Let\u2019s dive right into the good stuff.<\/p>\n
Abbotsford Canucks<\/p>\n
The Abbotsford Canucks played four games over the week. After a gruelling 11-game losing skid, Abbotsford finally recorded their third win of the season; their first victory since October 11th, 2025!<\/p>\n
Sure, they lost the other three, mostly in lopsided, blowout fashion. But we are looking for silver linings today.<\/p>\n
The big story was Koskenvuo\u2019s play in the club\u2019s lone victory. Nikita Tolopilo is close to a return, but not quite ready, leaving the crease to Aku and Ty Young for the time being.<\/p>\n
Fresh off his first career professional win at the ECHL level, the young Finn took the ice for his first American League game. In the team\u2019s 4-3 shootout victory, Koskenvuo stopped 33 of 36 shots faced and was named the second star of the game.<\/p>\n
Though Koskenvuo\u2019s play was much better than the numbers suggest, he nevertheless allowed four goals on 23 shots in his second AHL start<\/a>. In the first period alone, he made several key stops to keep his team in a close game. Unfortunately, each goal against was directly caused by glaring defensive lapses by the five-man unit in front of him. A goalie can only bail out his team so many times, especially a team as lacking in talent\/skill\/aptitude as Abbotsford.<\/p>\n With Jiri Patera up with the main club, Koskenvuo\u2019s debut has made the goalie carousel an interesting one to watch play out as the club returns to full health.<\/p>\n We have said it often, and we will repeat it: it\u2019s very challenging to judge a player\u2019s game when the team is going through so much on-ice turmoil, especially a goaltender\u2019s. When confidence levels appear to be rock-bottom, and team chemistry is nonexistent, it\u2019s difficult to assess what percentage of a goalie\u2019s performance is strictly on the individual.<\/p>\n That said. Ty Young has struggled.<\/p>\n He allowed 12 goals on just 51 shots over the week, and yes, many of those goals stemmed from defensive lapses, but he\u2019s struggled to make routine saves. His rebound control has been a noted flaw in his game throughout the year, and that has directly contributed to goals.<\/p>\n Overall, he\u2019s sporting a dreadful 5.07 goals against average and .835 save percentage to go with his winless 0-6-0-0 record. Nothing with this team is going right, but Young has to be better if he wants to help his team out of their funk.<\/p>\n Up front, Ty Mueller has been finding his offensive legs, contributing a goal and two assists. It\u2019s not much, but it\u2019s better than the lone point that he had on his stat sheet coming into the week.<\/p>\n And when you\u2019re in a funk, these are the kind of goals you want to be scoring.<\/p>\n Four more games off the schedule, and zero points for Danila Klimovich. He\u2019s been demoted to the fourth line, though he\u2019s held his spot on the 2nd power play unit. Nothing is happening at 5-on-5, so the power play is his only real chance to hop off the schneid. After posting a career-high 24 goals in 2024-25<\/a>, he\u2019s still sitting at zero for the year.<\/p>\n Injuries have helped, but Vilmer Alriksson\u2019s hard work has cemented his place in the team\u2019s top six. He may not have contributed on the scoresheet this week, but he\u2019s been finding his groove and role on this team as a menace at the net front. He\u2019s learning to use his giant frame and is looking increasingly comfortable with his game at the pro level.<\/p>\n Heck, he\u2019s even showing off some silky smooth hands in the shootout that led to the week\u2019s win.<\/p>\n Just don\u2019t look at his plus\/minus.<\/p>\n The highlight of the week was truly the return of Jonathan Lekkerim\u00e4ki<\/a>, who rode in on a white horse to record a team-high six shots on goal in the club\u2019s dismal 7-0 loss to the San Diego Gulls. Lekkerim\u00e4ki would notch another three shots on goal, while collecting two points in the team\u2019s 5-2 loss to the Firebirds. Though he didn\u2019t produce in his AHL return, his presence was noted. Lekkerim\u00e4ki brought a certifiable POP, sticking out like a sore thumb whenever he was on the ice.<\/p>\n He picked up his first goal of the season with his patented quick-release, courtesy of a nice threaded pass from Ben Berard.<\/p>\n While he stood out as a clear tier above the field, we do have to wonder if the team will keep him down a little longer than expected for this conditioning stint. He appeared gassed on many shifts and was noticeably late on several backchecks. Given the state of the organization<\/a>, we wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see Vancouver recall Lekkerimaki before Abbotsford\u2019s next game.<\/p>\n It was a tough, tough weekend for all in the plus\/minus department, especially for those who play heavy minutes. Alriksson and Kudryavtsev were both minus-7 on the week, which was, shockingly, not the worst among those on Abbotsford\u2019s roster sheet.<\/p>\n At this point, you can fairly guess that those who are sporting terrible plus\/minus numbers are those who are playing the most for Manny Malhotra. It\u2019s bad. Real bad.<\/p>\n Injuries: Chase Stillman remains out in a walking boot.<\/p>\n CHL What can we say about Aleksei Medvedev that we haven\u2019t already? This kid is proving to be the real deal, and we are putting a stake in the ground early that he will play in the NHL.<\/p>\n With prospects taken in the second round or later, it\u2019s always a gamble to put a \u201ccertified NHL player\u201d tab on a prospect just months into his draft-plus-one season. However, Medvedev is just too good. Does playing for the London Knights help his stats? Of course. But the Knights aren\u2019t scoring this year, currently sitting seventh in the Eastern Conference by total goals scored.<\/p>\n He allowed just five goals on 66 shots in a win\/loss split last week. Furthermore, he was named a star in each of those games. Whether a win or loss, he\u2019s now earned a star nomination in each of his last three games and four of his previous five starts.