Vancouver Canucks top prospects of Week 14: Elias, Dahlen, Lind

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The World Juniors are in the rearview mirror and we are back to your weekly dose of Vancouver Canucks prospect updates.

What an incredible eight days. There is quite a bit going on in the land of Canucks prospects. I don’t have time to talk about the team’s sluggish return from the bye week. On the bright side, the Tank is full steam ahead, whether the Vancouver Canucks like it or not.

Let’s knock the bad news out of the way. Jonah Gadjovich has not played a game returning from the World Juniors. He had little ice time in the Gold Medal game and now I believe I know why. Greg Cowan of the Owen Sound Sun Times reported that Gadjovich is out with an illness.

This illness may have kept him on the bench during that final game in Buffalo. I hope it’s not mononucleosis. Gadjovich was doing well for himself in his first post-draft season. You want to see him make those adjustments to his skating and continue to improve. We will have to wait and see when he returns.

At the start of this month, Brett McKenzie was traded to Owen Sound, to join Gadjovich. It will be interesting to have two of our prospects on the same team, especially when the playoffs roll around. The Canucks’ rights to McKenzie expire this June, so I will be intrigued if he is offered an entry-level deal before then.

Honing in on a pair of defencemen

Across the pond, Nikita Tryamkin is having an excellent season in the KHL. The Russian defenceman has 25 points in 47 games and participated in the league’s All Star game last week. I really do hope he returns someday, so Wyatt Arndt can finally get those shirseys.

Back to this side of the Atlantic, we focus on the Oshawa. With 29 points, Matt Brassard leads the way for our OHL prospects. Granted, he has played twice as many games as Gadjovich, but he is 12th among OHL defencemen in points. Brassard is also fourth in shots on goal. His first post-draft season is promising for a seventh round pick. Keep in mind, Tate Olson had a good post-draft season and could not earn a contract. However, he is trending well at this point.

Will Lockwood

There is another update from Will Lockwood regarding his shoulder injury. Upon learning of his season-ending surgery, Lockwood spoke with Rick Dhaliwal.

Lockwood admits this shoulder injury will change his style of play, "I have to change my game a little bit. Maybe strip the puck more than the physical part." #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) January 17, 2018

I am very glad that Lockwood is mature enough to understand this. His wild and physical style of play had the potential of ending his NHL career before it started. I have always said that he needs to learn to pick his spots and can’t just be a wrecking ball. This is not his first major injury from his aggresive play.

Shoulder surgery can hamper a player’s shot and this is Lockwood’s second procedure. We see how this surgery can affect a player’s shot when you look at Jake Virtanen and Brendan Gaunce. Virtanen still possesses a decent shot, but it is nowhere close to the level it was in his draft year.

Lockwood has a good head on his shoulders (pun very much intended) and is taking the steps to round out his game. I think with enough patience and work in the NCAA and later on in the AHL, he might just reach that Jannik Hansen-level ceiling.

AHL All Stars

Utica is hosting this year’s AHL All Star Game. The Comets will have two representatives, Reid Boucher and Thatcher Demko. Boucher is playing incredibly well on the farm. He has 20 goals, good for second in the league. The Comets’ leading scorer is seventh in the AHL for total points.

He may not have the best skating, but Boucher can find ways to put pucks in the back of the net. For a team like the Canucks that still has trouble scoring goals, he’s not a bad option. Boucher could see another call up after the trade deadline, but for now, he can set his sights on the All Star game.

Demko is arguably the best player in Utica. His GAA of 2.28 is the eighth best in the AHL and .929 save percentage is tied for fourth. Here’s the kicker. Demko faces the second most shots among all goalies in the AHL. There isn’t one goaltender ahead of Demko in either statistical category with more games played or more shots against.

Both players will be suiting up in front of the home crowd on January 28th-29th. Congratulations to Reid and Thatcher!

Adam Gaudette

Alright, I’m cheating a little with this weekly report. Normally, I cover three standout performances of the week, but this week is different. I wanted to add an honourable mention for Adam Gaudette since he couldn’t quite crack the top three.

In his past four games, Gaudette picked up two goals and four assists. With this string of performances, he has launched himself to the top. Gaudette leads the NCAA with 36 point in 24 games.

He and his teammate, Dylan Sikura are leading the charge for Northeastern. What’s interesting about Sikura is that he is in his final year at Northeastern and if he does not sign with the Blackhawks before August 15, he could become a free agent. Maybe Gaudette will try to convince him to sign with the Canucks. One could hope.

With that, I’ll leave you with the GIFs of his goals.

No. 3 – RW Kole Lind (Kelowna Rockets, WHL)

Kole Lind is a man on a mission. Mono couldnt stop him. Getting cut from Team Canada at the World Juniors only fueled the fire inside. This is no longer the revenge of Kole Lind. He is just one incredible player to watch.

