In this week’s edition of the Vancouver Canucks prospects report, Kirill Kudryavtsev, Vilmer Alriksson and Hunter Brzustewicz are off to the races in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Meanwhile, in the NCAA, the college season kicked off for a number of players including Jackson Dorrington, Jack Malone, and Jacob Truscott who potted their first points of 2023-24.
Finally, our regular journey around the leagues in our news and notes where goaltender Ty Young signed his entry-level contract (ELC), Jonathan Lekkerimaki continued his goalscoring exploits, Elias Pettersson joined his third team of the season, and much more.
Kudryavtsev & Brzustewicz Explode Out of the Starting Block
After a season where they missed the playoffs, Kudryavtsev and the Soo Greyhounds came out swinging in their first two games outscoring their opponents by a count of 18-7. He got on the scoresheet early in the 11-3 thrashing of the Flint Firebirds, finishing with two assists; then scored his first goal against the Brantford Bulldogs, while also adding an assist. He was kept off the scoresheet against the London Knights and Sarnia Sting on Oct. 4 and 6 respectively, but recorded his fourth assist in a 7-3 win over the same Firebirds they destroyed in their first game. Finally, in their latest game on Oct. 9, he notched his fifth helper in a 5-2 win over the Windsor Spitfires.
The Greyhounds are now 5-1 to start the season and are well on their way to improving on their poor 20-33-15 record from 2022-23. Kudryavtsev has been a huge part of their early success with six points in six games so far.
Related: Canucks’ 3 Up, 3 Down: Lafferty, Di Giuseppe, Soucy, PK & More
As for Brzustewicz, he has also hit the ground running with two goals and seven points in five games for the Kitchener Rangers. Selected in the third round of the 2023 Draft, he is showing early signs of being a steal. After a strong development camp and World Junior Showcase, he is on pace to shatter the 57 points he put up in his draft year. He is currently on a four-game point streak, including a four-assist effort against the Firebirds on Sept. 30 in an 8-0 win.
Alriksson Pots First Two OHL Goals
After a strong Young Stars tournament that saw him score a goal, Alriksson already has his first two tallies in the pro leagues. In what turned out to be the insurance goal in a 4-2 win over the Windsor Spitfires, he finished off a broken play after a blocked shot depositing the puck into an open net over a sprawling Joseph Costanzo. The big 6-foot-6 Swede was posted up on the power play at the right faceoff dot rather than in front of the net. It will be interesting to see if the Storm use him there all season.
That question was answered pretty quickly in the next game as Alriksson was once again in that position on the power play where he scored his second career goal off a rebound. He now has two goals and three points in three OHL games and is looking more and more like a steal of a pick in the fourth round.
NCAA Seasons Kick Off For Dorrington, Malone, Truscott & Gardner
Apart from Tom Willander, every Canucks prospect (outside the American Hockey League) has now played at least one game (from ‘Canucks prospects: Everyone but Willander playing for keeps now’, The Province, 10/8/23). This past weekend, the NCAA season kicked off with Dorrington, Malone, Jacob Truscott, and Daimon Gardner all playing their first game.
The biggest moment of the weekend, however, was Dorrington notching his first career goal in the NCAA. With time and space at the point, he walked in and snapped a hard wrist shot by Stonehill College’s Dylan Meilun in what ended up as a 7-0 win for Northeastern. Coming off six assists in 35 games in his freshman year, the 6-foot-2 defender finished the game with two shots on goal and a plus-2 in the plus/minus column.
Elsewhere, Malone, a former sixth-round pick in 2019, recorded his first assist of the season on a goal by Washington Capitals prospect Ryan Leonard. He is transitioning from Cornell University to Boston College – the same school that boasts Canucks alumni in Thatcher Demko and Cory Schneider and other top prospects Will Smith (San Jose Sharks), Gabe Perreault (New York Rangers), and Cutter Gauthier (Philadelphia Flyers).
In fact, in his first game with Boston College, Malone was playing on the top line with two former top-10 picks in Gauthier (fifth-overall in 2022) and Leonard (eighth-overall in 2023). If he sticks there all season, he could be in for a career-high in points after only hitting 37 in two years with Cornell.
As for Truscott and Gardner, Truscott was held scoreless in his first game against Providence College but rebounded with an assist on Sunday along with a huge open-ice hit. Gardner, meanwhile, did not crack the stat sheet with Clarkson University after two games against the University of Notre Dame.
Other News & Notes: Lekkerimaki, Pettersson & Young
- After our first prospect report that had Lekkerimaki score three goals in four games, he added another to his total on Sept. 30 against IK Oskarshamn. His latest was a beauty from the “Alex Ovechkin” spot on the power play as he blasted home his fourth of the season. I think it’s safe to say he is back to being the blue-chip prospect with a deadly shot that everyone was raving about in his draft year in 2022.
- “D-Petey” now has three teams on his resume for the 2023-24 season as he was loaned to Västerås IK in the HockeyAllsvenskan after dressing for Orebro’s SHL and J20 teams already this season. While he is scoreless in four games in the SHL, he has seven assists in four games in the J20 Nationell and two assists in two games in the Allsvenskan. He hasn’t gotten a lot of ice time in the SHL but continues to be a top option in both the J20 and Allsvenskan leagues. In his latest game on Oct. 6, he logged 19:50 in a 5-0 loss to Mora IK.
- Ty Young signed his ELC with the Canucks at the end of September and is now 4-1 with the Prince George Cougars. His stats don’t look otherworldly at a 2.64 goals-against average (GAA) and .877 save percentage (SV%), but those are probably inflated due to his last game where he allowed five goals on 30 shots. He did make a few great saves though, including this beauty on Kenta Isogai of the Wenatchie Wild.
That’s a wrap on the latest Canucks Prospect Report. Hopefully, next week’s is as jam-packed as this one was!
