We are back with our 2025 mid-season edition of our CanucksArmy top 20 Vancouver Canucks prospect rankings.

Today, we hit our 15th-ranked prospect. For those curious, here is a quick recap of how things have gone so far:

If you are curious about our ranking criteria, check them out in our Honourable Mentions installment.

Team: Kalamazoo Wings | Age: 20 | Position: Goalie | Height: 6’3 | Weight: 183 lbs | Catches: Left | Drafted: Fifth round, 144 overall, 2022 | Last year’s rank: Unranked

We rarely have a prospect jump to the top 15 months after failing to crack the honourable mentions list. Let alone leapfrog a fellow netminding prospect.

And yet, Ty Young has warranted all the praise to establish himself as a serious contender within this Vancouver Canucks goaltending depth chart.

We’ll start by touching on why he was left off our list in the first place.

Taken in the fifth round, precisely one year after Aku Koskenvuo was selected in the fifth round, Young was always considered a project — still is, really.

Simply put, his draft-plus-one year offered concern. He posted a treacherous 3.89 goals against and a .889% save percentage over 34 games with the Prince George Cougars.

While he followed that up with resectable numbers in the early stages of his draft-plus-two campaign (last year), inconsistent play eventually led to losing his job to a 16-year-old goaltender for the remainder of the season.

Granted, that 16-year-old is widely considered a potential first-round candidate in the upcoming draft, but losing a job as a 19-year-old is never a positive reflection of play.

All this led to a very uncertain summer. Where would he play out his 2024-25 season? Would he stick it out in Prince George as a perennial backup goaltender? Perhaps his rights could be moved to a team needing goaltending depth to continue his role as a starter. Or would he test the professional ranks despite running into various obstacles at the junior level?

We did not know.

And then came training camp. After a summer of training with NHL goalies — Stuart Skinner and James Reimer — Young surprised us in Penticton and looked fantastic at their annual Young Stars [prospect tournament] event.

He carried that poise to main camp, where he stood out amongst the entire Canucks crop and was even bumped up to Group A for a session — no small feat for a young prospect.

Since being drafted, Young has continued to grow his game and show well in each training camp. He has credited his continued development to his relationship with the Canucks’ head goaltending coach, Marco Torenius.

“I worked with him last year [at training camp], and then he also came up to Prince George a couple of times, too. He always sends me clips and stuff, so I worked with him quite a bit,” Young told CanucksArmy back at training camp.

“He makes everything kind of make sense. He is a really good, reliable source if you ever want to just bounce ideas off of him, ask questions, or even if you’re ever in a slump, he’ll just talk you through and help you out and send you some clips and put to work on and kind of calms your mind a little bit, and just focuses on one thing instead of being overwhelmed with everything.”

After all was said and done, the organization felt he was best suited for the pro level, developing amongst their pro staff — at the ECHL level.

But the youngster did not take long to enjoy his first taste of American League action. With a string of injuries in Vancouver and Abbotsford, Young was boosted to Abbotsford with just two professional games under his belt.

And boy, did he impress.

He earned three wins during his five-game stretch, allowing two or less goals in three of those games. He posted an impressive .915% save percentage and surrendered just 12 goals during his stay.

Now, back in the ECHL, where he’s slated to spend the entire 2024-25 (barring more injuries), he’s playing lights out between the pipes.

Despite a middling 7-6-1 record, the 20-year-old netminder has given his team a chance to win nearly every game. He hasn’t been given the offensive help to propel him to victories and has made 30-plus saves in four of those six losses.

At the time of this writing, he leads all U24 netminders with an impressive .926% save percentage and recently recorded his first career (30 saves) shutout at the pro level.

There’s still tons of work to be done, and like all the goalies on this list, he has a healthy number of bodies in front of him on the depth chart.

And yet, the strides he’s made in very short order have boosted his stock tenfold.

Ceiling: Goaltenders are always wild cards when it comes to prediction. Young’s quick turnaround is the perfect case study for that argument. It’s a little too early to place a starting NHL role in his future, but he’s showing strong steps to see NHL games one day eventually.

Floor: If things don’t go as planned, he’s showing solid qualities for a young (no pun intended) goaltender who’s AHL-bound. Anything can happen with a crowded goaltending system, but the floor looks like an AHL netminder.

ETA: We’ve said this often now, but the crowded system does not allow for easy predictions for NHL games. We expect him to push for a full-time role in Abbotsford next season, where he’ll likely marinate for the next two years. After that, we can reevaluate and start talking about NHL looks.

That’s our #15 spot. Stay tuned for another installment tomorrow here at CanucksArmy.