Lind played in five games this past week, picking up eight points. His best game of the week was last night, where Kelowna took the Royals to the cleaners. In an 8-4 victory, Lind picked up a goal and three assists.

Simply amazing. Lind is 16th in points in the WHL. Most of the players ahead of him are either older or have played more games. The one crucial exception being Aleksi Heponiemi, who is from the same draft class as Lind. He has 28 more points than Lind in two fewer games.

However, Lind is only one point behind Cody Glass. The Portland Winterhawks centre did not have to deal with mono this season like Lind. I think Kole Lind is a perfect example in showing the benefits of tanking.

By picking near the top of every round and keeping your second round picks, you can select promising players. The second round is the next best place to find top end talent in the draft. Just keep in mind, that Lind is not a guaranteed success. However, after consecutive drafts without any second round picks, it is exciting to have a prospect like Lind.

https://twitter.com/Kelowna_Rockets/status/954920806257061889

No. 2 – C/RW Elias Pettersson (Vaxjo Lakers, SHL)

Even when Elias Pettersson has a slow week in the SHL, he can find a way to make this list. Pettersson only picked up a goal in three games with Vaxjo this week. It put his season total up to 36 points in 30 games.

Pettersson only needs one more point to enter the top 10 all-time U20 seasons in the SHL. Despite being away for two weeks in Buffalo for the World Juniors, Pettersson has the sixth most points in the league. I can’t wait to see where the rest of this season takes him.

Did anyone forget about the Champions Hockey League? It’s okay. I know the World Juniors can distract from other tournaments around the World. Vaxjo was in a semi-final match against the Czech team, Liberec. Fun fact: Canucks prospect Lukas Jasek is on that team.

Unfortunately for Jasek, his team had to face the onslaught of Elias Pettersson after losing the Gold Medal game. He scored two goals in a 6-1 rout, eliminating Liberec from the tournament. Here are his goals from that game:

Pettersson has nine points in ten games in the CHL tournament. Vaxjo will play in the championship game on February 6th.

No. 1 – C/LW Jonathan Dahlen (Timra IK, Allsvenskan)

Jonathan Dahlen is at the top of this week’s list for a reason you may not expect. Dahlen only picked up a couple points in the last week, but he made a major decision. He had to choose between staying in Allsvenskan with Timra or leaving his team to play in a higher league like the SHL.

More from The Canuck Way

Dahlen chose to stay with his current club instead of moving to league with a greater level of competition. For the more detailed report on his decision, I thought Ryan Biech did a great job covering the news at CanucksArmy.

Essentially, Dahlen did not want to abandon Timra because he wants to help them get promoted to the SHL. Swedish hockey leagues run differently than the NHL. In North America, the AHL is used as a development team. In Sweden, junior teams exist for that purpose. It’s a tiered system with the SHL being the top league and the Allsvenskan being a tier below.

Champions of the Allsvenskan can get promoted to the SHL while the teams that finish last in the SHL can be relegated to Allsvenskan. This is what happened to Modo a couple years back. You may recognize that name because that is where the Sedins played before the NHL.

There are different ways to look at his decision. Dahlen is showing incredible loyalty to his team and is motivated to have them return to the SHL. It is a valuable character trait that can’t be taught to hockey players. As we have seen with the Sedins, that level of loyalty is rare in the modern NHL.

You could gripe about Dahlen’s individual development, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing for him to stay in the Allsvenskan. Patrik Bexell has a podcast where he speaks with European players that have played in these leagues and in the NHL.

There are obviously different schools, AHL vs SHL and its up to Dahlen and Vancouver to sort that out, what's best for them. But most NA players here say SHL is higher quality than AHL, just as an example.
— Patrik Bexell (@Zeb_Habs) January 19, 2018

Based on what I have heard from his podcasts and seen from the players in that league, I can agree with this statement. The competition is slightly better than the AHL. Some of the worst AHL teams rely too much on ECHL players. These same teams are not punished for finishing in last. In my opinion, the relegation system in Europe forces teams to get better.

Allsvenskan is likely on a level just below the AHL. Dahlen is playing with young guys that will be in this year’s draft. He is leading the league in scoring and is motivated to play his best hockey. I don’t mind the decision and best of all, Dahlen will probably play for Utica next year. Barring an incredible training camp, I think he will stay in North America next season.

Next: Canucks must decide: bye, buy or bi

For the time being, sit back and relax. The Canucks’ season is already in the trash, so the draft is the best thing to get excited for. I don’t expect Rasmus Dahlin, given the team’s luck in the lottery. However, I am excited for the chance to add more talented players to the pipeline.

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