<\/p>\n Aleksei Medvedev kicks off tonight’s game with a pair of incredible shorthanded saves.<\/p>\n This kid is on another level. Medvedev now sports a strong 8-3-1 record with a 2.08 goals against and a .926 save percentage.<\/p>\n Gabriel Chiarot added another three points over the week and is now on pace for 64 points, doubling his totals from 2024-25.<\/p>\n Both goals were the result of being in the right place at the right time. With 16 points (nine goals, seven assists), he now co-leads the Brampton Steelheads while leading the forward group in plus-minus with a plus-5.<\/p>\n We say it often, but we enjoy how Chiarot plays the game. Does he carry an overly high NHL ceiling? Probably not. But if you like workhorse spark plugs who create plays by fighting for plays, then he\u2019s your guy. He doesn\u2019t wait for plays to come to him; instead, he gets into the grind and takes matters into his own hands. He\u2019s still a very long-term project, but the way he plays the game screams third-line energy role. Whether that\u2019s in the NHL or AHL remains to be seen.<\/p>\n Playing somewhat of an opposite game to Chiarot is Kieren Dervin, who\u2019s quietly having a solid season in the OHL, showing off his slick hands early and often.<\/p>\n Kieren Dervin shows off some quick hands, capitalizing on a defensive turnover.<\/p>\n That’s his eighth goal of the season and second shorthanded. #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n Seven of his 11 assists have come on the power play, but the majority of his goals (two shorthanded, one power play) have come in beautiful fashion. He\u2019s a speedy and creative winger who has a knack for scoring goals in tight. We aren\u2019t convinced about his overall game just yet, but he\u2019s killing penalties and playing heavy minutes.<\/p>\n He continues to lead the charge in Kingston, firing at a point-per-game pace, with 19 points on the year.<\/p>\n It was a tough weekend for the Niagara Ice Dogs, who dropped both of their games over the weekend to extend their losing streak to five games.<\/p>\n Riley Patterson shared the crown with a team-worst minus-4 rating. Though he did add a single goal at the tail end of a 6-2 blowout. His minus-4 rating dropped his impressive season-plus-minus to a plus\u20135. His tough weekend included a rough outing in the face-off dot, winning just seven of 35 attempts, dropping his face-off win percentage to 46.3%.<\/p>\n On the positive side, he sits second on the IceDogs with 19 points\u2014ten goals, nine assists\u201416 of which came at even-strength.<\/p>\n Just one assist for the Seattle Thunderbirds\u2019 captain, Braeden Cootes, through his two games this week. With seven shots on goal, it was another week of \u201cprobably should have had more,\u201d as the chances continued to pile up, but not go his way.<\/p>\n He\u2019s firing at a 1.50 point-per-game clip right now, and is still on pace for 90 points, which isn\u2019t too shabby for a player who missed the team\u2019s first few weeks of play.<\/p>\n In last week\u2019s report, we noted how Parker Alcos had missed some games after an unconfirmed hand injury. Though he has since returned\u00a0to the Oil Kings in a sheltered capacity after missing three games.<\/p>\n NCAA Wilson Bj\u00f6rck added his first goal since returning from injury, taking the beautiful cross-ice pass for the one-timer. He added five shots through two games and saw his second-highest ice-time total with 18:24 on Friday. Boy, did he have his chances.<\/p>\n Over in Michigan State, Anthony Romani took the weekend off from scoring and instead posted a pretty assist. With eyes on the back of his head, he threaded a perfect pass to Ryker Lee for his third assist of the season.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/davehall1289\/status\/1989906369231884430<\/p>\n We haven\u2019t touched on the remaining NCAA cast in a few weeks. For the most part, it\u2019s been due to a lack of production and utilization. As you can see from the above, both Daimon Gardner and Matthew Perkins have failed to generate much of anything, and have both dropped down the depth chart of their respective teams\u2019 lineups.<\/p>\n We do like what Matthew Lansing brings to the table; he\u2019s just not getting a ton of ice time over in Quinnipiac. It\u2019s never surprising when a freshman sees bottom-six minutes. All expected from a recent seventh-rounder.<\/p>\n Then we have Aiden Celebrini, who\u2019s actually on pace to eclipse his career-high in points (8). It\u2019s worth noting that the majority of his assists have come either as secondary or easy dishes. But we aren\u2019t too focused or concerned about his point totals. He\u2019s been bouncing up and down the BU lineup this season. He\u2019s oscillated between second-pair deployment, hitting 19 minutes per night, and third-pair minutes, where his ice time has been severely limited.<\/p>\n He leads the Terriers in blocked shots (23) and has been a much more impactful player than we have seen in the past. After three years in the NCAA, however, we\u2019re not convinced he will be an NHL player. We won\u2019t be shocked to see the Canucks keep him within their system, even if it\u2019s on an AHL contract\u2014a la Jackson Kunz\u2014there just might be little-to-no NHL upside.<\/p>\n He\u2019s one of those kids who we are rooting for to put us in our place, though.<\/p>\n Rest of the world That will do it for this week\u2019s Blackfish Report. Please keep the comments going for any player you are curious about seeing more of. We are gearing up for a monthly \u201cplayer highlight\u201d in the next few instalments, so if there is a player you\u2019d like a bit more breakdown of, please voice your opinion!<\/p>\n Until next week, folks.<\/p>\n PRESENTED BY VIVID SEATS<\/p>\n
\n#Canucks<\/a> | @LondonKnights<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>