It was an eventful week for Vancouver Canucks fans. With the dust a little settled, here is the latest from the world of Canucks prospects.
I just want to start this off by saying sorry for not getting this out on Monday. Life gets in the way sometimes and for the most part I want to keep regular prospect updates going. So, this week will be different. Instead of the usual top three, I will cover the top five Vancouver Canucks prospects of the week.
Additionally, the Mike Matheson goonery on Elias Pettersson also took the attention of Vancouver Canucks fans this weekend. Thankfully, George Parros and the NHL Department of Player Safety suspended Matheson for two games on Monday. Sure it could have been more, but at least the league took this one seriously.
They acknowledged that what Matheson did was not a hockey play and all Vancouver fans can take a win for that when we heard incompetent after incompetent talking head outside of bubble say the play was clean. I would say a little more to those people, but I am not permitted to use profanities here.
Canucks fans may have lost the excitement out of games without Pettersson, but maybe we can bring back a little positivity (yeah, it sounds strange coming from me as I type this) through our prospects. It’s been nine days since I caught you up with the pool, so here we go.
Let’s start with Quinn Hughes. I know Pettersson’s rookie season has taken much of Canucks’ fans collective attention and some of you may feel Hughes is off to a relatively slow start. All I will say is don’t worry. The points will come along. He is looking dangerous and his skating and control of the puck is something the Canucks blue line has been starved of for years.
On the injury front, Thatcher Demko is still in the concussion protocol, so we wish him and Pettersson a speedy recovery. Looking at the Utica Comets, they had a pair of huge wins against Sam Gagner and the Toronto Marlies, backstopped by Ivan Kulbakov. Although he is technically not a Canucks prospect and was supposed to start in the ECHL, this is a big opportunity. No more chit chat. Onward to our number five prospect of the week, Zack MacEwen.