Welcome back to the Blackfish prospect report.
With four games on the docket and several prospects from outside the AHL either injured or dealt away, this one felt very Abbottfdord heavy.
That said, we did see a promising netminder shine and earn a nice reward. Meanwhile, a struggling sniper finally found some momentum. Finally, the organization’s prized defender continues to perform at Boston University.
Let’s dive in.

Abbotsford Canucks

The Abbotsford Canucks rattled off three of four wins on the week, leapfrogging the San Jose Barracuda for fifth place in the Pacific Division.
With the final stretch of hockey approaching, each point is proving to be valuable as the top seven teams qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs. As of today, they are seven points out of first place in the Division and eight points up from the outside.
Translation: they are dead smack in the midst of things.
This week was propped up by a few of the team’s greats, with Jonathan Lekkerimäki having one of the best performances of his young American League career. He finished the week with three points (two goals and one assist), which included one of the prettiest goals he’s scored to date.
Collecting the stretch pass from Victor Mancini, the Swede acted quickly at the blueline to freeze the defender. From there, he drove to the middle of the ice, leaving the flatfooted defender in the dust.
One-on-one with the goalie, he roofed the puck for his 17th of the season.
Oh. My.
The goals come after he had scored a beautiful goal for his 16th just one game prior. Collecting the thoughtful Ty Mueller feed, the youngster acted quickly to rifle the shot to the back of the net.
We love this one, as it perfectly displays his adept ability to release on a dime.
Leading the Canucks in goals, Lekkerimäki now sits just three goals shy of the rookie leader in points, despite dressing in nine fewer games.
In addition to the goals, however, he was a buzzsaw all week. Now comfortable in his environment, his confidence is beaming, and he’s now threatening from all areas of the ice.
He’s found his gear at the AHL level from rushes, takeaways, tight shots, long shots, and deflections.
Setting him for that goal was Ty Mueller, who also produced a pretty one in a Monday afternoon Family Day affair. Collecting the puck from a pressing Danila Klimovich, he wasted no time in sending a labelled shot to the top shelf.
The soon-to-be 22-year-old is now on pace for 12 goals and 37 points in his rookie season. This, while being an all-situations centre for his Abbotsford team.
Speaking of Danila, he came out of his shell this week and collected a goal and an assist on Monday.
This included the nice hustle and pass play on the aforementioned Mueller goal.
He followed that up with a highlight-reel goal, collecting the puck in the neutral zone before making a strong power move, capped off with an incredible backhand.
It’s plays and games like this that make him such a polarizing prospect. He goes on incredible streaks that swing both ways, and after an invincible stretch, he comes out of nowhere to provide top-notch plays.
It’s all there; it’s just a simple matter of consistency. Which, at this point, may never arise. But boy, is he ever fun when he is on.
Aatu Räty missed Monday’s game for unknown reasons, but he also played a major role in their wins throughout the week. Forming a strong bond with Lekkerimäki and Arshdeep Bains, the trio caused havoc all week, with the Finnish pivot contributing three goals.
Of course, his best was made possible by an unreal play from Bains. He cut through the middle of the ice, outwaited pressure and found his linemate for the cross-crease tap-in.
Bains had just two points over the week, but he’s played sound hockey and has been a big reason for the dynamic duo’s success. With points six of his last eight games (nine points), he’s jumped to third place on Abbotsford’s scoring list with 27 points.
Vancouver appears to have noticed, as Bains was awarded a Tuesday call-up.
On the backend, we got our first looks at newcomer Victor Mancini.
First impressions? He’s heavy and plays like it, especially at the net front. He doesn’t appear to give his opponents much and is an ace when it comes to boxing out.
He formed a pair with Elias Pettersson – a gnarly duo.
He picked up his first point via the stretch pass to Lekkerimäki, but he also made several strong defensive plays and key-shot blocks and picked up nine shots. He made a few mistakes in each game, highlighted by some giveaways and slight misreads.
Yet, he had a strong first stint and showed off his ability to rush the puck and skate, especially for a bigger frame.
Pettersson only played in two of four games this week. He took a point shot up high earlier in the week, which kept him out for precautionary reasons the next day.
He did slide back into the lineup on Saturday but was held out on Monday.
The 6’3″ defenceman got recalled to Vancouver on Tuesday morning, so Monday’s absence was likely precautionary, as he rested before driving back to Vancouver.
Kirill Kudryavtsev slid in to play with Mancini in Pettersson’s absence and continued his strong two-way play. He’s overtaken the permanent spot on Abbotsford’s power play and now battles for a share of the top unit.
Funny enough, with more responsibility on his plate, his production has actually dropped. After shooting out of a cannon, the recently turned 21-year-old has been pointless in four games.
Regardless, he still shows exceptionally well as a young defender and eats up minutes from the backend.
Now, let’s move on to goaltending. Arturs Silovs has reclaimed his spot as Abby’s go-to between the pipes. The Canucks won three of four games this week, and Silovs earned all three.
He allowed just four goals during that stretch and had his shutout bid snapped very late in the third in two consecutive games. On Saturday, he was just 55 seconds away from his first shutout of the season.
After a very sketchy start, the Latvian netminder suddenly has eight of his last nine starts, bringing his save percentage back from the dead to .906 for the year.
With the 4 Nations Face-Off ongoing, he was awarded the call-up on Tuesday. Who knows how long it lasts. But if Thatcher Demko is injured, it’s a nice reward for a netminder who has really turned things around.
Now, back in our Abbotsford section is another young netminder who has been outstanding at the ECHL level.
Ty Young was promoted to Abbotsford over the weekend and has been one of the best goaltenders down in the third tier.
After posting his first shutout last week, he went back-to-back this week, allowing zero goals through two games.
Although he finally showed some signs of weakness, allowing two goals the following game, he made 45 saves in the effort. When all was said and done, he allowed just two goals on 114 shots and built his save percentage up to the league’s second-best at an incredible .934.
The Abbotsford Canucks play on Wednesday, which means there’s a chance that he slides in for his first AHL start since January 4th.

