The preliminary round wraps up Monday at the World Junior Championship, and all three of the Vancouver Canucks' prospects will be headed for quarterfinal games.
Jacob Truscott's Team USA wrapped up its round-robin play with a 3-2 win over Sweden on Sunday night — a game that was tilted heavily in the Americans' favor until the Swedes managed a couple of late goals to make things interesting.
Truscott remains partnered up with Wyatt Kaiser, and played 13:03 on Sunday. He still doesn't have a point, but his five-man unit has been effective. He and Kaiser have been primarily matched up with Logan Cooley, Matthew Coronato and Matthew Knies at 5-on-5. Coronato was named the Americans' best player on Sunday, with two goals, and is now up to six points in the tournament. Cooley has five.
Teams will cross over for Wednesday's quarterfinals, but a surprise win by Latvia over the Czechs on Sunday has ruffled the bottom part of the Group A standings. The win vaulted Latvia into third place, bumped the Czechs to fourth, and pushed Slovakia down to fifth place — with no concern about relegation this time around, but out of the playoff picture without top draft picks Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec on their roster.
That sets up a USA/Czech quarterfinal matchup on Wednesday, with the other Group B seeds to be determined on Monday. Sweden and Germany each have six points and will go head-to-head in the late game at 7 p.m. PT, while Switzerland and Austria are both 0-3 and will start the day at 11 a.m. PT. The winner will claim fourth place and advance to the quarterfinals, while the loser goes home.
The Swedes did not seem to match up well against the Americans, and have had a rather uninspiring tournament so far. Jonathan Lekkerimaki remains on the third forward group and did not stand out on Sunday, logging 11:32 of ice time with one shot on goal. He has one assist so far.
If Sweden can beat Germany on Monday, they'll finish second in their group and face Latvia in the quarterfinal. If they lose, they'll finish third and get the loser of Monday's middle game, between Canada and Finland.
The Canadians have been cruising, with three wins so far and a 22-4 goal differential. But Finland should be their toughest test to date. The Finns needed a shootout to get by the Czechs, but have been playing some solid hockey, and that includes Canucks defense prospect Joni Jurmo.
After dropping down the lineup following a bumpy first game against Latvia, Jurmo and partner Kasper Puutio were elevated back to the second line for Finland's 9-3 win over Slovakia on Sunday. Much like Truscott, Jurmo was held off the scoresheet, but his five-man unit played well. Jurmo logged 14:41 of ice time, Puutio tallied a goal and two assists, and Finland's best player of the game was Joel Maatta, who scored two goals on a line with Roby Jarventie and Kasper Simontaival.
It will be a big test to see if the Finnish defense can contain Canada's explosive and deep scoring machine. Puck drop for that game is at 3 p.m. PT on Monday. The winner will see the winner of Switzerland/Austria in the quarterfinal, while the loser will play the loser of Sweden/Germany.
Now — we're at mid-August already, and I still haven't done my usual summer breakdown of the Canucks' upcoming schedule for next season — marking the scariest road trips and the most intriguing home games.
I plan to get to that in the next couple of weeks. But first, I want to talk a bit about Abbotsford's schedule. Partly because they're still new, and also because there are some new twists to the year that lies ahead for them.
Last year, I was excited to have the AHL team coming closer to home. And after a solid season on the ice, I'm looking forward to seeing if they can build on that debut — hopefully without the challenges they went through from the flooding in the Fraser Valley last fall and the Covid complications that led to lots of scheduling upheaval.
This season will mark the 10th year since the Canucks settled in Utica and established some stability with their farm system. And this fall, the organization will welcome just its third head coach, Jeremy Colliton. Travis Green ran the bench for four years and Trent Cull for five. He has now been promoted to an assistant with the big club.
I felt like Colliton got thrown to the wolves a bit when he was handed the reins of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2018. But he did have a successful coaching run in Sweden before taking the Rockford IceHogs to the third round in his only full year as an AHL coach in 2017-18. So I'm optimistic that he'll be able to get the most out of his players in Abbotsford — a roster that should be deeper this year and, knock on wood, won't get drained as much by call-ups if the Canucks can, perhaps, stay healthier.
There are also a couple of intriguing changes in the AHL's Pacific Division this fall.
The Calgary Flames' old affiliate, the Stockton Heat, has followed Vancouver's lead and will play closer to home next season. Newly christened as the Calgary Wranglers, they'll also play out of the Saddledome, and that'll give Abbotsford another Canadian team in their division.
Stockton was a strong team last season, finishing first in the Pacific Division and reaching the AHL's Western Conference Final before falling to the eventual champion Chicago Wolves. So they should have some good traction to get rolling.
And the Saddledome is going to be one busy building this winter — hosting the Flames, the Wranglers and the WHL's Calgary Hitmen.
Abbotsford's first visit will come in late November, for a pair of games on the 25th and 27th.
Also, the AHL's expansive Pacific Division will grow from nine to 10 teams this fall, as Seattle's new minor-league affiliate comes on board.
They'll be based out of the Palm Springs area, in a brand-new arena, and have been christened the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
As we've seen with other recent arena projects, staying on schedule during Covid has been no easy task. The AHL
announced on Monday that Acrisure Arena won't host its first AHL game until the second half of December.
But Abbotsford will be the opponent for the Firebirds' first two 'home' games. After opening their season with a pair of games in Calgary, the AHL's newest franchise will host the Baby Canucks for two games in Seattle — on Friday, October 21 at the Kraken's practice facility, the Community Iceplex, then on Sunday, October 23 at Climate Pledge Arena. The following weekend, they'll host the Wranglers for one game in Everett and one at the Kraken Community kick off in Abbotsford on Nov. 4-5.
Their first two games in their new digs will be against the Tucson Roadrunners, on Dec. 18 and Dec. 20.
The Kraken should be much better positioned to have enough franchise depth to stock a minor-league team this season.
CapFriendly shows them with almost a full compliment of non-roster players signed to NHL deals — 12 forwards, five defensemen and two goalies.
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