing game. With the injuries to Jett Woo and Guiilame Brisebois and the constant flow of defenders up and down, the young rookie has been seeing a ton of minutes through his first six games.
That includes even-strength, penalty kill and as of this weekend, the power play. Initial concerns about his physical readiness have been put to rest, as he hasn’t looked out of place in our viewings. At the net front, he’s displaying his typical aggressive nature, boxing out and playing feisty.
If there were any concerns heading into the weekend, it was his ability to translate that offensive production that we’ve seen over the last few seasons in junior. On Sunday, that changed.
After receiving a feed from his captain, Chase Wouters, Mynio delivered a patented one-timer to beat the netminder for his first professional goal.
With all the injuries and call-ups, Mynio is poised to continue seeing tons of ice time, a perfect scenario for a young defender to build his confidence.
As the injuries continue to pile up across the organization, Nikita Tolopilo could be the latest victim. In the process of making an early “save of the year” candidate-type save, the netminder appeared to injure his leg in the process.
Despite initially staying in the game, he allowed a goal shortly after the fact before heading down the tunnel to sit out the remainder of the game/weekend.
Malhotra didn’t provide a clear update after the game, but we won’t have to wait long to find out whether he’s good to go, as the team hosts the Calgary Wranglers midweek.
That should pave the way for Ty Young to see his second start of the season. The Abby Canucks have stuck with their three-man rotation, letting a goaltender rest per weekend. So far, Jiri Patera has been in the starter’s crease more than Young, which is somewhat surprising out of the gate.

CHL

The floodgates may have opened for 2025 first-rounder Braeden Cootes.
With just one primary assist through his first three games, the 18-year-old captain burst on the scene for two goals and an assist.
Both goals came courtesy of wicked releases, with the first being a half-wall wrist shot to the top of the shortside corner.
Later in the game, he took advantage of a fortuitous bounce and snapped a rocket to the top corner for his second goal of the game.
It’s important to note that even when he wasn’t scoring goals, it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Cootes has been all over the ice this season, grabbing several opportunities to collect his first goal of the season. Whether it was spectacular saves or posts, he has been as advertised through four games.
In the face-off dot, he’s won 52.2% of his draws.
Over in Ontario, Riley Patterson had himself a fantastic weekend.
After a relatively slow stretch over the last few weeks, he notched three goals, two assists, 12 shots on net and a plus-7 across three games.
All four points earn him some style points, with two of his goals coming off heavy snap shots and one showing good determination to drive to the net. Did he get a little lucky on his drive? Sure. But you love to see him taking the initiative to drive the net to get rewarded.
His primary assist came off an odd-man rush, sending a perfectly placed feed over to Kevin He.
He’s now up to 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in 12 games to sit third on the Niagara IceDogs. He’s 46.5% in the face-off dot as the team’s go-to man in the face-off circle with 230 attempts.
In Brampton, Gabe Chiarot’s weekend was cut short, receiving a five–minute major and game misconduct for this hit in his defensive zone. He was given two games for the hit and will be eligible to return on October 29th.
On socials, many Canucks fans alluded to being very familiar with a hit similar to this. Was this hit worthy of a two-game suspension? What say you?
Finally, in London, Aleksei Medvedev continued his strong draft-plus-one season. He stopped 24 of 26 shots to pick up a 3-2 overtime win against the Ottawa 67’s.
With the win, he’s now 4-1-1-1 with a 0.910 save percentage and 2.15 goals against average, sitting third in the league in that regard.

NCAA

It was a slower week in the NCAA.
Matthew Lansing picked up another goal for the second of his young NCAA career. Like his first, it came courtesy of a beautiful shot fired to the top corner of the net.
Skating in a bottom-six role, Lansing hasn’t necessarily been given the role to warrant any excitement just yet. That said, we do see him being a potential player to keep tabs on over the next few years in the NCAA.
Anthony Romani picked up a secondary assist to give him three points on he season. He continued to see time on Michigan’s third line and power play unit.
Daimon Gardner got himself on the stat ledger this week, picking up his first assist of the season. Formulating a pretty give-and-go, he fired a shot from the slot which beat the goalie. While the goal was initially granted to Gardner, the puck did hit a teammate driving to the net.
We will get the chance to see if, and how bad, Wilson Björck injury may be. He left last week’s game after taking a hit up high. His Colorado College enjoyed the week off, which may have given him enough time to recover.
We will find out this weekend.

Rest of the world

All this talk of the Vancouver Canucks being in desperate need of a centreman. Well, they have Ilya Safonov overseas, thriving in a 3C role with Ak Bars. This week, he got his scoring touch back with three goals and an assist, giving him 12 points in 20 games.
One of his goals came in vintage fashion, with him causing havoc at the net front before deflecting the point shot.
The very next game, he went for a skate in overtime, driving in and wide on his check before sending a shot just over the pad to earn the overtime goal and fourth point of the weekend.
On top of the point totals, he’s also navigating a 58.4% in the face-off circle. Safonov, 24, is older and is currently playing through a one-year contract in the KHL. Could he be working his way into the conversation again?
Time will tell.
That will do it for another week of Canucks prospect updates.

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