vancouver canucks top prospects
He is constantly moving his feet in the offensive zone to find the spot on the ice where he will have the most open net if a pass is given to him. Truscott is a great skater and passer; the trouble is a lack of consistency that will need to get ironed out if he is to have an NHL future. When I spoke to him in September he said that sticking up for his teammates has been a thing he has done all his life and that mentality was fluid throughout the Utica Comets roster last season. He’s proven that he can defence against men — he played his first game in the Finnish Liiga when he was still just 16 years old — but he still needs to show that he can move the puck at a high level as well. Juolevi will almost certainly be in the NHL next year and one of the big reasons why is his ability to play on the penalty kill, something that sets him apart from some of the other Canucks’ prospects vying for a spot on the blueline next season. Still, he's got the grit and size, as well as the finish around the crease, to play in front of the net in the NHL. He can certainly contribute on the right half-wall, a place where he found himself rotating to at times in the 2019-20 season. At higher levels, however, he’s been kept quiet, and he needs to show that he’s dynamic enough for his skill to shine through at the pro level. Vasily Podkolzin, RW – SKA (KHL) The thing about graduating prospects quickly is your pipeline often loses a lot of its lustre. That being said, he made the least amount of clear defensive mistakes out of the Utica Comets defencemen last season. He has been a captain for Finland in international play and is just beginning to get regular ice time in the Liiga. Brogan Rafferty is nearing the point where he’s too old to be a prospect, having turned 25 in May. It’s something that the folks at EliteProspects have summed up rather succinctly, writing that, “Höglander stands out with his exceptional puck skills and hands. The Finnish rearguard has struggled to stay healthy for much of his junior and professional career, and not only has that slowed down his development, but it’s also kept him out of the NHL. Some players that were in this tier last year have been bumped up the pyramid, like Costmar, McDonough, and Focht. Let's take a look at them. He has real potential to play in the NHL, though the Canucks will have to be patient. Scouts, who consistently rated him as a likely second round pick, were far more impressed with Jurmo’s ability to skate the puck up ice and get it into the o-zone, whether that resulted in points for him or not. Even having a prospect in the top tier might seem odd, but I’m a big-time believer in Vasily Podkolzin. Many scouts have noted the improvements in his skating in the past two seasons. Jonah Gadjovich tripled his goal totals in the AHL last season, but he still had just 13 goals and 17 points in 38 games, which isn’t what you want to see from a 22-year-old prospect that still has question marks surrounding his skating. Jack Rathbone has the highest ceiling out of any Canucks defence prospect. When you take into account that Silovs has such a wide stance, it’s almost even more impressive just how quick he is at moving side to side and how explosive his lateral movements can be. Back when we talked in May, he was confident in his defensive game and believes the only reason people bring it up as a negative is because there’s nothing in his offensive game to criticize. Sign in or register for your free account. And there you have it, folks! Even bottom-six forwards in the NHL need a base level of skill and poise with the puck, which usually translates into points at lower levels. He can run a power play unit and has a good enough shot to do damage on his own. Amid whispers of less-than-preferential treatment given to those young players destined to leave the KHL for North America — keep in mind that Podkolzin turned down a contract extension from SKA this past offseason — it’s been increasingly difficult for Podkolzin to develop any semblance of consistency. His shot can be lethal if given enough space and he does his best work on the power play. Who are the Canucks' top prospects heading into the 2020-21 NHL season? There are some people who think that Nils Höglander is the best prospect in the Canucks system. After lighting up the J20 SuperElit at 17, Hoglander played the bulk of his draft season in the SHL, where he made the difficult adjustment to playing against men and managed to put up 14 points in 50 games. I’ve been seeing a lot of Kole Lind love lately, and I’m here for it. Quinn Hughes should spend the season up in Vancouver and make an instant impact by … 3, is Jack Rathbone. While he may not be the best centre in the Canucks’ system, Marc Michaelis is the only one likely to play in the NHL next season. The fifth tier features a few players that will almost certainly play NHL games in the future. The Canucks’ sixth-round pick in 2020 is a competitive, hard-working, two-way centre, who has the potential to develop into a bottom-six centre at the NHL level. Stephan Roget, Chris Faber, and I have watched a multitude of video and talked to many different scouts regarding each of these prospects. Costmar has dominated in Swedish junior hockey, putting up 26 goals and 50 points in 29 games last season and 6 points in 3 games this season. I’m going to show some faith in Olli Juolevi and trust in the work that he’s put in with the Utica Comets over the last few years and that he’s truly 100% healthy in order to keep him in the second tier. He also got his first taste of the top “Junior A”/Under-20 SM-liiga before stepping up full-time in 2019/20. Jackson Kunz can put the puck in the net and has power forward potential, but his skating might never let him reach that potential. And so, no playoff run and no cameo with the Comets, though Utica is where he’ll most likely be in 2021, provided there actually is an AHL season. 