The Athletic shares their ranking of Vancouver's top-ten prospects: Tom Willander lands outside of the top two

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Cooper Godin
September 10, 2024 (8:02 PM)

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The Athletic has shared their ranking of Vancouver's top-ten prospects heading into the 2024-25 season.

As we get closer to the 2024-25 season, different media outlets have begun sharing their prospect rankings for teams around the National Hockey League and this week, Thomas Drance of The Athletic shared his.

Before Drance dove into his rankings, he shared eight honourable mentions from the Canucks organization - Danila Klimovich, Anthony Romani, Vilmer Alriksson, Josh Bloom, Linus Karlsson, Nikita Tolopilo, Kirill Kudryavtsev and Max Sasson.

Let's take a look at Drance's top-ten, starting off with ten and counting down to his number one prospect in the Vancouver Canucks system.

10) Cole McWard (D)
9) Arshdeep Bains (LW)
8) Riley Patterson (RW)
7) Melvin Fernstrom (RW)
6) Sawyer Mynio (D)
5) Aatu Raty (LW/C)
4) Elias Pettersson (D)
3) Tom Willander (D)

"Despite his strong freshman season at BU, Willander's offensive game is still a work in progress. His raw puck control abilities lag somewhat behind the rest of his tool kit, and he's not a naturally attacking-minded player." Drance said.

He added, "Willander thinks defense first, and that can show up in his reads and on-ice decision making. Usually that's a positive, but to some extent, it also may limit his upside if he doesn't begin to make progress in this area."

2) Arturs Silovs (G)

"What's clear is Silovs has put himself into a position where he'll get a long look at the NHL level this upcoming season, and appears to be a goaltender with future, bona fide NHL starter level upside. That puts him unquestionably among the organization's most promising prospects." Drance said.

1) Jonathan Lekkerimaki (RW)

"The sky is the limit for Lekkerimäki in his first complete North American professional season, and the range of possible outcomes for him in year one is vast. His production last year was impressive enough that we shouldn't rule out the possibility that he's good enough to be an NHL level player from day one this season. On the other hand, NHL history is littered with prolific 19-year-old SHL scorers who are ready to play a regular shift from day one and still top out as Emil Bemstrom." Drance said.

Many of the prospects mentioned in Drance's list will be participating at the upcoming Young Stars Classic in Penticton starting on Friday. The Canucks will face the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, before wrapping things up on Monday against the Calgary Flames.

Who do you think the best prospect in the Vancouver Canucks system is - Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Arturs Silovs or Tom Willander? Let us know what you think in the poll below.

Source: Thomas Drance/The Athletic
Ranking the top 10 Canucks prospects, part 1: No. 10 to No. 6, plus honourable mentions
Ranking the top 10 Canucks prospects, part 2: No. 5 to No. 1

POLL
Who do you think the best prospect in the Vancouver Canucks system is
Jonathan Lekkerimaki	61	46.6 %
Arturs Silovs	51	38.9 %
Tom Willander	19	14.5 %
List of polls