🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨 Adam Novotný rips it high glove to bring the Canucks within one 🎥: #Canucks
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Canucks Prospect Showcase Notebook: Thoughts on Novotný, Cootes, Safonov, Schimek, and Medvedev
Photo credit: © @Canucks on Twitter/X
By Tyson Cole
Sep 13, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 13, 2026, 03:09 EDT
Well, last night wasn’t the ideal start to the prospect showcase for the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks welcomed the Seattle Kraken and their prospects to Rogers Forum on Saturday night for Game 1 of the prospect showcase. While the game was relatively back and forth for the first 40 minutes, the final 20 minutes told a different story.
Vancouver and Seattle traded goals and found themselves in a 1-1 tie early in the second period, but by the end of the frame, the Kraken found themselves with a 4-3 lead heading into the final break. Then things took a turn for the worse for the Canucks, allowing three straight third period goals to drop the contest 7-3.
It wasn’t a banner night for most of the Canucks prospects tonight. However, as many explained during postgame availabilities, there might have been some confusion about the type of systems the team was trying to play after such little practice time together: “It’s just that everybody is not knowing what they’re really doing, like what the system is. Lots of things not going our way today too, and just gonna watch the film tomorrow and don’t make some mistakes that we did today,” a player shared postgame.
Despite the loss, there were still three takeaways from Game 1:
1. A strong finish from Adam Novotný
With Caleb Malhotra currently attending classes at Boston University and preparing for his first season in the NCAA, Adam Novotný was the Canucks prospect fans were most excited to see in action.
Unfortunately, he didn’t look his best in the first period. He had the puck on his stick a lot, but struggled to connect on some of his passes. We’ll just call it some rookie nerves playing in a Canucks uniform for the first time, as he completely made up for those small mistakes in the second period.
After going down 3-1, Novotný jumped off the bench, called for the puck, walked down the left-side wall with space, and sent a laser into the top right corner. Now that’s the shot the Canucks drafted 24th overall in June’s draft.
Novotný had another shift later in the second period where he made some shifty moves along the back boards, curled around the side of the net to create space from him and the defender and fired a shot on net. That effort resulted in Ty Mueller picking up the puck in the corner and firing it off Nikke Kokko’s right pad and straight to a pinching Sawyer Mynio, who buries it into the open net.
🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨 Sawyer Mynio cleans up the rebound and the Canucks are back within one 🎥: #Canucks
And later in the second period, Novotný was getting roughed up in the corner by Kraken defenceman Ty Nelson. Novotný clearly didn’t like that, as he got up and threw a hit on another Kraken player out of frustration, which won him the puck. He then took it to the net with a weak backhand shot for Kokko to cover, and Nelson went back after him after the whistle. He may not have been able to outmuscle the 22-year-old Kraken defenceman, but he showed he wasn’t going to back down from the physical side of the game.
The third period was much quieter for everybody on the Canucks, but with some more open ice on the power play and a 4-on-4 situation, Novotný was flying with the puck through the neutral zone. While it may not have amounted to offence, Novotný’s overall game was impressive over the final 40 minutes and will be one to watch for Game 2.
2. The Safonov-Cootes-Schimek line had plenty of chances
My notes are filled with these three connecting on plays throughout all three periods.
Safonov had nice touch on a pass to find Cootes in the slot early in the first. Cootes received a Schimek neutral zone pass and then beautifully feathered a pass to a streaming Safonov for a chance all alone. He couldn’t get the shot off, but drew a penalty late in the first period that resulted in Vilmer Alriksson’s early second period goal.
And that was just the first period. The trio had more of these offensive zone shifts where each player got involved in the passing, but they couldn’t translate it to the scoresheet. They even got a shoutout for their efforts from Abbotsford head coach Ryan Papaioannou postgame: “I think the guys on the top group there with Cootes and Safonov had a nice effort. They were able to make some plays and get on the inside a bit.”
We’ll see if this line can convert today if the Canucks coaching staff stick with this trio for Game 2.
One last note. Safonov has played professionally in Russia for the last six years. Braeden Cootes played three NHL games as an 18-year-old last season and is a former first-round pick. Bennett Schimek is an undrafted free agent who played the last four seasons in the NCAA.
One of these players doesn’t quite have the same pedigree as the other two. However, Schimek did not look out of place on a line with Safonov and Cootes. He’s proving that five goals and 11 points in 13 AHL games at the end of last season was not just a fluke. Schimek is quick, evasive, and has an underrated shot. Watch him a little closer in Game 2.
3. The Aleksei Medvedev conversation
I’m not going to pretend to be a goalie guy, but the more I watch Medvedev, the more confused I get.
If you’re just watching the scoreboard, seven goals against doesn’t look great. However, he still shows some flashes. There were multiple plays where he came up with consecutive chaotic stops, but then in other instances, he’d get beat on a routine shot that one would expect him to stop.
Not all of the goals were on him, however. With a blueline mostly filled out of invitees, there were bound to be mistakes that happened in front of him. Some defenders struggled to clear the zone, leading to extended defensive zone time and the puck behind Medvedev. And more than a few times Medvedev was facing odd-man rushes or straight-up breakaways as the Kraken forwards got behind Canucks defenders with ease.
Overall, it’s hard to be overly concerned about him just yet. After all, he’s just 19 years old and has plenty of runway for development ahead of him. However, the inconsistent saves and goals against have me confused about what to truly take away from Medvedev’s performance. We’ll see if the coaching staff decides to give him some more action in Game 2.
One-offs
- Vilmer Alriksson’s shot has clearly improved over the summer. We saw it with his two goals in last week’s captains’ skate scrimmage, and he showed it off again early in the second on his power play tally.
- Yaroslav Bryzgalov was fun to watch. He had one of the best shifts of the entire game early in the first period. He laid a big hit along the boards in the defensive zone, heads-up ice with the puck, did a spin-o-rama pass to the slot, then was the first player back on the odd-man rush and broke up the 2-on-1 pass to stop a sure goal.
- That Joe Arntsen fight at centre ice rocked.
We’ve got another scrap in the prospects game! 🎥: #Canucks
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