Canucks: European prospects begin preseason action

Many of the Vancouver Canucks’ prospects and others within the team’s system face a great deal of uncertainty.

For many Vancouver Canucks prospects the continuous threat of COVID-19 has caused the American Hockey League to delay the start of their season. The tentative start date is December 4th, 2020. Thus, creating an extremely long layoff and interruption in the development of the players concerned.

The AHL is not the only league facing such a dilemma, as the NCAA and the various junior leagues are also dealing with similar adversity. Many of the European leagues are planning to go ahead as scheduled. However, spikes in the number of active corona-virus cases may disrupt those plans as well. Let’s look at some of the developments surrounding prospects and other players within the organization playing in Europe.

Russia

The SKA St. Petersburg team participated in a tournament in Sochi but unfortunately had to leave some players at home. Thankfully, Vasili Podkolzin was not one of those afflicted. Podkolzin finished last season on a positive note and should have a more significant role this season. He led Team Blue to a 4-2 victory over Team White in an intrasquad game to close out this year’s camp, scoring twice.

In their tournament opener on Tuesday, the St. Petersburg team blanked Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 6-0. Although Podkolzin didn’t contribute to the scoring, he was on the ice for all three third period goals and was very noticeable throughout the contest. His relentless puck pursuit, responsible defensive positioning, and exceptional board play are the strengths of his game, and all were evident in the match. On several occasions, he carried the puck with confidence through the neutral zone before dishing the puck off to a teammate. Former Canucks forward Linden Vey added a goal and an assist in his first game with his new club.

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In the rematch on Thursday after a sloppy first period, which saw SKA trailing 2-1, they then cruised to a 6-2 victory. Podkolzin had one powerplay assist, which came as the result of a no-look between the legs pass at the edge of the crease. Podkolzin also saw duty on the penalty-kill in the third period.

A third game between the two clubs took place on Friday with Lokomotiv bouncing back for a 6-2 win. Podkolzin failed to register a point in the contest.

The teams met again for a fourth game in the past five days and a late goal by Lokomotiv decided the game as they came away with a 3-2 victory. Podkolzin once again was counted on heavily in a penalty-killing role.

After failing to reach an agreement with the Canucks, Nikita Tryamkin returned to the Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist. They are currently partaking in preseason matches. Tryamkin played in one game to date and wore an “A” on his sweater in that affair.

The Avangard Omsk and Canucks’ prospect Artyom Manukyan recently withdrew from the Sochi event due to a COVID-19 outbreak, with several players testing positive. Reid Boucher recently signed with Avangard but had not yet reported to the club when the flare-up occurred.

Sweden

Although he signed a contract with the Canucks, Nils Hoglander has been loaned back to Rogle of the Swedish Hockey League for the start of their season. He will play there until training camp for the Canucks begins, whenever that might take place. Rogle plays its season opener on September 19th versus Linkoping, which is Arvid Costmar’s team.

Costmar received an invite to the Sweden U20 training camp, which will take place from August 24-29.

Finland

Toni Utunen is back once again with Tappara of the Finnish Liiga and scored a pre-season goal in a 2-1 split-squad victory versus Assat.

Czech Republic

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In the Czech Republic, the Generali Ceska Cup is underway where Karel Plasek Jr. and his Kometa Brno club lost their opening game 2-0 to Pardubice. In their second match, they lost by an identical 2-0 score at the hands of Mountfield HK.

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