Here at Canucks Army, we have an unhealthy obsession with hockey prospects, both undrafted and those already in the system. Never in the seven year history of this website has that obsession been more important than it is now, as the Canucks are entrenched in a rebuild, and prospects are their only hope for the future.

As was the case with our Preseason Prospect Rankings, this set was created by consensus from nearly a dozen Canucks Army writers and contributors. The parameters are simple: the qualify for the rankings, the prospect must be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy (aka, must be a rookie) next season. That means that Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann, and Ben Hutton are out. They are no longer considered prospects by this measure, as they have graduated to full time NHLers.

Rather than publishing individual articles for each prospect like we did in the summer (and will do again for the next preseason rankings), these are split into sections, like last year’s midterm rankings. Next up are the sixth to ninth best prospects in the Canucks system.

Position: Defence   –   Shoots: Left   –   Height: 6′ 7″   –   Weight: 228 lbs

Some of the mystique has worn off the Tryamkin situation, as he finally made his NHL debut last week. Tryamkin looked about how you’d expect a 21-year old third round draft that had never played on North American ice before to look. He looked a bit nervous, had some issues with angles, and was none too eager to hold on to the puck for any length of time. Since then, he seems to be demonstrating a steady improvement with each game.

Playing in the NHL will give us a much better opportunity to assess Tryamkin’s readiness as a prospect. His season in the KHL went well enough: he set new career highs across the board, including in goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, shots on goal, hits, blocked shots and penalties drawn. His ice time jumped up about three and a half minutes from the season previous, to 17:41 per game. In the KHL playoffs, he averaged 21:13 per game, skating in Avtomobilist’s top four for the majority of the time.

Where Tryamkin goes from here will be largely dependent on how he performs down the stretch with the Canucks. If he manages to hold his own and fit in, then you’ll see him right back here next season on the Canucks’ overcrowded blueline. If he shows poorly in the coming weeks, that’s when things get dicey. Tryamkin hasn’t minced words when talking about his plans for next season: it’s the NHL, or it’s back to the KHL; he has no interest in the American Hockey League. The Canucks brass are hopeful that they can massage the situation a little and convince him to play a short time in Utica if they feel that’s what is best for his development. They have the next six months to change his mind.

Position: Right Wing  –  Shoots: Right  –  Height: 6′ 5″  –  Weight: 200 lbs

Alexandre Grenier has had a so-so season, which is unfortunate after all the goodwill he built up in the fanbase and with management in 2014-15. Grenier led Canucks prospects in Utica in nearly every offensive category last season, and seemed to be ready for the jump to the NHL, but this year he seems to have plateaued.

Grenier has racked up 37 points (13 goals, 24 assists) this season in 57 games, after tallying 43 and 39 points in his previous two season. A lack of depth down the middle in Utica may have been detrimental to Grenier, but coach Travis Green also worried that Grenier had been getting away from the power forward game that had made him so successful over the previous year and a half. He’s come on strong of late. After going 16 games without a goal and earning no points in all of January, Grenier has 18 points (including seven goals) in 16 games since February 6th.

Even with an underwhelming season to date, injuries have forced the Canucks to call up a plethora of Comets players, and Grenier was on the list of prospects that Benning and company wanted to see at the NHL level before the season was done. Grenier’s future in the organization made rely heavily on how he performs in his current NHL audition. He’s an unrestricted free agent this summer, and will require waivers next season.

That said, Grenier’s NHL preformances have been impressive so far. It’s not hard to imagine him being able to hold down a bottom six spot next season.

Position: Defence  –  Shoots: Left  –  Height: 6′ 3″  –  Weight: 174 lbs

Tate Olson has burst onto the radar of Canucks prospects in recent months, after starting the year with the lowest of expectations. Olson was selected 211th overall at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, the second to last pick overall. Nine months on, Olson has transformed into one of the organization’s better blueline prospects. He was certainly buoyed in that regard by Craig Button’s NHL affiliated prospect rankings, which placed Olson fourth among all Canucks prospects. We don’t have him quite that high, but we’ve still been impressed with his development nonetheless.

Tate Olson was a productive player right from the start of the year, although it didn’t seem to grab as much attention as his QMJHL counterpart Carl Neill received. He didn’t score his first goal until the 12th game of the season, but by the end of the campaign, his point totals impressed in numerous regards. His 47 points in 65 games were just one point shy of double his 2014-15 total, and in three fewer games no less, as was the case with his nine goals. He finished the year as the second most productive defenceman in the Canucks system, trailing only Carl Neill’s 50 points. They were neck-and-neck down the stretch of the season, although both finished the year at a crawl – Olson had just six points in his final 17 games. Olson finished the year with the sixth most primary points among WHL defencemen in the draft+1 season, ahead of numerous players that were drafted well before him in 2015 like Noah Juulsen, Parker Wotherspoon, and Brandon Carlo.

One of Olson’s most praised attributes in his hockey IQ and eye for the game. Many fans felt that it was his size (6-foot-3, 174 pounds) that attracted the Canucks, but that may in fact be an added bonus to a player capable of making smart defensive zone plays and strong first passes. With 42 per cent of statistically similar players going on to become NHL regulars, Olson has one of the highest likelihoods of success in all of the Canucks organization.

Next year, Olson will return to Prince George for a fourth junior season – his March, 1997 birthday will prevent him from advancing to Utica until the 2017-18 season.

Position: Right Wing  –  Shoots: Left  –  Height: 5′ 11″  –  Weight: 181 lbs

For a guy that hasn’t played in North America all season, Anton Rödin sure has been generating a lot of attention. The former second round pick from the 2009 NHL Entry Draft was a star this season in his native Sweden. Given the position the Canucks were, we wondered as far back as September if the was worth bringing back into the fold. Jim Benning made it clear throughout the year that that would be his intention, and yesterday he put ink to paper, signing Rödin to a one year, one-way deal worth $950,000.

Rodin was last ranked at number 12 in the Canucks prospect pipeline, back in the 2012 off season, in between the two underwhelming years he spent in the AHL (albeit debilitated by injuries), and before he bolted home to Sweden. Now that he’s back, it will be our job to project what he might be able to bring to the Canucks organization, which we’ll get to at a later date. For now, it seems that he’s a potential middle six winger. Rodin has always had plenty of skill, and he showcased it throughout the year playing on the top line in Brynas. He led the league in scoring for much of the season before succumbing to a nasty ligament tear, though he still managed to win the league’s MVP award (as judged by the players).

Next season, Rödin will join a wealth of other players fighting for spots in the Canucks forward core, many of which seem more appropriate for the bottom six than the top. If he can manage to translate his offence from the SHL (his NHLe of 55 translated NHL points/82 games was the best in the Canucks system in 2015-16), there could be space for him on the second line, or heck, why not try him with the Sedins? The biggest question is whether Rödin can handle himself in the corners and against NHL players that are far more physical and punishing than those seen in Sweden. For that, we’ll have to wait until next season.

Four more prospects are down and only five are left to go. Tomorrow we’ll get into the top five as we look over the third, fourth, and fifth best Canucks prospects. There shouldn’t be any surprises as to who’s included at this point, but feel free to speculate on the order!