WINDSOR, ON – NOVEMBER 16: Forward Jonah Gadjovich /
It was a crazy week for the Vancouver Canucks AHL affiliates, the Utica Comets.
The Vancouver Canucks have struggled to rise clear above the .500 win percentage this season. Their American Hockey League affiliates, the Utica Comets are facing a similar plight, as they are now 6-8-1 on the year.
They did, however, tie the franchise record for the most goals in a single game when they handed the Belleville Senators a 7-1 loss on Friday. Jordan Subban led the way with three assists from the blueline. Reid Boucher had two goals on nine shots, helping netminder Thatcher Demko work 26 saves on 27 shots.
Forwards Michael Chaput and Nikolay Goldobin both had multi-point games. Goldobin now has 17 points in 15 games to lead the Comets in scoring.
The game against the Halford Wolf Pack was a totally different storyline as Demko let in four goals on 29 shots. Goldobin did manage to pick up an assist on the Carter Bancks goal, but otherwise, it was a very quiet night for the prospects.
Philip Holm is leading the blueline with ten points in 15 games. Rookie Zack MacEwen is slowly putting up decent numbers, as the physical centreman now has five goals in ten games. Of note, Jordan Subban, Cole Cassels and Jalen Chatfield are all goalless to begin the year.
Away from the AHL, however, there were many things to be excited about. Here are three of the top prospect performers from Week 6 of the Vancouver Canucks season.
No. 3: D Olli Juolevi (TPS, Liiga)
Olli Juolevi played in three games this week and scored as many points. His offence is coming a lot more consistently now as he has scored in six of his last eight games, recording a total of nine points in that span.
In other words, Juolevi has scored at a pace of 1.13 points per game this season in Liiga after his first four games.
To put that into context, there is only one U24 Liiga defenceman who is scoring at a higher pace than Juolevi, and that is Miro Heiskanen, the third-overall pick by the Dallas Stars from this year’s draft.
In the forty years of Liiga history, only fifteen U24 blueliners have managed to score at a higher pace than Juolevi’s thus far.
A Second Look at Juolevi’s Offence
Perhaps Juolevi isn’t the defensive dynamo that everyone thought the Canucks had drafted. Maybe he has a lot more offence to offer. Maybe this is a similar developmental path for Juolevi that Bo Horvat took; everyone thought he was going to be a defence-first second-line guy but now he is pushing himself to be a legitimate top-six scoring NHL centreman.
Some of this revived offence from Juolevi may be the influence of former Canuck Sami Salo, the assistant coach in TPS. Salo shares similar thoughts about Juolevi’s game that might not be all defence.
Salo on Juolevi's play in his own end : "He's had more ups and downs in that area. He needs to be tougher on loose pucks and being physical in those areas." #Canucks
But as everyone has been saying about Juolevi all along, he still figures to be a top NHL prospect despite his lacklustre season last year.
Salo can see the potentional in Juolevi to be an NHL defenseman, "Absolutely, especially with his puck skills but it's early to say if he's a top 2 defenseman or a top 3 defenseman." #Canucks
It may seem like aeons ago when Juolevi was drafted, perhaps thanks to the long and gruelling season the Canucks went through last year. He still is just 19 years old, though. That is why he was not able to be sent to the AHL. The Canucks have a fine blueliner in the making here, being a regular contributor with his solid wrist shot in the top league in Finland.
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.
No. 1: RW Elias Pettersson (Vaxjo, SHL)
Elias Pettersson, the fifth-overall selection in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, has not played down the middle at all for the SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers. Some, including myself, thought that would put a dent in the Canucks’ plans of replacing the current Swede playmaker, captain Henrik Sedin, with Pettersson.
Although those concerns could turn out to haunt the Canucks later on, Pettersson is making everyone forget about the four players selected before him and the many highly-touted players the Canucks ignored to select him fifth overall.
Pettersson had three goals and three assists in the three games he played this week, including a three-point effort in just over 17 minutes of ice time.
Those three points have put Pettersson at 23 points in 18 SHL regular season games.
23 points, in other words, means that Pettersson is now tied with two others for the SHL lead in points.
Pettersson leads the scoring race because he has played one less game than the other two wingers, a 33-year-old Swede and a 30-year-old American.
Pettersson’s 1.28 points-per-game is the 55th-best all-time performance in the 40 years of SHL/SEL history.
Among under-20 performances, Pettersson’s current season only trails Kent Nilsson‘s 1.50 points-per-game that he set in forty years ago, in the very first year of the Swedish Elite League. It bests Peter Forsberg (1.23 ppg), Thomas Gradin (1.11), and for comparison’s sakes, William Nylander (0.95).
We are starting to see that Pettersson has a goal-scoring side to him that was underrated when playing in Timra IK with his friend Jonathan Dahlen. Pettersson’s left-handed slapper from the right circle is dominating the SHL on a regular basis. His commitment to defence has also been commendable.
Pettersson on being on the Swedish Olympic radar, "I am surprised, I sent my info to them a few weeks back. Would be dream come true to play in the Olympics for your country." #Canucks
With Pettersson in the conversation for a call to the Swedish Olympic squad (which makes total sense considering that all NHL players are not available and that Pettersson is leading the SHL in points), it won’t be long until Pettersson becomes the best NHL prospect not playing in the NHL yet.
Maybe that already has happened? At this point, if Pettersson can prove himself next year with a similar performance as a centreman, there is nothing stopping him from making the NHL two years from now.
