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

To our regular readers: our sincere apologies for missing last week’s edition. The good news is that this report comes jam-packed with everything we missed!

It’s been a turbulent stretch for the farmhands in Abbotsford. Results remain hard to come by, but a win and several close losses have shown proof of life. A handful of young defenders continue to shoulder heavy minutes, Danila Klimovich finally found the back of the net, and the return of several bodies to the lineup has helped bring about a semblance of stability.

Across the CHL, the momentum is a bit stronger. Riley Patterson erupted with nine points, Gabriel Chiarot continued his rugged scoring pace, and Braeden Cootes pushed himself into consideration for a spot on the World Juniors roster.

Speaking of which: three Canucks prospects were invited by their respective nations’ squads ahead of this year’s tournament.

With progress, growing pains, rebounds, and international intrigue all in the mix, this week’s report is a busy one. Let’s dive in.

Before we get to the farm team, we thought we’d talk a bit about Tom Willander and what he’s been up to since being recalled in late October.

Since returning to the NHL roster, not only has he picked up seven assists in his 20 games played, but he scored his first NHL goal courtesy of a wicked snapshot release that we’ve seen from him in the past. Instead of looking back at an AHL return, the rookie rearguard’s strong play has prompted calls for even more NHL ice time.

Here at CanucksArmy, the consensus for a player to have graduated out of our official prospect rankings is 25 NHL games; Willander looks poised to surpass that mark by Christmas.

Willander’s promotion, along with an extensive list of injuries and absences of other defenders, has naturally taken its toll on the Abbotsford Canucks. Fortunately, things are starting to look better now that capable bodies are returning to the blueline. Not great, but it’s a start!

As you can see from the statistical ledger above, there are very few stat lines worth highlighting. Also, don’t bother looking at the plus/minus category. It’s horrendous. The team’s play as a whole has looked better. They picked up a victory in one of their four home games this past week, with all three of their losses coming courtesy of extremely late third-period tallies to lose by a single goal. Again: Not great, but it’s a start!

Kirill Kudryavtsev returned to the lineup after a brief absence due to injury. He continues to rack up heavy minutes, even surpassing the 28-minute mark at one point last week. Through six games since our last report, he is the only player on the list who posted a positive plus-minus rating (plus 1) while adding two assists to his boxcar stats.

Admittedly, the bar is egregiously low. However, given the minutes he is playing and everything else that is going on in the NHL and AHL organization, it’s the only mildly impressive number worth highlighting.

During that same stretch, Sawyer Mynio added just a single assist and finished with a plus-minus of minus-5.

We’d been wondering whether Danila Klimovich would ever show up for the 2025-26 season. Mercifully, he did. Albeit briefly. Not only did he score his first goal of the season in the club’s 5-2 regulation win against the Tucson Roadrunners, but his second, third, and an eventual shootout winner a few nights later against the Calgary Wranglers!

With such a battered and beaten-down roster, Klimovich dusting off the cobwebs to produce at all was vital to the Abby Canucks’ offence.

With just three goals, five points and 45 shots in 22 games, this can’t even be considered something close to a bounce back.  It’s something. However, it’s production along the lines of someone who has played their way out of a contract extension, not someone playing themselves toward an AHL top-six role, let alone an NHL future.

Vilmer Alriksson has been a much more impactful player than when he first stepped into the league. In three short months, Alriksson has worked his way out of the bottom six and into a top-six role.

While the production hasn’t been there, his work rate at the net front and in the corners should eventually lead to more on the stat sheet. On a nightly basis, the big man does a solid job of making his opposition’s job tough. He currently sits second on the team in hits with 42, precisely what you want from a player of his ilk: crashing, causing havoc, and making life difficult for defencemen in the d-zone.

On the polar opposite side of the physicaity coin sits Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who returned to Abbotsford after posting one assist in a four-game stint with Vancouver. Down in Abbotsford, he’s a clear difference maker, where his willingness to shoot is a considerable help to a team struggling to put the puck in the net.

Lekkerimäki did not dress in Sunday’s loss to Coachella Valley, meaning he will need to fly and play with the team in their two-game stint in Calgary to be eligible for an NHL recall. If the organization even wants to, that is.

If you’ve been following us here at Blackfish, reading the Farmies, or simply existing in this market, you know that the 2025-26 season has been tough on the Abbotsford Canucks. No position has felt that struggle more than the organization’s goaltenders. Nikita Tolopilo has been solid, but a carousel of absences in Vancouver has seen him start just six times in three months!

It took time, but Jiri Patera climbed himself over the .900 save percentage threshold, while the two rookie netminders, Aku Koskenvuo and Ty Young, continue to operate well below a passing grade.

For Koskenvuo, his play has been much better than his numbers may suggest. He looks calm between the pipes and squares up nicely. As for Young, he has struggled. Winless in seven starts, Young not only sports disappointing numbers, but his struggles have been visibly apparent when facing AHL shooters.

To help him with a reset, the club reassigned Young to Kalamazoo to collect himself and hopefully rebuild his game. Young has previously shown well in the ECHL and AHL levels, and now it’s simply a matter of returning his form to that level. His first opportunity to start for Kalamazoo is Wednesday, when they host the Bloomington Bisons.

For prospect enthusiasts, we’re inching closer to the best time of the year. No, not Christmas. The World Juniors. This year’s event takes place in Minnesota, and the Canucks will have a trio of prospects attending tryout camps for their respective countries.

