Highlights and Quotes from This Weekend’s Prospect Showcase

The Vancouver Canucks’ prospects wrapped up this weekend’s showcase in Washington State, and we got a taste of hockey being back with a pair of games that gave us Canucks goals, hits, and saves.

We’ve got some highlights and quotes from the weekend to get to, so let’s not waste any more time and dive in.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Vilmer Alriksson combined for the opening goal of the weekend.

“Lekki got it in the neutral zone and passed me a great backhand, and I just tried to get by the D and get it to the net,” said Alriksson when asked to describe the goal.

Gabe Chiarot, the 2025 sixth-round pick, scored the second Canucks’ goal of the weekend.

Chiarot caught up with our Olivia McDonald over the weekend to discuss what it was like to be with the organization for the prospect showcase.

Nick Poisson tipped in an Elias Pettersson shot for the third goal of the weekend.

Aleksei Medvedev, the 2025 second-round pick, was in net for game one and held strong between the pipes in his debut appearance in a Canucks jersey.

Head Coach Manny Malhotra spoke after game one about what he saw from his group. He mentioned that there was a bit of rust in the opening period of the weekend, but liked how his group came out with good pace after the opening 20 minutes.

Braeden Cootes left Saturday’s game for precautionary reasons and did not return over the weekend. The 2025 first-round pick is expected to participate in Canucks’ training camp on Wednesday.

He was impressed by Medvedev’s play.

“He was outstanding, he kept us in the game in the first two periods, making a few ten-bell-saves, highlighting his athleticism and his compete in the net,” said Malhotra. “He did a great job of making the saves we expect him to make and then coming up with some extra ones for us that gave us a lot of life.”

Lekkerimäki opened the scoring in Sunday’s game, firing a quick shot into the top corner. Tom Willander played the puck down the boards, and Riley Patterson found Lekkerimäki in front of the net, where he made no mistake.

Aku Koskenvuo was in net on Sunday and continued the strong play in the Canucks’ crease that Medvedev started during Saturday’s game.

An invitee, and Vancouver Giants forward Aaron Obobaifo scored the second goal of the game.

Patterson ripped home the Canucks’ third goal of the game, and it was his second point of the afternoon.

Oh, and Elias Pettersson was doing D-Petey things.

Malhotra wrapped up the weekend by speaking to the media, and with that, the prospect showcase came to an end, and we are now looking ahead to Canucks’ training camp in Penticton.