After a rough opening night, the Vancouver Canucks prospects answered back Sunday afternoon with a much cleaner showing, and the biggest reason was impossible to miss.
Ryan Papaioannou tweaked his lines for Game 2, and the move paid off immediately. The combination of Adam Novotný, Braeden Cootes and Brooks Rogowski took over the spotlight in a 5-2 win over the Seattle Kraken’s prospects, with the three forwards combining for three goals.
Papaioannou said the decision to put them together was something people around the rink wanted to see. When asked about the move, he said, “I mean, I think probably something that we all wanted to see, and everybody in the stands included. So give those guys a look together, and whether they had a successful game or not, I think it was fun just to watch.”
It was more than fun. It was the kind of stretch that can define a prospect showcase. Novotný opened the scoring in the first period, and the line kept coming after that, with Cootes and Rogowski both leaving their mark as the Canucks pulled away.
The first goal gave a preview of what this trio could do. Novotný took a Rogowski pass just inside the blue line, hesitated, changed the angle, and beat Nikke Kokko to the far side.
The second period is where the group really started to hum. After Bennett Schimek and Gabe Chiarot scored two quick goals, Novotný, Rogowski and Cootes got to work again. Novotný slipped a backhand pass through a Kraken defender to Rogowski, who then sent a cross-ice feed to Cootes for a one-time tap-in that pushed Vancouver’s lead to three.
Novotný wasn’t done there. Later in the period, he did a lot of the heavy lifting along the wall, winning a puck battle in the corner, shrugging off extra pressure and still finding a way to get the puck out to the point. Alonso Gosselin then ripped a shot past the Kraken goalie for Vancouver’s fourth goal, and Novotný picked up his third point of the night on the play.
Even in the third period, the line kept threatening. That’s what happens when two first-round picks and a player taken first overall in the second round end up on the same unit - the expectation is production, and they delivered.
Novotný finished with a goal and two assists, Rogowski added two assists, and Cootes scored once. All three were named the game’s three stars.
Their next test comes at Canucks training camp next week in Penticton, where the challenge shifts from prospects to professionals. For now, though, they left the showcase looking like the most dangerous trio in the building.
Not everyone had the same kind of spotlight, but Ilya Safonov’s second-game assignment was worth watching too. After skating with Cootes and Bennett Schimek in Game 1, he was given his own line in Game 2. The result was steady, if not flashy.
Safonov was not really driving play, and that role belonged more to Schimek in this matchup. That said, offense has never been the main selling point for Safonov anyway.
At 25, with six years of professional experience in Russia, he should have been able to do more offensively against a younger group, but that wasn’t really his night. He fits better as a defensive forward, the kind of player who handles the details and brings the size NHL teams like.
Based on what was shown this weekend, projecting him much beyond a fourth-line defensive specialist may be asking too much.
There were a few other notes worth keeping in mind. Schimek, who was mentioned as a player to watch, came through with a nifty goal in the second period.
Chiarot, playing centre for this game, won some faceoffs, looked comfortable in the middle and scored as well. Yaroslav Bryzgalov put together another strong shift, giving him something notable in back-to-back games.
And although Aku Koskenvuo only played one period, he was outstanding, turning aside multiple dangerous chances, even if that level of play was somewhat expected after he played professionally last year.
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Abbotsford Canucks head coach Ryan Papaioannou pointed to the bright spots after the game, which is the kind of read Vancouver wants from a setting like this. Prospect showcases are as much about sorting through roles and development paths as they are about the scoreboard, and an opener like this can quickly sharpen one of the quieter debates in the pipeline about which young players are ready to push for bigger looks next. [Read more 🡒]
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The challenge now is what comes next, because Novotny has already done enough to make the decision a little less straightforward than the club may have expected. He showed confidence, physicality and enough playmaking ability to draw praise from Abbotsford coach Ryan Papaioannou, and with preseason opportunities at a premium, every strong shift only tightens the competition for NHL games this season. [Read more 🡒]