Welcome back to our CanucksArmy top 20 Vancouver Canucks prospect rankings.

Today, we cover a towering Swedish winger coming off his first season on North American soil.

The Vancouver Canucks had three picks in the fourth round of the 2023 entry draft. One of the prospects taken did not make our rankings list (Matthew Perkins), one made it to our #17 spot (Ty Mueller), and one, Vilmer Alriksson, falls just outside our top 10 here at CanucksArmy.

When he was originally taken, it wasn’t hard to see what the Canucks’ brass saw in his potential — he ticked off a lot of boxes. Firstly, he’s a Swede, so there’s a natural fit. But even as a 17-year-old, he was profiled as a 6’6, 214 lbs kid with soft hands, a capable shot and contrary to most within his size range, showed passable skating qualities.

Alriksson quickly took his talents to North America after having his rights taken by the Guelph Storm in the CHL Import Draft, giving fans an up-close view of the team’s newest intriguing asset. So far, he has not disappointed.

His first year in the Canadian junior league was not dominant, but it showed promise. Split evenly between 17 goals and 16 assists, Alriksson notched 33 points to finish eighth on the team in scoring. He also finished with the second-highest game-winning goals (3) and contributed seven of his 17 tallies on the power play.

Given his incredible reach and hands in tight, the towering Swede was used as a net-front presence on the man advantage. There were stints on the half-wall, where he had experience in previous years, but the size was too much for the Storm to pass up on. As a result, he spent most of his season making life tough for defenders and netminders in the blue paint.

A statistic that stands out to us is his plus/minus. Say what you will about the stat, but Vilmer was one of just two forwards to finish without a dash in front of his final number. He finished with an even rating for the year. Of course, finishing with a par score is nothing to write home about, but considering most of the team had suffered a negative by the season’s end, it’s a good look.

Alriksson, or as they call him in Guelph, “Ricky Bobby,” played in various roles throughout the year and bounced around the team’s forward lines. He played top-line and middle six minutes, with a few healthy scratches sprinkled in throughout the season. We spoke to someone close to the team who had expressed concerns about his lack of effort and passenger-like attitude in the mid-stages of the year.

Oddly enough, the time frame of the scratches aligned well with the number of games he had surpassed in previous seasons. Viewing games from the press box served as a healthy reminder that the North American season is long, and effort is needed throughout its entirety.

So what gives? 6’6, some soft skills and a decent skater? Why does he fall out of the top 10, and what needs work?

Yes, he’s a big boy. Especially amongst his junior peers, he can manhandle his opponents and beat them wide with a Todd Bertuzzi-like one-handed puck cradle. His wingspan is incredible, and he’s often able to use that lankiness to his advantage by opening netminders before going top-shelf.

The problem is that he has yet to find a way to utilize that size to its full advantage. The potential to blossom into a true power forward is absolutely there; it’s just not quite there yet. Despite the frame, he doesn’t necessarily play a rough and tough game, and his effort levels have been questioned. But it’s coming.

Heck, he even dropped the mitts earlier in the season, proving to the entire league that he’s not someone to mess around with.

Overall, we love his upside and the development he’s gained in quick succession. Canucks player development coach Mikael Samuelsson tends to agree. “We like his development from last year to this year,” said Samuelsson in a recent Development Camp interview. “As long as they develop — it can take one year or two or three years — it doesn’t really matter. In terms of his playing…you can see a difference, definitely.”

Looking ahead, Guelph has several overagers set to graduate from the roster. This should pave Vilmer a direct path to seeing more consistent top-six minutes and a potential spot on the top power play.

Now listed as 237 lbs, we anticipate an improved season for the huge prospect. As a fourth-round talent, we hate to start a hype train, but there’s a real chance that he jumps into our top 10 by this time next year.

Ceiling: Alriksson has the potential to develop into an NHL power forward with his size and skill set. We’ve often referred to Alexei Toropchenko of the St. Louis Blues, who’s chartered a near-identical pathway and carries a near-carbon copy profile. Should we be right on that, he’s now carved out a 42-point in a 179-game NHL career as a bottom-six fixture. We see that as a reasonable target for Alriksson, with the potential to shoot for the middle-six.

Floor: Since he’s just one year transitioned into the North American style, there’s still work to be done, but his skill set feels promised to succeed at the AHL level. Lord knows he has the size to withstand the competition.

ETA: The 2024-25 campaign will be a telling one for the now second-year OHL junior. There could be a pathway for him to turn pro at the tail end of next year, but even if that’s the case, he’ll need at least two years of AHL conditioning before he’s ready for NHL deployment. To quote Ricky Bobby’s father, “If you’re not first, you’re last,” and Vilmer Alriksson is far from this organization’s top prospect. We’re anticipating the long game with his development. Perhaps by the 2027-28 season, he’ll be ready.