logo
CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
Canucks Army Weekly Prospect Report: January 7th, 2015
alt
Josh W
By Josh W
Jan 7, 2015, 11:30 ESTUpdated:
Comments
Courtesy of @kenwardskorner
Welcome back to the regular and first edition of the Canucks Army Weekly Prospect report for 2015.  The World Juniors are over and hockey is back in action after the winter break.  The majority of Canucks prospects have played and we have plenty of post-tournament coverage to look at!
Without further ado, continue past the jump.

Ontario
Hockey League

NamePosDOBAgeTeamGPGAPPPG +/-PIM
Cole Cassels
C
1995-05-04
19
Oshawa
26
15
31
46
1.77
13
63
Jared McCann
C
1996-05-31
18
Sault Ste. Marie
30
14
24
38
1.27
10
19
Jordan Subban
D
1995-03-15
19
Belleville
37
14
15
29
0.78
2
38
Evan McEneny
D
1994-05-22
20
Kingston
35
2
21
23
0.66
4
30
Miles Liberati
D
1995-06-21
19
North Bay
34
4
10
14
0.41
7
25
Kyle Pettit
C
1996-01-18
18
Erie
34
11
5
16
0.47
1
6
  • Cole
    Cassels has returned from his suspension and has played in 4 OHL games where he
    scored 3 goals, 4 assists, a +3 and 10 PIM. 
    He’s brought his PPG up to 1.77 per game and is currently 16th
    in OHL scoring.
  • Jared
    McCann has played in 4 games scoring 3 goals and 5 assists (with 5 of those
    points coming in 1 game against Saginaw). 
    He also has a +1 on the week.
  • Jordan
    Subban remains cooled off having played 3 games scoring 1 goal and earning a +2
    and 4 PIM.  Subban is currently 8th
    in OHL Defencemen scoring.  Jordan Subban is considered the future of the Canucks powerplay and is one of the most vibrant personalities of prospects.
  • Evan
    McEneny played in 4 games scoring 1 goal and 2 assists, earning a +3 and 4 PIM.
  • Miles
    Liberati skated in 3 games notching 1 assist, a -1 and 2 PIM.
  • Kyle Pettit
    played in 4 games scoring 2 goals, 2 assists and a -2.

Western
Hockey League

Jake
“Showtime” Virtanen finished the World Juniors with a Gold Medal
as part of Team Canada.  He played in 7
games, earning 4 points, a +4 and 14 SOG. 
He played the majority of the tournament in the bottom-6, with players like Lawson Crouse and Frederik Gauthier, where he was the grinding line and his murders-per-60 where off the chart.  Some questionable decisions during the gold
medal game saw Virtanen sitting on the bench for the third period, although he did have good analytics in that game.  Virtanen did have a short stint on the second
line alongside Connor McDavid.  All in
all it was a very good showing for this prospect.
ESPN prospect guru Corey Pronman had the following quote on Virtanen at the World Juniors:
Jake Virtanen had some great moments during the
tournament, showing off his elite speed, quality skill level and
high-level intangibles in one-on-one battles. He had a few issues with
pace at times, but overall you have to love his physical tools, and his
ability to create chances seemingly out of nothing.
NamePosDOBAGETeamGPGAPPPG +/-PIM
Jake Virtanen
LW
1996-08-17
18
Calgary
20
9
14
23
1.15
5
36
Anton Cederholm
D
1995-02-21
19
Portland
38
5
3
8
0.21
-5
52
MacKenze Stewart
D
1995-08-10
19
Prince Albert
36
2
5
7
0.19
-4
68
  • Anton
    Cederholm played in 5 games and scored a goal.
  • MacKenze
    Stewart played in 4 games for Prince Albert this week earning a -1 and 2 PIM.

