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We are just about to begin, what has become, our bi-annual Vancouver Canucks prospect rankings.
Before we get to the top 10, which will begin in a couple of days, we wanted to give a rundown of what we are valuing in how we rank the prospects. There’s no formula used here at CanucksArmy. Almost all of our information on the prospects is gathered from the eye test as well as some conversations with the prospects, their coaches, and other talent evaluators in the hockey industry.
To get close to the top, there needs to be more than just a chance at the player being an NHLer. We are ranking difference-makers highly as the guys who have a chance to be bottom-pairing defencemen of fourth-liners will be further down the list.
Our rankings are based on how we see a player hitting their ceiling of potential as well as balancing their likeliness of strong development and obviously current play comes into the equation. We need to account for age as well. A 19-year-old forward putting up eight goals and 11 assists in an SHL season is very different than a 22-year-old scoring at the same rate.
There will be five subjects that we include in each of the top-10 prospect articles.
Ceiling: Judging simply on pure top-end potential. We will discuss what the player could become if they develop to reach 100% of their potential.
Floor: In case development doesn’t go well, we will look at a lower-end future of the player — not necessarily the worst-case scenario like Olli Juolevi. But if the player just doesn’t take any steps and ends up in the NHL one day.
Production (and how): Here, we will look back at the player’s 2022-23 year and break down what they did offensive and defensively while viewing how their strengths shine in the league they played in last year.
Prediction (for the 2023-24 year): This one is simple. We will guess what we expect from the player next season.
ETA: The estimated time of arrival for the prospect coming to play professional hockey in North America as well as when we expect to see them get their first NHL game.
Now that we’ve covered our basis, it’s time to look back at the past three top-10 rankings before we let you know who we are going to deem ineligible for our rankings.
APRIL 2022
- Jack Rathbone
- Danila Klimovich
- Will Lockwood
- Aidan McDonough
- Jett Woo
- Linus Karlsson
- Lucas Forsell
- Mikey DiPietro
- Arturs Silovs
- Chase Wouters
Honourable mentions: Dmitri Zlodeyev, Viktor Persson, Lukas Jasek, Connor Lockhart, Aku Koskenvuo
POST-DRAFT 2022
- Jonathan Lekkerimaki
- Jack Rathbone
- Danila Klimovich
- Elias Pettersson
- Aidan McDonough
- Jonathan Myrenberg
- Aku Koskenvuo
- Lucas Forsell
- Linus Karlsson
- Arturs Silovs
Honourable mentions: Joni Jurmo, Jett Woo, Mikey DiPietro, Daimon Gardner, Arshdeep Bains
ALL-STAR BREAK 2023
Unranked: Aatu Raty
- Elias Pettersson
- Jonathan Lekkerimaki
- Arturs Silovs
- Danila Klimovich
- Lucas Forsell
- Aidan McDonough
- Linus Karlsson
- Filip Johansson
- Jacob Truscott
- Arshdeep Bains
Honourable mentions: Aku Koskenvuo, Joni Jurmo, Connor Lockhart, and Kirill Kudryavtsev
Now for the ineligible players.
Jack Rathbone is not going to be on our list this time around. We’re going to use a U23 format for the prospects. That also eliminates Akito Hirose, Aidan McDonough, Linus Karlsson, and Nikita Tolopilo. Jett Woo gets to slide into the list as he turns 23 on July 27th — you got lucky this time, Jett.
We are also not going to include Vasily Podkolzin or Nils Höglander. Those two have had a full season or more in the NHL and we don’t really look at them as prospects anymore. It’s go-time for them as well as the 23 and olders.
So, our 15 prospects who either made the top-10 or the honourable mentions list are Aatu Raty, Arshdeep Bains, Arturs Silovs, Cole McWard, Danila Klimovich, Elias Pettersson, Hunter Brzustewicz, Jackson Dorrington, Jacob Truscott, Jett Woo, Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Joni Jurmo, Josh Bloom, Kirill Kudryavtsev, Lucas Forsell, and Tom Willander.
Now, that we’ve set the table a little bit, it’s time to write these 11 articles. We will begin with the honourable mentions and then work our way down from 10 to one.
If you believe there’s a prospect who should be in the top-16, make a case for them in the comments. I’ll read what you have to say.
