What I'm seeing from Canucks' top prospects in AHL playoffs

New York Times

22-05-2025

The Abbotsford Canucks are one win away from reaching the AHL Western Conference Finals.
Vancouver's minor-league affiliate pushed the Colorado Eagles to the brink of elimination by taking a 2-1 lead in this best-of-five series after a thrilling, come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win on Wednesday.
It's impressive that the junior Canucks have reached this point despite injuries to key players like Aatu Räty, Christian Wolanin, and Jonathan Lekkerimäki during various points of this playoff run.
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Räty, their top centre, hasn't played since Game 2 against Coachella Valley last round. Wolanin, who was named the AHL's best defenceman in 2022-23, finally returned to the lineup for Game 3 against Colorado, marking just third appearance in these playoffs. Lekkerimäki, meanwhile, missed three games closer to the start of the club's playoff run.
Abbotsford has played 10 Calder Cup playoff games so far this spring. Here, however, we will specifically zoom in on the Canucks' recent play through three games of the Pacific Divisional Finals against Colorado, with a special emphasis on how Vancouver's top prospects have performed.
Mancini, acquired as the third piece as part of the J.T. Miller trade with the New York Rangers, is playing spectacularly as an all-situations workhorse. He's been Abbotsford's best defenceman by a mile, excelling in all phases of the game.
The 22-year-old's athleticism (the combination of his skating and size) separates him from others at the AHL level. Mancini effortlessly shakes off forecheckers on the breakout with his smooth, powerful skating. He isn't just fast in straight lines, either; he can make tight turns, use hesitations, and change directions with the puck, so it's hard for opponents to predict his next move.
Mancini's work on zone exits has been terrific — whether it's occasional solo end-to-end rushes or composed, accurate outlet passes.
The biggest difference between watching Mancini in the AHL and NHL is that his decision-making and hockey IQ translate significantly better at the minor league level. In Vancouver, he sometimes seemed a tad behind reading the play at the NHL's whirlwind speed. Mancini got a cameo with Quinn Hughes towards the end of the season, and while there were encouraging flashes, a few seams showed, too. He didn't always look sharp or confident handling the puck against speedy NHL forechecks, he'd occasionally get pulled out of position defensively, and his overall game just seemed a tad sporadic.
With Abbotsford, on the other hand, the game has slowed down for Mancini in a good way. He stays cool as a cucumber with the puck rather than making rushed, panicky decisions when heavily pressured by opponents. He's oozing confidence and seemingly always making the right play at the right time.
LUCKY NUMBER 🎰
GRAB THAT PUCK BOYS ⚫️ pic.twitter.com/xFGU9cdmsW
— X – Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) May 22, 2025
Offensively, Mancini's picked up some steam with two goals and an assist in three games against Colorado. He had an excellent sequence in Game 3, where he flew down the left wall with the puck and made a power move to the net for a scoring chance. Mancini scored a backhand rebound goal from the chaos that his net-front drive caused.
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Defensively, he's been rock solid, too. Mancini has been a major driver of Abbotsford's elite penalty kill during these playoffs. He clogs east-west passing lanes and backdoor seams very well and leverages his size down low to break up plays.
At even strength, he's picked the right moments to pinch up the wall to keep plays alive and step up in the neutral zone to break up Colorado's transition game. Defending a late Game 1 lead, he showed impressive anticipation to pick off a pass and ice the game with an empty-net goal.
By all measures, this has been a standout playoff run for Mancini. However, it's also important to balance those glowing positives with an understanding that the AHL is a significant step down in quality compared to the NHL — crushing it in the minors doesn't guarantee that you'll eventually become a top-four NHL mainstay. Don't forget that a player like Erik Brännström looked like Quinn Hughes in Abbotsford, yet he could not stick in the NHL with any team this season.
Overall though, Mancini's trajectory is promising, and he should provide Tom Willander with legitimate competition for an NHL roster spot out of training camp next fall.
The pressure on Lekkerimäki was starting to ramp up heading into this series.
Vancouver's prized winger prospect didn't score a single point in Abbotsford's final four regular season games after being reassigned to the AHL in early April. He hadn't scored and slumped to just a lone assist in four playoff games before the series against Colorado. Combined, that was eight consecutive games without a goal, with just one point in that timeframe.
Lekkerimäki's Game 1 performance against Colorado didn't inspire any confidence. It's not just that he didn't produce; it's that he didn't even look dangerous. He was largely uninvolved — there weren't any speedy zone entries, quality rush chances, or other signs of him driving play. Lekkerimäki was firmly a passenger playing on a line with Max Sasson and Arshdeep Bains. He had a couple of bad defensive zone turnovers along the wall. It was hard for him to get shots through, and his creativity with the puck wasn't showing.
