Canucks Player Guide for the Young Stars Tournament

[Balls Mahoney]

HOCKEY STARTS TOMORROW!

Here's a cool players guide for the Young Stars Tournament that starts tomorrow. Run downs on every player and video highlights for every Canucks prospect.

I'm really freaking excited for this tournament and writing this guide got me so much more excited. The Canucks are walking into this tournament with arguably the best group of prospects this team has ever assembled. Anyway, check out the article. Let me know what you think.

EDIT: FIRST GAME TOMORROW NIGHT AGAINST EDMONTON! 7:30 PM! The game is streaming on Canucks.com and will be aired on Canucks radio affiliates.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

The 2014 Young Stars Tournament Canucks Player Guide

After a long and eventful off season that saw regime change, roster moves and new prospects added to the system. Vancouver Canucks hockey finally begins this Friday on September 12th at the Young Stars tournament. The Young Stars tournament is a series of games played by the prospects of the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers before entering each team’s professional training camp.

This tournament is for each organization to get a feel for their prospects and to give prospects a taste of playing in a NHL system. The tournament will be a round robin tournament between the four Canadian teams from September 12th to September 15th in Penticton, British Columbia.

Trevor Linden on the Young Stars Tournament

“We are excited to host the Young Stars Classic, now in its fourth year, in beautiful Penticton, B.C.,” said Trevor Linden, President, Canucks Sports & Entertainment. “This is an excellent tournament to develop and assess our prospects in competitive game situations. We have amazing fans in the Okanagan and look forward to sharing an NHL experience with them while celebrating the rich hockey history of Penticton.”



The State of the Canucks Entering the Tournament

The Vancouver Canucks find themselves in the middle of a rebuild or a “re-tooling” depending on who you ask. The team has made a conscious effort to accumulate young skilled forwards through drafting and trades over the last several years. The dividends show as the Canucks enter this tournament boasting six first round picks in their forward group. This group of forward prospects is arguably the best the Canucks have ever had.


As potentially exciting as the Canucks’ forward group is, the team has neglected their defensive group having not drafted a defenseman in the first round in ten years nor a defenseman in the second round in seven years. The Canucks have a few promising defensemen playing in this tournament but few if any threats to make an immediate impact in the NHL. Unfortunately two of the Canucks’ best defense prospects in Nikita Tryamkin and Ben Hutton won’t be able to participate due to their professional and collegiate commitments.

The Canucks have done a good job in recent years of acquiring and developing NHL caliber goalies. Currently the Canucks possess several talented young goaltending prospects in Eddie Lack, Joacim Eriksson, Joe Cannata and the recently drafted Thatcher Demko. However due to collegiate and pro restrictions the Canucks enter this tournament with two invite goaltenders who have shown flashes of potential in the Western Hockey League.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

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[The Stig]

Good article

 

[Puck Ingrate]

Fantastic article - thoroughly informative, very well-written and fun to read. This should set the standard for other HF partner sites.

 

[denkiteki]

Excited about our forward group but worried about D and no idea who the goalies are. Would be better if Demko was there but i guess he can't since BC already started.

Also interested in seeing Curtis Valk play and wondering rather or not we'll sign him. Of course if he's playing with HS... it might make the smallest line in the tournament (regardless of the 3rd member unless Stewart moves from D to forward).

 

[Balls Mahoney]

Hey thank you for the compliments guys.

I really worked hard on this one and spent a week researching to give Canucks fans as much good info on each kid as I could. I appreciate you reading it.

 

[jimslob]

A couple of things:

"depending on who you ask" You missed the who.

"won’t be able to participate due" An incomplete sentence.

Not nitpicking, or maybe I am, but if you aspire to be a professional writer you should welcome honest feedback.

Overall I thought it was an excellent article. Good job and thank you.

Jim

 

[Canucks LB]

Can HF boards hire you instead?

 

[Balls Mahoney]

Can HF boards hire you instead?

I'm always open to offers

 

[Balls Mahoney]

By the way, just for funsies here's my list of the top ten Canucks that I think will impress at the tournament.

1. Curtis Valk
2. Hunter Shinkaruk
3. Bo Horvat
4. Jared McCann
5. Michael Zalewski
6. Brendan Gaunce
7. Jordan Subban
8. Jackson Whistle
9. Evan McEneny
10. Klarc Wilson

 

[denkiteki]

By the way, just for funsies here's my list of the top ten Canucks that I think will impress at the tournament.

1. Curtis Valk
2. Hunter Shinkaruk
3. Bo Horvat
4. Jared McCann
5. Michael Zalewski
6. Brendan Gaunce
7. Jordan Subban
8. Jackson Whistle
9. Evan McEneny
10. Klarc Wilson

If that's the case, we better sign Valk now! Honestly its probably better to take a flyer on him than sign a AHLer to a contract. Valk probably can contribute @ Utice, even if he doesn't develop much. His size shouldn't be as big of an issue in the AHL.

Other thing to note, i thought Corrado was playing in the tournament? He better be more impressive than some of the players you listed. Also i doubt Zalewski will be more impressive than Gaunce. Gaunce should know he'll have a chance to earn a roster spot so his "try out" so to speak starts in the tournament.

Fox is also playing and should look decent.