2. He’s got excellent acceleration and fantastic edge work, which will certainly help the Canucks in their breakout efforts and transitional play when he arrives on the scene. Aside from that one-game vacation to the VHL, and a very successful trip to the Karjala Cup — which we’ll get to in a minute — Podkolzin has stuck with SKA at the KHL level for the entirety of the season thus far, for better and for worse. There’s a world where Lind is on the second power play unit for the Canucks in a few years. Sure, he’s not racking up points in the KHL, but if his KHL team doesn’t want to take full advantage of his incredible skillset and give him ice time while they still have him, that’s their loss. The questions surrounding Rafferty are all about his defending. When he is playing with his J20 team, he is averaging two points per game. Here is part of what Faber had to say about the Canucks’ 2020 7th round pick: Persson turns 19 on November 7th and this will be his final year of eligibility for the World Junior Championships. 1. He’s coming off a rough season with the Barrie Colts in the OHL, but has been fantastic in Latvia to start this season, both in league and international play. My List For Canucks Top 10 Prospects note: If players have fully graduated to the NHL they are no longer eligible for this list. They’re unlikely to be superstars like the top tier but are still great prospects in their own right. There’s a possibility that Chatfield could stake out a spot on a bottom-pairing at the NHL level, but it’s a slight one. He does need to make some better decisions on when to pinch and how long to pinch for. He also has impressive hands and playmaking ability and took a big step forward in his second year in the AHL, putting up 44 points in 61 games. If he catches a streaking winger with his head down, he will pounce at the opportunity to throw a big check. Please enter your email address to reset your password. Instead of listing the Canucks’ top 10 or 20 prospects, I’m sorting them into tiers on a Prospect Pyramid. Juolevi looked to be playing with much more confidence, perhaps the most confident he’s had since his junior days with the London Knights. He's got to improve his skating, particularly his acceleration, to make the most of his size at the NHL level. Höglander has legitimate top-six upside. Q&A with Canucks top prospect Joni Jurmo The Canucks 2020 third-round draft pick was nice enough to answer some questions about the draft process and his game. Utunen plays a quiet game, the type of game where if you don’t hear from him at all, then he has done his job. I remember looking back at film for my deep dive on Rafferty back in May and it took a handful of games for me to even find one big mistake in his own end. Anderson reports that, “another [thing Woo improved on in 2019/20] was his speed and acceleration up and down the ice; he was able to push past players if there but also able to hold opponents down going through the neutral zone.”. As you move down the pyramid, it widens, making room for all of the prospects in the system, rather than trying to rank one above the other. Kole Lind is a pain in the neck: he chirps, he hacks, he agitates, and he gets under the skin of his opponents. An area for improvement in Silovs’ game is his low and wide stance, which leaves plenty of room up high and makes him look smaller in the net than his 6’4 203-pound frame would suggest. He could seriously push to be in the top … 1. Can he continue producing at that level — or take a step forward — without Tyler Madden setting him up? I had the pleasure of watching a good amount of tape on Arturs Silovs, and had a lot to say about him. That remains to be seen, but he’s a good bet to at least be an NHL backup in the future. Tier 1. The Canuck Way ranked up-and-coming defenseman Guillaume Brisebois at No. He keeps the puck moving around and fits in well in any part of the offensive zone. You’ve heard enough trusted people (who actually watch his games) talk about how impactful Vasili Podkolzin is going to be at the NHL level, and we couldn’t agree more. Three prospects in a row who I’m personally fairly high on. Here is our completed 2020 list, with an excerpt from each article. First, a few players I’m not including on the pyramid, as they’re not really prospects … Canucksarmy is a fan site with no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA, CanucksArmy’s complete 2020 Vancouver Canucks prospect rankings. The other big knock is his skating, though he is fine once he gets up to full speed, it feels like it takes too many steps for him to get there and he isn’t generating the power that he needs in his strides.