The Vancouver Canucks hit the ice at the University of British Columbia for the second consecutive day. It was a similar turnout from yesterday, with one new face, Jake DeBrusk.

Team Blue featured Brock Boeser, Filip Hronek, Evander Kane, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Tyler Myers, Drew O’Connor, Elias Pettersson (D) and Marcus Pettersson.

Team White consisted of Arshdeep Bains, Jake DeBrusk, Derek Forbort, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Vilati Kravtsov, Kirill Kudryavstev, Elias Pettersson (F), Kiefer Sherwood and Tom Willander.

The same three goaltenders – Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo – were minding the net on Thursday. Vilmer Alriksson was the only player not present today who skated yesterday.

We have yet to see Quinn Hughes, Conor Garland, Filip Chytil, Teddy Blueger, Nils Aman or Linus Karlsson on the ice at UBC, but remember these are just summer skates, not an official practice. So, try not to read too much into absences and other practice standouts.

Jason Krog, the Canucks’ skills and skating coach, led today’s drills. First, they started with a full ice two-on-two drill, followed by the same two-on-two drill but from the hash marks. Then came the four-on-four scrimmage. Here are a couple of takeaways from the scrimmage:

Both sporting white jerseys, DeBrusk and Pettersson took reps on a line together today.

Pettersson looked faster and was confident with the puck, dancing around his teammates and making plays all over the offensive zone.

DeBrusk looked solid, especially for a summer skate. He always took his opportunities to send the puck toward the net and was flying around the offensive zone, but still managed to be in the right place and the right time for a Pettersson pass more often than not.

Of course, who knows how much effort the defenders were putting in in this setting, but it was encouraging to see the duo get to work nonetheless.

During the two-on-two drills, Willander was paired with Kudryavtsev, and the duo broke up plays and held strong in the defensive zone.

In the four-on-four scrimmage, Willander didn’t back down from taking his opportunity to jump into the offence when the opportunity presented itself. As he did on this play, when he skated past a Canucks defender, protecting the puck from a poke-check from behind, taking the puck to his backhand and shelfing it over a sprawling Demko:

Again, it was just a summer skate. But to see him making plays and utilizing his speed in the first handful of skates with his Canucks teammates should get Canucks fans excited about what the rookie defenceman can bring on a nightly basis.

A handful of Canucks stayed late, working on tipping drills. E. Pettersson (D) was shooting floaters toward the net for Sherwood and O’Connor, swapping in and out to work on their deflections. The young Swedish defencemen – Pettersson and Willander – seem to have fun together, as they were joking around with each other after practice.

Stay tuned here at CanucksArmy for more updates throughout summer skates and the upcoming Canucks Training Camp, starting on September 18 in Penticton, BC.