If you have been keeping up lately, the Vancouver Canucks fan base has enjoyed quite the influx in prospect news – especially from the backend.

In terms of North American skaters, there have been a few names that have taken the spotlight and put forth very strong showings in the early stages of the 2023-24 campaign.

Clearly, Hunter Brzrustewics, who leads the OHL in scoring, has taken his game to new levels in Kitchener, while his fellow OHL prospect, Kirill Kudryavtsev, is trucking along just fine with the Soo Greyhounds.

Of course, we have the golden child, and this summer’s first-round draft pick, Tom Willander, who has opened up his collegiate career with a goal and two assists through three games. He’s sharing the ice with Aiden Celirbini, who is up to a goal and three assists himself.

Also in the NCAA circuit, there’s Jacob Truscott and Jackson Dorrington.

It’s a long list, folks, so make sure to catch a more in-depth look at each player in Tuesday’s Blackfish Prospect report.

There has been one defender who has been kept out of the spotlight early on, that being Sawyer Mynio.

Drafted in the third round this past summer, the Kamloops native spent the better half of September navigating his inaugural NHL training camp.

We liked what we saw from him in Penticton, and he certainly stood out as a young prospect who did not look out of place among NHL-caliber talent in Victoria.

While his profile caused a few to scratch their heads on draft day, he’s looked pretty good in his first auditions with the organization.

So good, in fact, that he was signed to an Entry-Level deal, before being sent back to Seattle to tackle his third season as a member of the Thunderbirds.

As a two-year WHL veteran, it’s shaping up to be a big year for the 18-year-old.

He will be considered one of the go-to options for the Thunderbirds on the backend and is slated to play in all situations of the ice.

Unfortunately, in his debut on September 29th, he suffered a lower-body injury, which has kept him out over the last few weeks – hence, the lack of Mynio chatter.

As Faber mentioned in a previous Blackfish report, his team did not look great in his debut, but Mynio played reasonably and finished the game just one of four skaters to post an even rating, following a 6-1 defeat to the Portland Winterhawks.

Well, after missing four games – and three weeks – Mynio returned to the Birds’ line-up and looked great in his first game back.

As expected, he was playing a large role on the club’s penalty kill, which shut down all three Edmonton Oil Kings attempts, and was manning the club’s secondary power play unit, to boot.

He was all over the ice.

And we mean that, he was very mobile out there, and did not seem to stop moving. While he is not the quickest player on the ice, Mynio is a smooth skater and navigates himself well out there.

At times, this got him into a few sticky situations and odd-man rushes, as he was pinching lots and jumping into the play. However, his engagement in every play was certainly noticeable throughout the game.

It did not take him long to hit the scoresheet in his return.

In the second period, Mynio broke in for a nice rush into the offensive zone and was taken down for a delayed penalty. On the ensuing delay, he was able to get the puck back and kick-start some offensive zone pressure with the goal empty.

Getting the puck back, he fired home his first of the season, beating the goaltender with a nice snapshot from the point.

Later, in the third period, after his initial shot was blocked, Mynio was able to grab the puck and provide an excellent look to find teammate, Antonio Martorana, for his first assist of the year, and second point of the game.

It was originally listed as a secondary assist, but as we see in the clip below, it was clearly a primary – and a good one, at that.

He would finish the game with four shots, a plus-one rating, and was one of two players to grab multiple points on the night.

Not bad for someone coming off nearly a month without any game action.

We really liked what we saw in his first game back and are excited to see what he can do in his draft plus-one season.

He may not project as high as some of the more notable defenders within the system at the moment, but it’s always nice to have effective two-way youngsters within the prospect pool.

With just two games of reference, we need to get more eyes on him.

Yet, the early indications have looked promising for the 18-year-old, who put up 31 points (5G +26A), 40 penalty minutes, and a whopping plus-50 in his sophomore season, which was good enough for eighth in the league and fourth among WHL defenders.

You can put Sawyer Mynio on the list of defenders to keep a close eye on this year in the Blackfish report.

Seattle, who sports a 6-1-0 record, will head to Red Deer as they take on the 4-5-0-1 Rebels on Tuesday night.