Kalamazoo Wings

Down in Kalamazoo, Josh Bloom picked up a single assist in three matches, giving him 15 points through 25 games. He is third on the team in points per game.

CHL

We’ve been waiting for Anthony Romani to pop, and this week, he finally did. He recorded three goals and a shootout tally through two games, with nine shots on net.
With just seven goals and no assists since joining the Barrie Colts (13 games), we’re still looking for much more from him, being a natural point producer. Yet, scoring a few labelled shots will certainly do wonders for his confidence moving forward.
He finally outpaced his teammate, Riley Patterson, who has been as hot as can be lately. The 18-year-old collected a goal and an assist over the weekend and once again showed off his ability to provide seeing-eye backhand passes.
Coming in at #9 in our CanucksArmy prospect rankings, we showcased why we’re so impressed with his passing ability. Setting up primarily from behind the goal line, he catches teammates with long cross-ice passes for beautiful assists.
In addition, we love the way he’s willing to get into the hard areas of the ice and score goals from in and around the blue paint.
Speaking of hard-nosed, Vilmer Alriksson finally got back to his scoring ways, adding two goals, seven shots and a plus-3 in his single game.
Unfortunately, despite finishing the game, he was left out of the Steelheads’ weekly schedule with an upper-body injury. A timeline is still being evaluated.
While we don’t know exactly where the injury occurred, he did provide this massive hit in his final shift. This left the opponent worse off than him, lying on the ice.
We are purely speculating with no answers, but this could have been the play that injured Alriksson’s upper body.
Sawyer Mynio threw 15 shots on net this week without a goal. But he did provide another highlight reel play, this time in the form of an end-to-end assist.
Since joining the Hitmen, he has led the entire team in ice time and continues to be a prominent figure in the team’s top powerplay and penalty-killing units. He has also led the defensive corps with 10 points and is second in shots (52) and blocked shots (40).
We continue to be huge fans of his work.
Even Basile Sansonnens was getting in on the offensive action this week. Despite being known as a prominent shutdown piece, the QMJHL rookie put up three assists, two primary, to give him 10 points on the year.
Finally, Parker Alcos continues to miss time with a lower-body injury. His game count is now up to eight games.

NCAA

Tom Willander got back to his point-producing ways this week, collecting three assists in as many games to give him 18 points on the year. He’s now just seven points shy of his freshman totals from last season in 10 fewer games. So, for those who were worried about point prediction, he’s doing just fine.
While his plus/minus is down from his incredible plus-28 from last year, he sits third on the team as a plus-11, third in blocked shots (41), and third in assists (16).
After missing several games with injury, Aiden Celebrini returned to the lineup. He skated 16:02 between the two games and was a plus-1.
It was a forgettable week for Aku Koskenvuo, who allowed six goals on just 26 shots for his seventh loss of the season. He’s now lost all four of his last starts and has dropped his save percentage to .889 — not the greatest stretch before potentially going pro.

Sweden

Our dwindled Swedish section did not have much to report.
Lucas Forsell will suit up in the Champions League final on Tuesday.
Hugo Gabrielson picked up another goal and assist through the week.
Thanks for tuning in for another edition of the Blackfish report.
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