Vancouver Canucks top prospects of week 16: Pettersson, Lind, Gadjovich

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Coming at you with another round of updates for your Canucks prospects this week.

The Vancouver Canucks showed some life at the end of their game against the Lightning. At times, Brock Boeser is on an island by himself. He played on three different lines last night, taking multiple double shifts. The Canucks only scored twice thanks to him and for much of that game it felt like they would never score again.

Hope is all the currency the Canucks have left with the fans. Down on the farm, we have a group of exciting young players. However, few of them came from any of the last four drafts. The Canucks may think the world of Guillaume Brisebois, but with eight points in 44 games, I have my doubts.

Thatcher Demko represents our goaltending of the future and may be the best piece from that 2014 Canucks draft. Rick Dhaliwal revealed a minor injury is ailing the young netminder, but there is nothing to fear.

Our resident Utica expert, Tyler Shipley, has no problem with reminding you that Reid Boucher did not get a fair shot with the Canucks. Boucher still leads the Comets with 41 points. He is seventh in the AHL in points and second in goals. Philip Holm deserves a chance in the NHL. He may not be the most defensively responsible player, but when a team is relying this much on Michael Del Zotto, could it really get any worse?

Holm has the second most goals among AHL defencemen with 11. His 27 points make him the sixth most productive defencemen in that league. I can’t believe how many times this must be reiterated, but the Canucks can’t produce offence from the blue line. Call up Holm!

Olli Juolevi

As many of you have already seen on Twitter, Olli Juolevi was scratched for two games last week.

Juolevi a healthy scratch again today, 2nd straight game. Could be back in the lineup Thursday. #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) January 30, 2018

Rick Dahliwal was correct in Juolevi’s predicted return. The Finnish blueliner played in two games this week, failing to pick up any points in either contest. This is not a time to panic. If you are concerned, take a couple breaths and relax.

I am one of the harshest critics of this pick. He was not the right pick at the time of the 2016 draft and I still stand by that. Despite how I feel about the pick, how I feel about Juolevi as a player is different. Getting a couple healthy scratches is perfectly fine.

He is playing in a professional league and young players are occasionally scratched for a variety of reasons. Canucks fans should be used to that since Travis Green and nearly every NHL coach employ this tactic.

This doesn’t make him a bad prospect. It’s not a sign of his development trending downward. Of the many things to worry about in the Canucks organization, he is not one of them. Juolevi’s offensive production has slipped since his return from the World Junior’s. There is little harm from a couple healthy scratches meant to give him rest and a reset.

Adam Gaudette

Adam Gaudette couldn’t be found on the scoresheet this week, but his schedule for the rest of this month is interesting. On Monday, the annual Beanpot Tournament will begin. This short tournament features Northeastern, Harvard, Boston University, and Boston College.

Does the tournament affect the playoffs? No. This is for bragging rights, but it is incredibly important to the four fanbases involved. Northeastern hasn’t won since 1988. I’m expecting Adam Gaudette and Dylan Sikura to treat this like an early preview for the playoffs.

Lastly, Northeastern only has five games left on the Hockey East schedule. From there, the NCAA playoffs will start and Canucks fans will watch closely to see how far Northeastern goes. We could see Gaudette towards the end of March. However, if Northeastern makes the Frozen Four, it’s not likely we see him in a Canucks jersey this season.

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

It was a close race between Kole Lind and Jonah Gadjovich for the number two slot this week. Kelowna played last night and I was keeping an eye on Lind while the Canucks were on Hockey Night in Canada.

Simply put, the game was ugly. No, not the Canucks game. The Everett Silvertips took Kelowna to the cleaners with an 8-2 thrashing. Lind was held pointless and snapped his 20-game point streak.

He finished the week with three points in the trio of games. As of writing this, his 72 points are tied for the ninth best total in the Dub. Lind only scored once this week, but it was a beauty:

That right-shot. A perfect one-timer. He’s wearing number 16 and in the “spot”. You could have sworn it was Brock Boeser taking that shot when he was in North Dakota. Well, not quite. Boeser’s shot is unreal, but this is a pretty good impression.

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Lind is more of a playmaker as his 45 assists are in the top 10 of the WHL. The one benefit of an October birthday is the fact that Lind can play in the AHL a lot sooner.

Due to an agreement between the CHL and NHL, players have to turn 20 years old before moving on to the American Hockey League. This is not always the best option for development if a prospect is not ready for the NHL, but too good for major junior.

I think Lind has a good chance of playing for the Comets next season. Based on this incredible post-draft season, there aren’t too many reasons for him to stay in Kelowna. He’s on the right track and hopefully, he can carve out an NHL career some day.

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

January has had it’s fair share of ups and downs for Jonah Gadjovich. He won a gold medal with Team Canada at the start of the month. Unfortunately, he didn’t play much of that championship game because he came down with an illness.

That illness kept him out of the Owen Sound lineup for most of the month. Gadjovich made his return on January 26th and looks to build on what’s left of his season and into the OHL playoffs. Since our last update, the Attack had three games, winning all of them.

Gadjovich had a goal, three assists and 13 shots this week. He is still a shot machine, with 144 in 27 games. The man-child averages a whopping 5.3 shots per game and is still in the top 50 in shots on goal in the OHL. Injuries and the World Juniors have cost Gadjovich 20 games this season, but it still did not stop him from being a shot machine.

Here’s a GIF of the big guy using his shot (thank you Ryan Biech):

Thanks to his late birthday, Gadjovich will be old enough to play in Utica next season. I think he’s physically ready, but the determining factor will be his skating. If both he and Kole Lind can make the Comets next year, they will be the latest Jim Benning draft picks to play in the AHL. I’m optimistic that the pair of them should fair better than Jake Virtanen.

No. 1 – C/RW Elias Pettersson (Vaxjo Lakers, SHL)

The man, the myth, the legend. Elias Pettersson had a good week. Let’s be honest, he had a terrific week. He is the heart and soul of the Lakers’ power play and he knows it. During three games last week, Pettersson had two goals and three assists.

His best game was yesterday, where his three points led Vaxjo over Byrnas. The Lakers have dominant grasp on first place in the SHL with 95 points. The next closest team has 78.

That dominant game vaulted Pettersson to third in SHL scoring with 45 points. Just astounding that this was all done in only 35 games. He is tied with Daniel Sedin for the fourth best U20 SHL season of all time.

Pettersson is two points away from tying Henrik Sedin (who played 50 games to get that total) and three points from Peter Forsberg. That second place spot only required 39 games, so Pettersson could best Forsberg if he keeps up his ridiculous pace.

Next: The future is friendly for Sven Baertschi

There are nine games left on the SHL schedule, and at his current points-per-game pace of 1.29, Pettersson could collect up to 11 points in that span. 56 points is enough to have the greatest U20 season of all time in the SHL. It’s a tall order, but if anyone can do it, it’s got to be Pettersson.

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