The SHL, KHL and Liiga regular seasons are underway, the Allsvenskan and NCAA start in the next 10 days and we just returned from the Penticton Young Stars Tournament. Now that we have several games to discuss, this Blackfish Prospects Report series is going to be even more fun to write every Tuesday. There’s a lot of video to get into as we recap the week for Canucks prospects, so without further ado, let’s dive into what we saw this week. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below This past weekend saw the return of the Young Stars Tournament to the beautiful city of Penticton. The Canucks have had solid performances from some of their North American prospects who will be playing in the CHL or AHL this coming season. We really liked Arshdeep Bains’ play in this tournament. He turned 21 in January and is set to debut with the Abbotsford Canucks this fall after leading the WHL in scoring last season. Over the weekend, Bains was the most consistent player for the Canucks. He clearly has great hands and stands out with his ability to handle pucks at full speed. He made all the simple plays and worked hard to extend possessions in the offensive zone. Baynes opened the weekend scoring for the Canucks when he drove to the net and buried a goal against the AHL’s top goaltender, Dustin Wolfe. Arshdeep Bains with his first goal in a #Canucks uniform. Must be a really special feeling for Surrey locals pic.twitter.com/hDNuvWZaW0 — Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) September 17, 2022 Advertisement – Continue Reading Below The biggest takeaway from Bains’ game is how consistent he is. We saw it in development camp, but it was on full display on the biggest stage during this tournament. He just always seems to move the ball in the right direction and found chemistry with whoever he played with. There was also a bite to his game as he chased down defenders and also threw several big hits in the tournament. If you’re willing to take a hit to get the job done, Arshdeep Bains will at least make it a big success. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/QfZgmPKiX6 — Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) September 19, 2022 Another player we liked was Linus Karlsson, who scored three goals in the three-match tournament. There is a lot more power in Karlsson’s game than we first thought. He is willing to drop his shoulder and lean on defenders as he drives to the net, but also has the hands to be able to squeeze around the opposition as he crashes the crease. We saw instant chemistry between Karlsson and Swede Nils Åman. Karlsson mentioned that the two have played together for Sweden in the past and enjoyed skating with his compatriot. Here are two of Karlsson’s goals from the tournament, the third was an empty netter. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below We’ll see what Karlsson can do in main camp, but expect to see him used as one of the offensive drivers in Abbotsford to open the season. It was good for Abbotsford Canucks head coach Jeremy Colliton to see what players like Bains and Karlsson look like in game-action and he liked what he saw from the two wings. Another guy Colliton liked was goalkeeper Arturs Silovs. The 21-year-old netminder had a 24-save shutout Friday night, and Colliton noticed the strong play. “I heard a lot of good things about him and he certainly did that this week,” Colliton said when asked about Silovs’ play at the Young Stars. “He’s going to camp and [will] he’s got a chance to show what he’s got there at a bit higher level and he’s got to keep improving.” The last player from the Young Stars is Danila Klimovich. There were a number of takeaways from Klimovic’s three games. You saw some of the good, some of the bad and some of the ugly. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below Klimovic was outstanding on Sunday in their second game of the tournament. He had a great pass through the slot to Tristen Nielsen for a wide open net. Paso Klimovic 👌Finishing Nielsen 🤩@ToyotaPacific | #Canucks pic.twitter.com/sA9IRikYCh — Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) September 18, 2022 There was an improvement with his defensive game as the tournament went on and Colliton will need to spend a lot of time coaching and developing Klimovich this season. Coming in as an 18-year-old last season, it took a long time to make sure Klimovich could get comfortable in the AHL. This year, more time needs to be spent coaching the bad parts of Klimovic’s game. He took a penalty early in the second period of the last game and wildly waved his stick right in front of a referee. These little outbursts of emotion need to be controlled. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below We saw flashes of excellence and overall, it was a good step in the right direction for Klimovich. He has such raw talent and it will be up to the Abbotsford development staff to get the best out of the extremely talented Belarusian. Let’s kick things off with Elias Pettersson, or as Quads calls him, RePetey. Pettersson played in two games last week – one in the SHL and one in the J20 league. Pettersson’s performance in the SHL was not great as he only had five shifts for 3:10 of total ice time. He was quiet in the top Swedish league, but shone when he dropped down to junior. D-Petey had 19:51 of ice time in his J20 debut and had three key assists in a 5-4 win. Here are his top three assists. And if he did the second one on purpose, it’s an incredible primary assist. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below Filip Johansson has had a good start to the SHL season. The 22-year-old right-shot defenseman signed this offseason to a two-year contract with the Canucks, but will play this season in the SHL. He had one assist and five shots on net in a game that saw him spend a total of 21:16 on the ice. His craziest stat of the game was the 7:24 he spent on the power play. Check out Johansson’s assist. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below Now we get on the ice to the Swedish forwards. We start in the J20 league, where Lucas Forsell had three assists in two games last week. See the three assists. Forsell (#56) has the secondary assist on all three goals. To get more of a feel for how Forsell is playing in the J20 league, here are his eight shots from last week’s two games. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below We also have some shots on net from Jonathan Lekkerimäki to show. He played in a preseason game with the Allsvenskan team this week. Lekkerimäki’s regular season starts on September 23. Here are his two shots on net in a game where he played 14:11. After a healthy scratch in the Pelicans’ regular season opener, right-shooting defenseman Viktor Persson found himself in his Liiga team’s first pairing later in the week. Persson played 18:00 on his Liiga debut and registered one assist in the game. See the assist. Persson has looked good when playing a big role with his new team and we will be watching his progress as well as his cold spell this season. That concludes this week’s Blackfish Report. We’ll be back next week to let you know how Lekkerimäki did in his first regular season, how Forsell continues to play in the J20/SHL, if D-Petey continues to put up points, and more!
