Many of the Vancouver Canucks prospects have finished their 2022-23 seasons but there are a handful of prospects who are still competing in playoff hockey in their respective leagues.
We are going to skip over the AHL players for this article, you likely all know about Danila Klimovich, Jett Woo, Aatu Räty, Arshdeep Bains, Arturs Silovs, etc.
Filip Johansson played in 12 SHL playoff games but is now with the Abbotsford Canucks for their AHL playoff run. He will get some more coverage once he suits up for the Canucks. They begin their first game of the second round on Wednesday in Calgary.
Let’s go around the OHL, USHL, and Allsvenskan, and see which Canucks prospects are still in the hunt for their league championships.
OHL
Connor Lockhart scored a hat trick on Monday night to send his Peterborough Petes off to the Eastern Conference Finals of the OHL playoffs.
The 2021 sixth-round pick was red-hot over the final two games of their series against the Ottawa 67’s. He scored four goals and added one assist in games five and six and helped his Petes roll into the final four of the OHL.
Lockhart has five goals and three assists in 10 OHL playoff games and now awaits the winner of game seven between the North Bay Battalion and Barrie Colts.
That aforementioned game seven between the Battalion and Colts is the biggest game of the year for Canucks prospect Josh Bloom.
Bloom was acquired in a trade for Riley Stillman back in February. The 19-year-old has been a leading man for the Battalion this season — being relied upon to be an aggressive penalty killer and a trusty winger at five-on-five. Bloom finished the OHL regular season with 25 goals and 30 assists in 49 games but has seen his production slow down a bit in the playoffs. He has two goals and five assists in 12 playoff games and will need to have a good game to help his team advance to the OHL’s ECF.
It would be a ton of fun to see two Canucks prospects matchup in the OHL playoffs and if that is the case, it means that one Canucks prospect will be in the OHL playoff finals.
Game seven between the Battalion and Colts goes on tonight (Tuesday) at 4:00 pm Pacific Time.
USHL
The Canucks took a swing for upside when they drafted Daimon Gardner in the fourth-round of the 2022 draft. Speaking honestly, we haven’t spent a lot of time covering this prospect as we are waiting for him to make the jump to the NCAA next season.
We will highlight that Gardner is off to the Clark Cup Playoffs, which is the USHL postseason.
Gardner tore his MCL in a preseason game and came back from injury on November 25th, where he began a year that saw him score 12 goals and add 30 assists over 46 USHL games. He is arguably the best offensive-minded forward on his Tri-City Storm team and has the size and pace to dominate the USHL. (Gardner is 6’4″ and 200+ pounds)
More good news is that Gardner has been playing centre this season. He’s a big body and will need to develop his game in the NCAA over the coming years.
Gardner and his Storm are heading into game two of the first-round playoff matchup. They won game one against Sioux City by a score of 6-1 and are set to play game two tonight (Tuesday).
This is a best-of-three series and Gardner didn’t pick up a point during the blowout win in game one. We will continue to keep an eye on his production as the playoffs continue.
Allsvenskan
2022 first-round pick Jonathan Lekkerimäki is down 3-1 in the finals of the Allsvenskan playoffs.
His next game is Wednesday and he is coming off a massive game where he had four assists in one period.
Lekkerimäki is playing the best hockey that we have seen all year from him. His team has a chance to advance to the SHL if they can win this series but Lekkerimäki has a steep uphill battle ahead of him as his team trails 3-1 in the final series of the Allsvenskan postseason.
He has put up 13 points over 12 Allsvenskan playoff games. It is damn impressive when you see that Lekkerimäki only had nine points throughout the 29 regular season games he played in this year.
We will be sure to have a ton of AHL coverage for you as the week goes on. Those prospects have a lot to gain over the coming weeks and they will get a ton of coverage.
Speaking of, Jett Woo joined us on Monday to talk about his Canucks in the AHL playoffs.