NCAA

NamePosDOBAGESchoolGPGAPPPG +/-SS/GSh%PIM
Patrick McNally
D
1991-12-04
23
ECAC / Harvard
12
4
11
15
1.25
14
32
2.67
12.50%
6
Ben Hutton
D
1993-04-20
21
Hockey East / Maine
20
4
7
11
0.55
-8
54
2.70
7.41%
6
Joseph LaBate
F
1993-04-16
21
Big 10 / Wisconsin
14
2
5
7
0.50
-6
36
2.57
5.56%
18
Matthew Beattie
F
1992-12-14
22
ECAC / Yale
11
0
2
2
0.18
2
11
1.00
0.00%
2
Mike Williamson
D
1993-09-05
21
Big 10 / Penn State
7
0
1
1
0.14
0
10
1.43
0.00%
10
  • Harvard
    University will play their first game back from break vs Yale on Saturday.
  • The
    University of Maine played their first game back with a 4-1 win over Canisius,
    followed up with a 3-1 win over the same team. 
    This weekend, they play a pair of games at Massachusetts.  Ben Hutton played in both games notching 7
    shots on goal, 1 assist and a +1.
  • University
    of Wisconsin played a pair of games last weekend with an 8-1 loss vs Michigan
    Tech followed up by a 2-0 win.  This
    weekend, Wisconsin plays a pair of games against Boston University.  Joseph LaBate played in both games notching 6
    shots on goal, scoring 1 goal, and 2 PIM.
  • Penn State
    returns this weekend to face Ohio State.
  • Yale won a
    pair of games last weekend 3-0 at Holy Cross and 3-1 vs Vermont.  Saturday, Yale will face Harvard at Madison
    Square Garden (and is on TSN2 at 5 pm Pacific Saturday).  This week, Matthew Beattie scored 1 assist, 2
    shots on goal and earned a +1.
Thatcher
Demko did not win a medal at the World Juniors as the US was eliminated in the
Quarter Finals.  Demko played in 4 games
and had over 80% of the minutes for the USA. 
He allowed 7 goals on 114 shots good for a .939 sv%.  Statistically, he was the second best goalie
of the tournament (right behind Zachary Fucale) of all of the starters.  Don’t be surprised to see Demko back in action
with Boston College this weekend when they play Northeastern, and check out his awesome dance moves.
And Pronman’s quote:
Thatcher Demko had a very solid tournament. I’ve always
known he has good athletic abilities, but his hockey sense and frame
have always been the appealing characteristics to me, so it was
interesting to see some of the high-difficulty lateral saves he was
making throughout the tournament. He left a positive impression.
NamePosDOBAgeSchoolGPAssistsMinsGAGAARecordSvsSv%
Thatcher Demko
G
1995-12-08
19
H-East / Boston College
16
2
963
34
2.12
9-6-1
433
92.72%

Europe

Gustav
Forsling couldn’t have had a better tournament.  Forsling played in 7 games, scoring 8 points
(3 goals, 5 shots, 14 shots on goal) and lead all defencemen in scoring in the
tournament while earning himself a position on the tournament’s first All-Star team. 
Forsling still has two years left on his contract in Europe, which is
fine as he is only 18 years old.
The other side of the coin is that his scoring was unsustainable given his 21.43%
shooting percentage.  He was scoring the
majority of his points while on the powerplay with William Nylander and during
even-strength he was on Sweden’s third pairing and there were many comments on
the defensive side of his game.
Pronman’s quote:
Gustav Forsling showed his very good puck-moving
abilities, and while he’s certainly an offensively tilted defenseman,
and certainly made a number of defensive miscues, he also wasn’t a
complete liability defensively, and was able to make stops on good
forwards. He could end up being one of Vancouver’s better late-round
picks of the past decade, an area where they have not had the best track
record.
NamePosDOBAGETeamGPGAPPPG+/-SOGSOG/GSh%PIMTOI
Gustav Forsling
D
1996-06-12
18
SHL / Linkoping
29
3
2
5
0.17
9
52
1.79
5.77%
8
18:30
Nikita Tryamkin
D
1994-08-04
20
KHL / Avtomobilist
39
0
4
4
0.10
1
44
1.13
0.00%
25
15:09
 
  • Nikita Tryamkin
    played in 3 games this past week and notched 3 shots on goal while continuing
    to see significant cuts to his ice time.