The first to receive the call was 2025 fifth-round pick Wilson Björck, who was invited to attend the Swedish camp. Inviting just 26 players, the team is set to make just one cut, giving the forward a very high chance of earning a spot, likely to play alongside his younger brother.

Shortly after, Basile Sansonnens received the invite to attend Team Switzerland’s camp, and is a near-lock to make the team. Sansonnens is a shutdown-type of defenceman who carries previous World Juniors experience and logs time for Lausanne HC of the men’s Swiss National League. It would be a surprise not to see him play a significant top-four role for Switzerland.

Finally, the third name announced was Braeden Cootes, who was invited to Team Canada’s camp, which will take place from December 11th to the 22nd.

Sources close to the tournament have told us that Team Canada expects to make three cuts, one from each position. That would bring their roster down to just two goalies, which would be an interesting choice. The team will also keep its roster open until December 22nd in the hopes that a few names will be loaned to them from their NHL clubs.

For Cootes, there aren’t many NHL forwards who could jeopardize his potential to make the final team. Berkeley Catton of the Seattle Kraken would have been a serious candidate before being announced week-to-week with an injury last Monday. The other is Ben Kindel, who would easily earn a spot should he be loaned by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Anaheim’s Beckett Sennecke feels like a bit of a pipe dream for Canada, given that he’s currently fourth on the Ducks by points.

He may not be a prominent member of the lineup, but our money has Cootes earning a spot over a few of the names invited to the camp.

He’s had a productive five-game slate since our last report, picking up three goals and three assists, with 26 shots fired on net. Through 17 games, Cootes is now firing at well over a point-per-game pace with 10 goals and 23 points. And just because, enjoy some of Cootes’ best moments from this season.

All three teams will take part in preliminary action, with Sweden and Canada in a doubleheader.

Braeden Cootes:

Wilson Björck:

Basile Sansonnens:

Elsewhere in the CHL, Riley Patterson led the week with four goals and five assists over four games, sliding into a clear lead in the Niagara IceDogs scoring race.

Running at an 80-point pace, he’s well on track to shatter his previous career high of 59 points. Despite being on the top power play unit, only five of his 30 points have come on the man-advantage. That his 5v5 production covers most of his points totals is very encouraging.

One area of play that significantly improved over the last stretch was his face-off numbers. After a slow start, he’s brought his percentage up to 50% thanks to a string of games that saw him go 9/14, 10/13, 10/12, and 11/19, just to highlight a few.

Sitting just below the IceDogs in the standings is Gabriel Chiarot’s Brampton Steelheads. Despite the team’s middling results through 2025-26, the Canucks’ sixth-round pick has been a decent story. Last week, Chiraot added another four points to his ledger along with 25 shots on goal. With three more goals, he now leads his team with 13 on the year. Though he’s producing at a rate that will eclipse his previous highs, he’s still producing at a disappointing under a point-per-game pace (56 points in 64 games).

Considering his profile, it’s not overly surprising that his production leaves a lot to be desired. However, his “grind you down” style carries a lot of intrigue. Most of his 13 goals have come from jam plays around the net or from a wicked release from in the slot.

It’s been a tough go for Kieren Dervin and the Kingston Frontenacs, who are winless over their last nine games. Dervin’s production took a mighty dip over the last couple of weeks, with just a pair of assists in his last six games. The Frontenacs have only scored 10 goals during that stretch. Still, it’s a disappointing stretch from an intrigued follower’s standpoint.

The cold streak appeared to run through the majority of the Canucks’ OHL representatives.

Aleksei Medvedev’s numbers dropped to earth after an incredible start to his draft-plus-one season. The London Knights have a 5-5-0-0 record in their last ten, with Medvedev posting a .883 save percentage during a run that saw him win just two of his last five starts.

Medvedev’s 2.63 goals against and .0.910 save percentage are still top-ten in the OHL. However, these past few weeks have been a low point. Medvedev will need to shake it off if he hopes to bring the Knights out of the gutter and back to their typical winning ways.

Finally, Parker Alcos continued his positive season over in the dub with another plus-five across four games. Alcos now sits in a tie for fourth among all defenders with a plus-22 on the season.

He’s found a comfortable home paired alongside Ethan Mackenzie, who earned an invitation to Team Canada’s World Junior camp. Together, they have matching plus-minus’ and have formed one of the best defensive pairings in the league.

Over in the College circuit, Anthony Romani had a decent stretch, with two goals and two assists in four games. His week was highlighted by his first multi-goal game at the NCAA level.

The situation for the former OHL winger hasn’t changed this season. Romani is on a stacked Michigan State team, building chemistry with the same linemates on the team’s third line. His production hasn’t been off the charts, but he’s found ways to score at 5v5.

The NCAA will head into its final weekend before the league goes on hiatus for the holidays.

Ilya Safonov continues to plug along as a fascinating profile overseas in Russia. With another two goals, he’s up to 10 on the season. We’re still not convinced that he has much NHL upside. Still, he’s a large body with good hands in tight, who offers tons of intrigue as a potential net front presence.

That will do it for this week’s instalment. With the World Juniors now right around the corner, we’re getting excited to cover some of the preliminary play over the next few weeks.

Until next week, folks — thanks for reading.