These Vancouver Canucks prospects proved this week that they are among the most elite NHL prospects.
I don’t recall the last time it was this good being a Vancouver Canucks fan. Within a week, the club went from getting reminded of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals to winning four games in a row, outscoring their opponents 15-5 in that span.
That is not all, however. Outside the NHL, it was a great week all around for the Canucks organization and their prospects. The Utica Comets had a convincing 5-1 win that saw their power play go 4-for-8 against the Rochester Americans and a pretty good netminder in Linus Ullmark.
Netminder Thatcher Demko was named the first star of the game after making 40 saves on 41 shots against. He now boasts an impressive .960 save percentage as well as a 1.26 goals-against average.
Those numbers establish him as the AHL’s second-best netminder, at least by the numbers, only behind Casey DeSmith, the Pittsburgh Penguins prospect.
Up front, forwards Nikolay Goldobin and Reid Boucher continued their hot start to the season that is starting to resemble their junior when the duo absolutely dominated the CHL with the Sarnia Sting five years ago. Goldobin had two assists and Boucher had two goals.
Defenceman Guillaume Brisebois had his first pro goal while Philip Holm recorded two assists, totalling five points in as many games.
These performances are certainly promising but quite frankly, they pale compared to the week that some of the other prospects had. Here are your top prospects for the third week of the 2017-18 season.