The Vancouver Canucks prospects got their first taste of 2026 Prospect Showcase action on Monday night, and Seattle made sure it was a rough opener. The Kraken prospects skated away with a 7-3 win, even as Vilmer Alriksson, Adam Novotný, and Sawyer Mynio each found the back of the net for Vancouver.
Aleksei Medvedev faced 33 shots and turned aside 26 of them, but Seattle kept coming in waves, especially once the game opened up in the second period.
Seattle struck first after Vancouver dumped the puck into the offensive zone on what was supposed to be the start of a break. The Kraken recovered the puck along the boards, and Caden Price sent a long feed ahead to Justin Janicke, who went in alone and lifted a back-hander past Medvedev.
Vancouver got a look at its first power play late in the opening period after Braeden Cootes and Ilya Safonov combined on a rush that ended with Safonov taking a slash. The Canucks carried 1:53 of power-play time into the second and sent out a unit featuring Cootes, Safonov, Novotný, Brooks Rogowski, and Kirill Kudryavtsev. They generated chances, but the equalizer didn’t come right away.
Instead, Riley Patterson helped set up Vancouver’s first goal, and Alriksson buried it from between the hashmarks to make it 1-1.
Seattle answered quickly. Price, who had assisted on the opening goal, pushed into the Vancouver zone and fired the puck in from the faceoff dot to put the Kraken back in front. From there, the second period turned into a track meet.
A chaotic sequence in front of Medvedev made it 3-1 Seattle, but Novotný pulled Vancouver back within one with his first goal as a Canuck.
“I came from the bench and then I saw my teammate with the puck, so I was just screaming for the puck,” the forward said post-game. “I was wide open, and then I said, ‘As soon as I get the puck, I’m gonna shoot,' and [it] worked out.”
The Kraken restored a two-goal cushion less than two minutes later when David Goyette worked the puck from behind the Vancouver net to Andrei Loshko, who finished it off. Vancouver answered again before the period was done, with Mynio scoring after a pass from Ty Mueller. Seattle still carried a 4-3 lead out of the second, despite Vancouver holding a 24-21 edge in shots through two.
The physical side showed up too. The game included two fights in the first period, with Abbotsford Canucks forward Austin Brimmer dropping the gloves with Nathan Villeneuve, followed by Joe Arntsen and Kraken defenceman Finn Kearns.
Seattle pulled away in the third. Loshko scored again, Goyette added another, and Janicke finished the scoring for the Kraken. Goyette’s goal came on the power play after the puck bounced off Canucks defenceman Arseni Anisimov and landed on his stick.
Afterward, Abbotsford head coach Ryan Papaioannou pointed to the messiness of the game while still seeing a few positives.
“Systematically pretty sloppy, which is expected. I think competitively, we had to be happy with the group,” he said. “[The game] got away from them in the third a little bit, but I think individually when we look at some of the performances, I thought there were some bright spots, and overall what it does for us is gives us some things to watch tomorrow morning and hopefully prepare these guys for tomorrow.”
There were still some encouraging signs for Vancouver despite the lopsided result. Novotný looked more comfortable as the game wore on after a slow start, while Kudryavtsev and Mueller - both wearing an “A” for Vancouver - made their mark offensively. Kudryavtsev handled the top power-play unit from the blue line, and Mueller picked up two assists on Vancouver goals.
The prospects will get another crack at Seattle on Tuesday afternoon when the two sides meet again at Rogers Forum. Puck drop is set for 1:00 pm PT.
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