Vancouver Canucks top prospects of Week 6: Juolevi, Gadjovich, Pettersson

No. 2: LW Jonah Gadjovich (Owen Sound, OHL)

After being injured for about a month, Jonah Gadjovich returned to action in a big way. He has six points in four OHL games since his injury with five of them being goals. In the one game he was held pointless (and his team was shut out), he had an incredible eleven shots on goal.

Perhaps the most impressive stat so far is that Gadjovich has yet to have a game in which he didn’t register a shot on net. He also has not been held pointless for multiple games in a row at any point of the season.

Gadjovich vs. Team Russia

The most impressive of all was his performance against Team Russia in the second OHL-Russia game of the CIBC Super Series. He was pointless but had six shots on goal. On a side note, Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro was in net that game, surrendering just two goals on 25 Russian shots.

Though pointless, Gadjovich was noticeable in so many ways in the game. He was a dominant net-front presence on the OHL powerplay. Team OHL scored three of their four goals with Gadjovich in front of the Russian crease.

It was obvious why Team Canada loved him so much. Gadjovich is likely the best net-front player in Canadian Junior Hockey right now. This is also exciting news for Canucks fans who have not seen such a forward who can dominate in front of the crease in a Canucks uniform for many years.

I also loved how much Gadjovich’s skating looked to have improved. He shows here in his short-handed goal that he can hold his own in speed battles and score even when he is not at the net front.

Perhaps one day, the Canucks will end up asking “why is nobody taking Jonah Gadjovich?” Some already may be.