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Mikey DiPietro's jr career ends, Brendan Gaunce cut loose, Worlds updates |
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I'm sorry to see Mikey DiPietro's junior career come to an end on the sidelines, as the Ottawa 67's were defeated for the OHL championship on Sunday by the Guelph Storm, by a score of 8-3.
Ottawa got out to a good start, taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission as Cedrick Andree stopped all 12 shots he faced. But the wheels fell off in the second, with Guelph scoring five straight goals before Sasha Chmelevski replied for Ottawa. The Storm also outshot the 67's 18-6 in the middle frame. That was basically the game—and the series. Guelph came back to win four straight games after Ottawa had taken a 2-0 lead in the series.
DiPietro turns 20 on June 9 and was signed to his entry-level contract by the Canucks nearly a year ago, after he returned from his tour of duty as Team Canada's third goalie at the World Championship in Denmark. We may see him again at development camp this summer, but he'll definitely be ready to turn pro and fill one goaltending slot in Utica this fall.
So Guelph moves on to join the QMJHL Champs from Rouyn-Noranda and the host Halifax Mooseheads in the Memorial Cup, starting this Friday. There's one spot still up for grabs after the Vancouver Giants forced Game 7 in the WHL Final with a 4-2 win in Prince Albert against the Raiders on Sunday. The deciding game will go Monday in P.A., at 6 p.m. PT.
Speaking of prospects and camps—if you missed it, the Canucks' Young Stars event that has gone down in Penticton for the last several seasons is not happening this year. This had been rumoured for awhile—especially after the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames pulled their prospects last year, wanting an event of their own in Alberta.
Sounds like that is indeed what will happen, and that the Canucks will be a part of it. Details still to come.
One other note I missed last week—although I saw it got covered in great detail in the comments section. After announcing that Derrick Pouliot will not receive a qualifying offer for next season, the Vancouver Canucks also announced that they're going the same route with Brendan Gaunce.
Selected 26th overall by the Canucks in 2012, Gaunce was a point-a-game player in junior and had a gold medal from U17s and the 2012 Ivan Hlinka tournament and a bronze from U18s. His defensive awareness has never been in question, but he couldn't get his scoring to translate, even at the AHL level, and didn't use his big body enough to be an imposing physical presence.
Gaunce went 6-9-15 in 117 games with the Canucks over four seasons, but played just three games with the big club this year and was passed over in favour of younger prospects when forwards were getting called up near the end of the season. He had 16-22-38 in 60 games in Utica last season.
As a solid AHLer, the 25-year-old might get a look from another team this summer but expansion can't come fast enough for him. After being passed over by Vegas when he was left unprotected two years ago, he'll be 27 by the time Seattle stocks its opening-night roster by the summer of 2021.
To wrap up today—we're now just over five weeks away from the draft in Vancouver. I'm getting excited about the event itself—having all the GMs and executives from around the league in town, as well as all the top prospects. It'll be a very hockey-heavy week around here, which will be awesome.
It's fun to see how the Hughes/Kakko battle is playing out at Worlds. Kakko, the Finn, is off to a very hot start offensively, looks more like an NHL player thanks to his 6'2" frame, and got the better of the last head-to-head matchup between the two when Finland beat out the U.S. for gold at World Juniors last year. Kakko turned 18 in February; Jack turns 18 on Tuesday which means he'll be allowed to finally ditch his cage-style mask for a regular visor for the first time.
I think Kakko is carrying three advantages into Worlds: first, he played against men all year in the Finnish League, and led his team TPS Turku with 22 goals. Second, he has been prepping for this tournament for the last few weeks, going through the pre-tournament prep with his team and getting acclimated. Jack, on the other hand, had less than two weeks to turn himself around between the end of U18s in Sweden and joining up with Quinn and the rest of the U.S. crew in Slovakia—and I imagine he travelled home to North America and back to Europe during that time, too. Finally his role is entirely different on a Finnish club that features just two NHL players this year. The U.S. roster probably matches the Russians for star power this year—quite a change from what we've seen from past tournaments. So unlike Kakko, Hughes isn't being expected to carry a heavy offensive load.
Team USA got the better of the Finns in the head-to-head matchup on Monday, when Quinn set up Dylan Larkin during 3-on-3 play to give the Americans the 3-2 win in overtime.
Jeff Blashill leaned heavily on his big-name stars in this important game. Ryan Suter and Noah Hanifin each played more than 22 minutes on the blue line, while Quinn played 15:38. Up front, Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin broke the 20-minute mark, while Jack skated less than 10 minutes, as did fellow forwards Derek Ryan, Luke Glendening and Frank Vatrano.
Kakko was also held off the scoresheet but led all Finns with six shots and 18:46 of ice time.
So the debate continues to rage over which of these two is the better pick—and so far, it is a lot like 2016, when Auston Matthews was the presumptive No. 1 and kept his status even though Patrik Laine outplayed him at Worlds and was named tournament MVP.
I'm interested to see if Jack picks up his game after he gets a bit of a chance to get more settled in Slovakia. USA's next game is Wednesday against Great Britain, then they play Saturday against Denmark and Sunday against Germany before finishing off the round-robin on Tuesday against Canada.
I would also expect we'll see Thatcher Demko in net at least once more during the preliminary round. He was solid if not especially busy on Sunday, making 23 saves in USA's 7-1 win over France.
in Bratislava on Monday, Jacob Markstrom is making his first start of the tournament for Sweden and is perfect through one period—stopping seven shots as the Swedes took a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. No points yet for Elias Pettersson, who has been bumped down to Sweden's second line after the arrival of Alexander Wennberg from the Columbus Blue Jackets.
As for Canada, they're locked in a 2-2 tie with the host Slovaks through 20 minutes in a game that has seen plenty of chippiness. Troy Stecher is now paired with Thomas Chabot, and had two shots during 6:33 of ice time during the first period, not on the ice for any of the four goals.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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