Welcome back to the CanucksArmy Blackfish Prospect Report.

Abbotsford Canucks

After four road games, the Abbotsford Canucks hosted the San Diego Gulls for their home opener in a two-game weekend series. The weekend’s highlight was the return of Swedish rookie sensation Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who made his debut after missing those first four games with illness.
Although Lekkerimäki didn’t find the back of the net in either game, it wasn’t due to a lack of effort. He fired eight shots on goal, many of which forced the Gulls’ netminder to come up big. We know the goals will come, so the important matter was that in addition to his willingness to shoot, he was heavily engaged in the forecheck and spent much of his time in the offensive zone, effectively applying pressure and cycling the puck.
He did pick up an assist by working the perimeter before snapping a shot toward the net, which his top-line mate, Aatu Räty, deflected.
For Räty, that deflection goal was his lone point of the weekend and AHL season so far. Despite the low point total — just one point in four AHL games — Räty has been active in other areas. Like Lekkerimäki, he’s been a catalyst to their offensive push and has stood out above the pack in terms of the overall package. He’s playing well in the face-off circle (well above 50%) and is a top contributor to their 84% penalty-killing unit. He and Lekkerimäki formed some strong chemistry over the weekend and have injected a healthy dose of excitement and offensive touch into the team.
Speaking of offensive touch, Danila Klimovich is gaining confidence with every shot taken. We’ve often touched on the hope that Manny Malhotra’s presence could spark something in the 21-year-old Belarusian, and his efforts early on have given us some hope on that front.
Klimovich led the way with a goal and an assist, tied for the team lead with eight shots, and generated numerous scoring opportunities over the weekend. His goal was a beautiful bar-down shot from his spot on the half-wall, showing us exactly what makes him such a polarizing prospect.
The highlight package may not be much, but if you’ve caught any of his games in the last year, most of these plays have been few and far between. He’s at his best when he’s putting the puck on net, and this weekend was possibly his best showing in over a year. He co-leads the team with three points and is second in shots on goal with 20. Here’s hoping this marks a true turnaround for him.
Max Sasson also recorded eight shots on goal over the weekend, but unlike Lekkerimäki and Klimovich, he failed to find the scoresheet. Despite contributing just one goal in six games and carrying a team-worst minus-6 rating, we’re not close to hitting the panic button. Sasson continues to do the little things that made him such an important part of the team’s top-six last season, and it’s still so early. His weekend linemates were Ty Mueller (rookie) and Danila Klimovich, so the fact that he could drive that line and work plays is a positive for his game.
Ty Mueller may not be lighting up the scoresheet, but he’s making a positive impact as a rookie nonetheless. Mueller picked up his first career AHL point over the weekend by beating out an icing call, winning body position, and setting up a play that led to Mark Friedman’s goal. A play like this exemplifies the type of shifts Mueller has been providing — work, skill, and solid two-way play.
He’s been used in a top-six role, on the secondary power play, and on the penalty kill throughout the season. Clearly, the organization sees something special in the 21-year-old, and while the points aren’t quite there yet, he’s doing all the right things to establish himself.
To put it bluntly, it’s time to see more production from the blue line. Mark Friedman and Erik Brännström have each played fewer games than the main crop but share the team lead for points with three apiece.
Meanwhile, Jett Woo and Cole McWard — powerplay quarterbacks one and two — have only recorded just one assist each. Offensive production isn’t necessarily the name of the game for either rearguard, but when given so much ice in positions to do so, the team needs more contributions.
Both Elias Pettersson — two assists — and fellow rookie Kirill Kudryavtsev — one assist — have been sound. Still, it’s time for the more established right-shot defencemen to step things up offensively without Christian Wolanin in the lineup.
In goal, Nikita Tolopilo has been rock solid to start the season, which earned him both starts over the weekend. He wasn’t tested much on Friday, making 19 saves on 20 shots. However, Saturday’s game saw him look more human for the first time this season. He allowed four goals on 24 shots, two of which came while down one-to-two men down.
Despite the loss, his overall numbers remain strong: a 2.23 goals against average, a .907 save percentage, and a 3-1-0-0 record.

Kalamazoo Wings

Josh Bloom added another two points over the weekend in Kalamazoo. First, he set up a teammate with a perfect cross-crease pass for his first assist of the year, then followed it up by scoring his second professional goal from the slot with a nasty top-corner shot.
Bloom now has points in all three ECHL games he’s played. With the current depth in Abbotsford, it’ll be tough for him to earn a promotion in the short term. For now, it’s all about racking up points, instilling confidence and gaining reps.
The big story in Kalamazoo was Ty Young, who made his professional debut on Sunday. Young stopped 38 of 39 shots to secure a 3-1 victory, earning first-star honours in his first pro game.
What’s better than picking up your first professional victory? Doing so on a Halloween-themed ice surface — a Kalamazoo tradition since 2004. With Tolopilo and Jiri Patera comfortably manning the crease in Abbotsford, it’ll take a very strong stretch or injuries within the system for him to see any time in Abbotsford this year. Yet, so far, so good in his pro career.

