Canucks hockey is so back.

The Vancouver Canucks fell against the Seattle Kraken by a 5-3 scoreline away from home to open their preseason. Featuring a very young Canucks team against a pretty NHL-heavy Kraken squad, the result was to be somewhat expected, and honestly not even the worst. Vancouver made this a game and made it interesting as an opening contest to the preseason.

If you haven’t been reading this series, The Statsies is a recap of the game from an advanced stats perspective. This isn’t meant to be a piece that dissects each and every thing that every player does – it just offers an alternative perspective on how to see last night’s game. This one will be a little different from the usual format, with just a few points of focus.

As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

After a strong training camp, Braeden Cootes found himself dressing for the first preseason game as the pivot between Arshdeep Bains and Kiefer Sherwood. The 2025 first-round pick looked solid, playing some smart positionally sound hockey against some pretty darn good competition. Primarily playing against Jordan Eberle flanked by Berkly Catton and Eduoard Sale, Cootes was able to help his line record Vancouver’s highest CF% (71.43) amongst forward lines with more than 4 minutes of TOI. Now, the xGF% wasn’t the greatest, but considering that this was the first preseason game against a much more experienced Kraken team, and it becomes a lot more understandable. Already, there’s some intriguing flashes with this kid.

A big reason why the Canucks were in the game early on was because of Nikita Tolopilo’s efforts between the pipes. The 6’6 Belarusian netminder was sharp, and Vancouver needed him to be as they were facing some hefty competition. Other than the downhill wrister that beat him gloveside, Tolopilo was nearly perfect, turning away 13 of 14 shots in half of the game to finish with a 0.928 SV%. Impressively, he turned away all 3 high-danger chances that he faced at 5v5 play, standing tall when it counted and where he needed to be. With Arturs Silovs no longer in this organization, Tolopilo is Abbotsford’s starter apparent, and he was more than living up to that billing last night.

The other Belarusian in the lineup was put in an interesting spot. Danila Klimovich, Jim Benning’s 2021 second-round selection, has seen a pretty rocky road when it comes to his development as a player. Up and down seasons in Abbotsford with a non-linear progression had many already ready to write him off. But, putting together a solid 38-point campaign last year in Abby’s Calder Cup year, Klimovich found himself slotted in alongside Drew O’Connor and Teddy Blueger last night – a suspiciously bottom-6-esque unit. That line was deployed as Vancouver’s de facto first line, seeing the most ice time at 5v5 while also being the only line to finish above 50% xGF. Actually, they sat at 70.41 xGF% with a team-high 0.49 xGF. The next closest unit put up 48.80 xGF% and 0.13 xGF. It remains to be seen if Klimovich can make his case to become an NHLer this year, and at 22, there’s still runway. But wouldn’t it be nicer to see him sooner rather than later in Vancouver, if at all?

Victor Mancini was basically given carte blanche as the Canucks’ top defenceman in the lineup. He played well though – the big right-handed defenceman not only found himself on the scoresheet, but made his presence felt with big hits and smart reads in the defensive zone. Mancini was leaned on a lot throughout this game, seeing the most TOI amongst all defenders and leading the d-corps in CF%. There was a lot to like about his confidence and poise on the back end, and it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up as this preseason shakes out.

Considering the opposition, the Canucks didn’t play that poorly at all. They certainly were outclassed when it mattered, but there was entertaining hockey to be watched with plenty of intriguing things to monitor as the preseason continues on. Vancouver’s young players certainly caught the eye, most in good ways and others in not-so-good ways. However, that’s all part of the learning curve as the roster continues to be trimmed down.

Vancouver hosts Calgary at the Abbotsford Centre on Wednesday for their next preseason contest.

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