Canucks top prospects of week 18: Gaudette, Palmu, Demko

Quiet times for our prospects. Some are injured, some had the week off and others underwhelmed. However, this week gave me the opportunity to highlight a couple different players this time around.

The Vancouver Canucks are certainly full of surprisings. With the Bruins coming to Rogers Arena during the team’s celebration of Larry Kwong and Chinese New Year, the home team won 6-1. Any game where Brad Marchand gets tossed around is a good one and Team Tank was willing to take the night off for a bit of joy at the Bruins’ expense.

The win made up for a rather bland week that included two consecutive losses to Florida and San Jose. On the prospect front, things were quiet and made writing this more difficult than usual. I had to really dig through the prospect pool to find something to highlight this week.

Of course, there will be a familiar face at the top of the list, but the last two spots were surprisingly difficult to fill. What led to such an unspectacular week? A few things. First, the crown jewel of the Canucks prospect pool did not play a game last week.

Elias Pettersson and the Vaxjo Lakers had some time off. Although, the team made a couple additions to help bolster their squad for the playoffs. Dennis Rasmussen recently terminated his NHL deal with the Anaheim Ducks and signed with his former SHL team in Vaxjo.

The team also traded for Andy Miele, a smaller, veteran forward who was very productive in the AHL for the last two years and was playing in Malmo this season. Pettersson is going to get a lot of support around him, so the next few games could get very interesting.

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries

Jonah Gadjovich did not play any games this week. However, there could be some good news. Greg Cowan of the Owen Sound Sun Times spoke with Attack head coach, Todd Gill. He said Gadjovich may play in Owen Sound’s game today against the Hamilton Bulldogs.

I also saw a curious tweet from Rick Dhaliwal this morning:

It appears the General Manager of the Comets (and AGM of the Canucks) is unaware of Kole Lind‘s recent injury last week. You all saw the hit in the last prospect report. Lind got rocked with a high hit, lay motionless on the ice for a period of time and had to be helped off the ice by his teammates. If not, here it is again:

Warren Henderson of the Kelowna Capital News got a chance to speak with Kelowna Rockets General Manager, Bruce Hamilton. The Rockets are evaluating Lind on “week-to-week basis”. If Lind has a concussion (which is likely, given the nature of the hit), I doubt he will be playing this weekend. But hey, it’s not like knowing which players are injured is in the job description for an Assistant General Manager, right? Here are the top three performances of the week.