The Canucks’ prospects finished their weekend on a high note, rolling past the Kraken 5-2 in the second and final game of the Prospect Showcase, and the line of Adam Novotny, Braeden Cootes and Brooks Rogowski did most of the damage.
Novotny set the tone early. The game opened at a frantic pace, with very few whistles over the first eight minutes, and the Kraken generated most of the dangerous looks.
Ty Young had to stand tall a few times, but Vancouver grabbed the first goal anyway. Arseni Anisimov started the sequence with a lead pass to Rogowski, who pulled Seattle’s backcheckers toward him along the boards before slipping the puck to a charging Novotny.
Novotny then made a small adjustment to freeze the defender in front of him, opened space, and snapped a shot against the grain that Nikke Kokko couldn’t track.
The Kraken tied it early in the second on a long shot from Tyson Jugnauth, but that was about as good as it got for Seattle for a stretch. Vancouver started piling up quality chances and quickly turned the game in its favor. Bennett Schimek scored first after the Canucks forced a turnover at Seattle’s blue line, then Schimek found room along the right wall, cut to the net and lifted the puck short side on Maks Corovic.
A minute later, the fourth line added to the lead. With traffic in front, Corovic was forced to scramble, and Gabe Chiarot pounced on the rebound to tuck it under the goalie’s pad.
Then came another strike from the top line. Rogowski spotted Braeden Cootes waiting on the far side on an odd-man rush and delivered the pass, and Cootes buried it past a Kraken goalie who was sitting too deep in his crease.
Seattle got one back after the halfway point of the period when Jagger Firkus beat Aku Koskenvuo, who had replaced Ty Young, with a shot from the top of the circles. But Vancouver answered before the period ended, and once again Novotny was in the middle of it. He got behind the Kraken defenders, won a board battle, and created the chance that led to Alonso Gosselin’s wobbly goal from distance.
By then, the Canucks were clearly finding their rhythm. The top line looked especially dangerous, and the difference from Saturday was obvious: Vancouver wasn’t spending long stretches pinned in its own zone. The group looked more comfortable, more connected, and better able to handle the Kraken’s top players.
The third period never really turned into a full push from either side. The Canucks controlled much of the play, while the Kraken made a late effort to trim the deficit. Oscar Fisker Molgaard came close to making it a two-goal game, but Koskenvuo slid across for a big stop to shut the door.
When the final seconds ran out and “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie played over the loudspeakers, the Canucks had their split of the weekend: a 5-2 win over Seattle, and a strong finish heading into training camp.
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The Canucks prospects opened the 2026 Prospect Showcase with a 7-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken prospects, but the result only told part of the story. Vilmer Alriksson, Adam Novotn and Sawyer Mynio each scored for Vancouver, while Aleksei Medvedev stopped 26 shots and gave the organization at least a few signs to file away as the weekend gets going.
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 🡒]