The playoffs are upon us.

Well, maybe not for the Vancouver Canucks. Some of their CHL prospects, on the other hand, have plenty of hockey ahead of them that matters. Five of six Canucks prospects in the CHL are gearing up for the second season and a push for the Memorial Cup. Perhaps fittingly, Mackenze Stewart and his Tri-City Americans failed to make the WHL playoffs. Only one of their prospects, though, has a real shot of competing for Memorial Cup.

This is just a quick overview of the first round for these players. In the coming weeks, we will be doing a more in-depth look at each player individually.

So with that, let’s take a look at all the first round match-ups for the Canucks prospects here in the Canadian Hockey League.

Dmitry Zhukenov and the Chicoutimi Saguenéens are in tough as they face the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the first round. The Eagles boast some high end talent with Detroit’s 2015 1st round pick Evgeni Svechnikov, expected top 10 pick in Pierre-Luc Dubois, free agent Michael Joly and Maxim Lazarev. Chicoutimi and Cape Breton played twice in the early parts of this season, with each team winning one game. Zhukenov had three assists in the two games combined. The Saguenéens do have the advantage in net as Julia Billio posted very good numbers for Chicoutimi with a 2.62 GAA and a league leading 0.919 SV%.

The schedule for their first round matchup is below (times in ET):

Carl Neill and the Sherbrooke Phoenix draw the Shawinigan Cataractes in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs. The 4th ranked offence of the Cataractes are led by New York Islander first round pick Anthony Beauvillier, Tampa Bay third round pick Dennis Yan and undrafted Alexis D’Aoust. Their backend is driven by expected 2016 first round pick Samuel Girard, who led QMJHL defenceman scoring by 15 points. Shawinigan won the season series 4-1 by a combined score of 20-15, with Neill posting 5 assists. 

The Phoenix have struggled as of late, losing six of their last seven games, in large part due to an injury to Neill’s normal defensive partner Jeremy Roy. The two provide Sherbrooke with a formidable first pairing that can play in all situations. If Roy misses the first round, this series could be over very quickly. Keep an eye on Sherbrooke’s goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick, currently the #2 ranked North American goalie, because with a good playoff performance he could fully cement that ranking heading into the draft.

The schedule for their first round matchup is below (times in ET):

The Acadie-Bathurst Titans draw the Saint John Sea Dogs in the first round. The Sea Dogs boast a fairly deep defensive grouping with Boston first round pick Jakob Zboril, Ottawa first round pick Thomas Chabot and 2016 draft eligible Luke Green.  The Sea Dogs did very against Acadie-Bathurst this season winning the season series 6-2-1. 

The Titans limp into the playoffs finishing the season with a 3-7-0 record in their last ten games. As has always been the problem, their offence is anemic at best and enter the playoffs as the team with the lowest offensive output at 2.51 GFPG. For comparisons sake, Saint John averaged 3.8 GFPG and scored 87 more goals than the Titans.

Canucks 2015 3rd round pick, Guillaume Brisebois is currently battling an undisclosed injury and there is no word at this time if he will be ready for the first round. He suffered a concussion earlier in the season, so hopefully he hasn’t suffered another one.

The schedule for their first-round matchup is below (times in AT):

All three of the Canucks QMJHL prospects will be in tough, and I will be surprised if any advance to the next round. If Sherbrooke is eliminated in the first round, I would expect Neill to join Utica on a PTO. He is likely to turn pro next season, so it’s probably in the Canucks best interest to get him some time with the Comets coaching staff, even if it’s just practice time.

I would expect Zhukenov to return to Russia for the summer if the Saguenéens don’t advance. It will be good for him to get an early start on building up his strength.

If Brisebois does return, he could either go to Utica on an ATO or return home to fully recover from his injury.

The number one ranked team in the CHL, Erie Otters, will take on the Saginaw Spirit in the first round of the OHL playoffs. Sometimes the first round of the OHL playoffs are just the powerhouses dismissing the fodder, and this is exactly the case in this matchup. The Spirit finished the season twelve games below .500.

The Saginaw Spirit’s leading scorer Artem Artemov posted 55 points this season, and the Erie Otters had four players with more points than that. The season series was tied at 2 wins a piece, but I will be surprised if the Spirit win more than one game in this series. Pettit was held pointless in the four games against Saginaw.

The Otters do not rely on Pettit for offence, but he is an important part of their defensive game. It something that he does quite well and that was reflected recently when he was voted the best defensive forward and second best face-off man in the OHL Eastern Conference, in the season-ending coaches poll. Given that he is un-signed and if he remains as such, the Canucks will forfeit his rights on June 1, these playoffs will be an important one for Pettit.

Usually centering the third line for Erie, Pettit posted 10 goals and 11 assists in 58 games this season. The Otters and Spirit schedule can be found below:

Making the playoffs for the second year in a row, the Prince George Cougars will take on the US Division champ, Seattle Thunderbirds, in the first round of the WHL playoffs. The Cougars and Thunderbirds split the season series with two wins each. The Thunderbirds are led by New York Islanders first-round pick Matthew Barzal and New York Rangers second round pick Ryan Gropp. 

But what really sets them apart is the fantastic play of goaltender Landon Bow, whom we profiled as a possible free agent target for the Canucks.  Entering the playoffs, the Thunderbirds are on a 13-0-1-0 streak.

As we all know now, this season has been a coming-out party for the Canucks seventh round pick Tate Olson – doubling goal, assist and point totals over last season – Olson has been a steady and dependable force for the Cougars. I would assume that the Cougars coaching staff will look to have Olson shutdown Barzal and Gropp, and thus will be fascinating to see how he handles that match-up. Olson had one goal and four assists against Seattle this season.

If the Cougars can contain Barzal and find a way to solve Bow, they may be able to advance to the second round for the first time since 2006-07.

Their first round schedule can be found below:

As mentioned above, I wouldn’t expect any of the QMJHL prospects to make it out of the first round but anything can happen. Olson and the Cougars are a possibility against the Thunderbirds, and Kyle Pettit will almost surely advance to the next round.

Subject to change, but none of the Canucks prospects CHL playoff games will be televised.