NCAA

Who needs top-pairing minutes anyway? Tom Willander was named Hockey East Defender of the Week on Monday after playing hero on Saturday night. Collecting the puck at the blue line, he fired a labelled wrist shot top-shelf, which eventually held as the game-winning goal.
The Swedish defender is currently on a five-game point streak, with points in each of BU’s first five games. He has two goals, three assists, nine shots on goal, six blocked shots, five hits, and a plus-4 rating in that span.
There have been some questions about his ice time, so let’s cover what we’ve seen. Willander has been playing on the second pair, secondary power play, and top penalty kill unit. Why not the first pairing, you ask? Well, BU head coach Jay Pandolfo seems keen on spreading the wealth by having Willander and Cole Huston run their own pairing rather than stacking the top line.
Despite playing backseat to another Hutson, Willander still averages just under 22 minutes a night and even logged over 24 minutes in Saturday’s game. Would we like to see him creep into a PP1 role? Of course. However, without Macklin Celebrini and Lane Hutson running the show, the units are spread much more evenly, and he’s still seeing tons of ice in all situations.
So, while he’s not officially on the top pair, his workload is still significant, and he’s still seeing top penalty-killing assignments and tons of shutdown minutes. We’d ideally see Willander top-line everything, but the minutes still show up on a game-to-game basis.
Jackson Kunz faced off against Willander’s BU Terriers over the weekend and scored his first two goals of the season. The first came on the power play with a backhand finish in the slot, and he added a second goal later in the game.
Kunz has carved out a consistent role as the net-front presence on the power play and a top-six staple for his North Dakota team. We’re still not convinced that he’ll be given a contract by season’s end, but if you are looking for a heavy-set forward to cause havoc in your opponent’s crease at the AHL level, he’s probably a good bet.
As a purebred defensive defenceman, Jackson Dorrington isn’t lighting up the scoresheet, with just one secondary assist so far. However, his defensive play is showing up as usual — he’s second on Northeastern in blocked shots (six), leads the team in hits (17), and has the highest plus/minus rating (plus-2) among the team (Northeastern is not very strong with a 1-3-1 record). Dorrington is averaging around 22 minutes per game and playing key roles on the penalty kill and shutdown units.
It feels long overdue, but Daimon Gardner finally broke through with his first goal as a member of St. Cloud State, courtesy of a beautifully placed shot off the inside post. He’s got two points in his last three games and is now just four shots short of his freshman-year totals.
After a long wait, Harvard will finally take the ice for their season opener this upcoming weekend, which means Aku Koskenvuo will make his 2024-25 debut.

CHL

After a quiet two-game stretch last week, Sawyer Mynio blew up to record a goal and six assists across four games. He’s now up to 16 points in 12 games, ranking second among all WHL defencemen and leading his Seattle Thunderbirds squad. Mynio’s early-season numbers put him on pace for an impressive 87-point season out of the gate.
Daniel Gee provided a nice article here at CanucksArmy about his season so far. Give a read here.
Vilmer Alriksson showed off his powerful shot last week, netting his third goal of the season to extend his point streak to three games. Unfortunately, an illness made its way through the Guelph Storm lineup, causing him to miss the team’s last two games of the week.
Alriksson has been shooting well this season, sitting fourth on his team with 28 shots. He has yet to see a game where he has collected less than three shots through his first eight games. With five points in eight games, he’s on an early 40-point pace to surpass his rookie totals (33) from last year.
After a strong week previously, Riley Patterson had a quiet, pointless three-game stretch that led to a decrease in minutes as the week carried on. It’s way too early to make sweeping calls, but his production has been somewhat streaky. He’s up to six points in 10 games, with all three of his helpers coming off of nice looks ahead of making the play.
That prompted us to watch some tape (all games before the weekend), and we noticed that he does a good job keeping his head up — not always a guarantee in a player’s game — and scanning the play prior to getting the puck on his stick. Sometimes, it’s subtle, but doing so allows him to make quick and effective plays.
Most of these plays end up in perfectly placed passes, but even those that don’t, it’s all about the process beforehand. If you watch him closely before the puck reaches him, he’s giving a quick scan to navigate his best option — all before the puck hits his stick. He’s performing head fakes, and sneaky look-off passes, freezing the defender and switching things up so that his game is never quite predictable.
Whether it’s a one-touch pass, an outlet, or cross-ice, it is quite clear that setting others up is a calling card.
It’s been a tough start to Parker Alcos‘ draft-plus-one season. Along with his defensive partner, he currently carries a team-worst minus-8 and combined for a minus-16 with his partner. He’s still very young, very raw, but you can’t argue the size and the skating ability.

Sweden

The roller-coaster year carries on for Melvin Fernström. He played a J20 game on Wednesday — grabbing a goal and an assist — followed by two SHL press box visits to fill in as a substitute on Thursday and Saturday. He returned to the J20 squad on Sunday, adding two more assists. Fernström has nine points (five goals, four assists) in eight games with the junior squad.
Hugo Gabrielson picked up another assist this week, giving him a goal and four points in his last five games. The helper came from a beautiful backdoor feed off a face-off. Our biggest complaint about Gabrielson’s development is that very little happens in the matches we follow. When we don’t, he pulls off a very nice play.
That’s a wrap on another week. Next week, we will have four (4!) Abbotsford games to chat about and, of course, all other things prospects. Happy Halloween!
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