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However, the undersized 20-year-old sniper has flipped a switch, notching four points in his last two games. It started with Lekkerimäki finally scoring his first goal of the playoffs in Game 2 by pouncing on the rebound created by a Mancini shot off of an offensive zone face-off win. After that, his confidence rebounded. He looked dangerous on a couple of rushes later in Game 2, which was notable because Abbotsford hadn't generated many transition chances up to that point in the series.
In Game 3, he picked up two primary assists. Lekkerimäki fired a heavy shot in the high slot after Mancini's net drive, with the latter scoring off the young Swede's rebound. He carried the puck up ice and made a neat pass to Max Sasson, who buried the game-tying goal in the third period. Lekkerimäki hit the crossbar later in the third period, too. It's encouraging to see him finally returning to difference-maker form.
Lekkerimäki's bounce back is critical, and Sasson's Game 3 breakthrough—his speed and work rate were very noticeable, but he wasn't getting the bottom-line production—was much needed. However, Bains, the third member of that first line, must follow suit and get going, too.
Bains has been a near point-per-game producer during his last two AHL seasons. The cerebral 24-year-old playmaker hasn't played poorly, but he also hasn't moved the needle enough, considering he's one of Abbotsford's star players. Bains hasn't scored a goal yet in these playoffs. He picked up a secondary assist in Game 2, which is his only point in the last seven games.
He's manufactured a couple of Grade-A chances in this series with sweet spin-o-ramas, but he isn't setting up his linemates with enough quality chances for a playmaker of his calibre. Bains needs to play quicker to separate from defenders so he isn't restricted to the perimeter offensively so often.
Šilovs has been sensational, playing to a ridiculous .931 save percentage, 1.77 goals against average, and three shutouts through 10 playoff games.
In Game 1, Abbotsford defended very well in front of Šilovs — he barely faced any rush chances, and the team heavily limited dangerous east-west passes — but he still made a handful of outstanding saves to clinch the shutout victory.
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Šilovs gave up four goals in Game 2, but only one of them, where he went into the reverse VH too quickly and got beat to the top corner on the short side from an incredibly sharp angle, was a 'bad' goal. Abbotsford's defensive play was much sloppier in that loss, too.
Šilovs let a bad angle shot squeak in five-hole early in Game 3, but he was exceptional the rest of the way. He was peppered with Grade-A chances, especially off the rush, as Colorado's lethal offensive attack seemed to attack with far more pace and purpose in Game 3 than at the start of the series. Šilovs bailed his defenders out late after a couple of brutal turnovers, including an unbelievable breakaway stop on Jayson Megna in overtime.
Kudryavtsev was taken out of the lineup in Game 3 to make room for Wolanin's return.
It was a tough but understandable decision for Manny Malhotra. Kudryavtsev has been a steady two-way contributor during these playoffs, with his poised puck play and four points through eight games. However, Akito Hirose has been an enormous bright spot munching top-four minutes, and Guillaume Brisebois' harder playing style and higher defensive trust matter, which left Kudryavtsev as the odd left-handed defenceman out despite the rookie's quality play.
It didn't help that Kudryavtsev had a bit of a down Game 2 performance. He lost a battle down low against Jake Wise, which led to Colorado opening the scoring early. He got hemmed in defensively for a few more shifts than usual throughout that game, and the power-play unit he quarterbacks was struggling, too. Despite his recent setback, this postseason has been a largely positive showing for Kudryavtsev.
On the right side of the blue line, it's looking increasingly unlikely that Cole McWard will develop into a future NHL player. McWard plays fine in the AHL but doesn't stand out in any way. He's looked slow at times when breaking the puck out, and in Game 2, he failed to tie up a stick in front on Colorado's 3-1 goal.
Karlsson has had a very fascinating playoff series.
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At even-strength, he's been mostly quiet through the first three games of this series. His line with Phil Di Giuseppe and Ty Mueller hasn't consistently dictated play or threatened offensively. Karlsson wasn't doing a whole lot to drive play or create chances.
He scored a one-time power-play goal from a slick no-look pass from Kudryavtsev in the garbage time of Game 2's loss, which was a nice play, but at a meaningless point of the game. Heading into a high-stakes Game 3, Abbotsford needed more from the net-front scoring ace who potted 23 goals in just 32 AHL games this season.
Karlsson was quiet for most of Game 3 again, but none of that matters after his game-winner late in the first overtime period. Mueller pounced on a bad Colorado giveaway behind the net and jammed the puck out front. Karlsson found the puck in a maze of chaos around the blue paint and roofed it over Trent Miner to call game.
That gave Karlsson his fifth goal of the postseason, which is tied for second-most among all AHL players. Most importantly, it powered Abbotsford to a high-stakes victory and an opportunity to knock Colorado out by winning one of Games 4 or 5.
(Photo of Victor Mancini: Elsa/Getty Images)