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

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.

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.