ECHL

ECHLPosDOBAGETeamGPGAPPPG +/-SOGS/GSh%PIM
Curtis Valk
C
1993-02-08
21
Kalamzoo Wings
24
11
15
26
1.08
3
61
2.54
18.03%
12
Ludwig Blomstrand
LW
1993-03-08
21
Kalamzoo Wings
24
9
9
18
0.75
-3
55
2.29
16.36%
14
Dane Fox
F
1993-10-13
21
Kalamzoo Wings
27
6
6
12
0.44
-5
54
2.00
11.11%
38
Jeremie Blain
D
1992-03-19
22
Kalamzoo Wings
12
2
3
5
0.42
-10
22
1.83
9.09%
6
  • The
    Kalamazoo Wings are currently 5th in their division and 11th
    in the conference with a record of 12-15-1-1 and 26 points in 29 games.  They played in the first     ECHL Outdoor Game at the end of last year with the
    first goal scored by Ludwig Blomstrand.
  • Curtis Valk
    played in 4 games this week scoring 1 goal and 3 assists, a +1, and 5 shots on
    goal. 
  • Ludwig
    Blomstrand played in 4 games scoring 3 goals and 1 assist, a -1 and 9 shots on
    goal.
  • Dane Fox
    played in 4 games and scored 1 goal and 1 assists, he landed 13 shots on goal
    and earned a +2 and 4 PIM.
  • Patrick
    Kennedy currently has 7 goals and 10 points in 17 games played for the
    Evansville IceMen.
  • Mitch
    Holmberg has played 9 games with Elmira so far having scored 4 goals and 3
    assists on 28 shots on goal.
    Some more details on the Kalamazoo Wings from Insiderrr Sarah Hobday on the Cincinnati @ Kalamazoo
    game on 31 Dec 14.
      A big letdown across the board for Kalamazoo since the
      win and complete play at the outdoor game. Kzoo lost 5-2 on New Years Eve in their tux
      jerseys. Blomstrand had the best
      game on the team with no big mistakes or turnovers. He was the only
      strong point of the night. Valk had his worst game of the season and was
      replaced in the faceoff circle by one of his wingers for half the game
      after losing too many faceoffs early on. Valk had no shots on goal in
      this game. Fox looked a bit stronger but not a great game overall.
      I
      only attended the game on 31 Dec in person but listened online and
      watched game highlight videos on the weekend games. Sounded like the
      team turned around quickly to play better and earn wins in both.
      Blomstrand scored goals in both weekend games (Friday on a deflection).
      Blomstrand’s goal Saturday was a beauty – showing off his speed to break
      through 3 Evansville players to get the shot up and score. In post game
      comments from the coach on Friday night the coach said that Fox played
      his best and most complete game on the season. Fox scored the game
      winner on Sat. by picking up the puck after a fluky bounce (puck bounced
      off the boards and Fox was right in front of the goalie when the puck
      came to him – Fox tucked it in 5 hole to score). Valk finally had some
      shots on goal Sat after none on Wed+Fri – and was awarded with a goal
      Sat. sneaking the puck in under the goalie from beside the net.
      On Dane Fox:
      NamePosDOBAgeTeamGPMinsGAGAARecordSvsSv%SO
      Joe Cannata
      G
      1990-01-02
      25
      Ontario Reign
      12
      727
      24
      1.98
      7-3-0-2
      301
      92.62%
      1
      • Joe Cannata
        currently has a 0.926 save percentage on the year and is currently second in
        the league.  He played three games in the
        last week where he made 23 of 26 saves (0.885), 25 of 28 saves (0.893) and 28
        of 30 saves (0.933).

      Breaking News