Utunen’s resume is pure gold
Finnish defenceman’s world junior dagger against Canada puts him back on Canucks’ radar
The holidays are over, which means we’re back with the latest edition of the weekly tracker, where we tally up the efforts of the Vancouver Canucks’ highest-profile prospects:
TONI UTUNEN
One shot. It took one shot to get Toni Utunen back on the radar for Canucks fans.
It’s just too bad that shot was a dagger into the heart of Team Canada — and fellow Canucks prospect Mike DiPietro.
“I think that was his first goal in a whole season,” Team Finland head coach Jussi Ahokas said after Utunen sealed the deal in the world junior quarter-final game.
Utunen had a strong tournament and his play improved as it wore on. In the semifinal against the Swiss, Utunen had two shots on net and played 16:06 in the 6-1 win. Then in the final, he played almost 22 minutes and was bumped up to the first defensive pairing after an injury to Ville Heinola.
It’s starting to look like the Canucks’ fifth-rounder from the 2018 draft is another astute pick from Canucks general manager Jim Benning.
Utunen is a winner. The 18-year-old now has two gold medals on his resume, having captained the under-18 Finnish team to a world championship last year.
With one assist in 21 games for Tappara in the Finnish SM-Liiga, there hasn’t been much to write home about this season. Utunen, a left-shot defenceman, has been good in his own end with a plus-2 rating. But there’s tons of room to grow playing against men at such a young age.
Utunen finished the world juniors with one goal in seven games, a plus-2 rating and zero penalty minutes.
Oh, and a gold medal around his neck.
MICHAEL DIPIETRO
Say what you will about the game-tying goal against the Finns, but DiPietro had a stellar tournament for the home side.
The Canucks’ third-rounder from the 2017 draft did his part, posting a .951 save percentage and a 1.23 goalsagainst average.
After the crushing loss to the Finns, DiPietro showed the character he’s known for. He posted a heartfelt message online, thanking the fans and expressing what it meant for him to don the Canadian sweater. A classy move.
DiPietro rejoins the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference-leading Ottawa 67’s for a run at a championship.
And if revenge is something he’s looking for, he may just get it against Team Finland goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who plays for the Sudbury Wolves and whose team is projected to meet the 67’s in the playoffs.
QUINN HUGHES
Quinn Hughes didn’t get the points that Canucks fans were hoping to see at the world juniors. But he did pretty much everything else for silver medal-winning Team USA.
From his skating ability, to passing the puck, to quarterbacking a power play, Hughes put his array of talents on display. Some pundits saw the Canucks’ 2018 first-rounder as Team USA’s best player, despite his pedestrian stat line of two assists in seven games.
But the Canucks liked what they saw and even considered calling him up from the University of Michigan after the tournament was over — until the plan was kiboshed, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Hughes will instead go back to the Wolverines, where the team is middling, but Hughes isn’t with three goals and 17 assists in 17 games and a minus-5 rating.
TYLER MADDEN
Canucks fans weren’t sure what they had in Tyler Madden. Now they know.
Madden is a chip off the old block, an undersized yet hard-working forward just like his father John, a former NHLer, but with a scorer’s touch as well.
He scored three goals and added an assist in seven games at the world juniors and also made some sensational defensive plays.
Madden will go back to the NCAA’s Northeastern Huskies with his head held high, having exceeded fan’s expectations of him on the big stage.
Madden has six goals and nine assists and is a plus- 7 in 14 games with the Huskies.
ADAM GAUDETTE
A virtuoso performance this week from Adam Gaudette, who was recently sent down by the Canucks.
Gaudette needed a game to get in the American Hockey League groove, but, boy, did he find it Saturday for the Utica Comets.
In a 6-2 win against the Cleveland Monsters, Gaudette scored twice and added an assist. He also had a whopping eight shots on net and finished the game a plus-3.
His first goal came on a second-period snipe from the high slot as Gaudette wristed the puck top shelf on the goalie’s glove side.
A couple minutes later, Gaudette followed the play to the front of the net, where he received a nice cross-crease pass and deposited the puck into the net.
Gaudette didn’t register a point Sunday in the Comets’ 5-1 win over the Monsters, but he was a plus-1 and had one shot on goal.
As a Canuck, Gaudette has already proven that his 200foot game is transferable to the NHL. But with some more ice time in the AHL, the idea was to get Gaudette more scoring opportunities and rediscover the touch that helped him win the Hobey Baker Award last season as the top collegiate hockey player in the U.S..
It appears he has found it already.
The Comets have won four straight games and are in third place in the AHL’s North Division with a record of 20-16-2-1.
JONATHAN DAHLEN
Back from a concussion, Jonathan Dahlen hasn’t exactly been lighting it up with the Comets.
He scored in a 4-3 win over the Rochester Americans on Dec. 29. The goal was scored on a five-on-three power play and was originally credited to Tanner Kero, but it was Dahlen’s shot from the high slot that eluded the goalie. He was named the game’s third star.
Last week, Dahlen didn’t register any points, but he continues to fire the puck at the net and try to keep his game defensively sound. On the plus side, he didn’t have a minus game in any of the three wins.
Dahlen has eight goals and 10 assists in 35 games so far this season. He’s also a minus-9 overall.
KOLE LIND
It has been a tough rookie season so far for Kole Lind, whose goal-scoring prowess in the juniors has yet to transfer over to the Comets.
But there was a glimmer of hope last week with Lind involving himself in a few scoring plays. He has three assists in his last two games and is getting some recognition for his play.
Lind is now being utilized on the Comets’ third line and has even seen some power-play time.
There was some chatter that the WHL’s Vancouver Giants were exploring bringing Lind into the fold, but Sportsnet’s Rick Dhaliwal was told it’s not happening.
Lind has six assists in 22 games for the Comets and is a minus-8 on the season.
But it’s just a matter of time before he nets his first AHL goal. He might just need a little luck to get on the scoreboard.
JETT WOO
Whether Team Canada could’ve used Jett Woo at the world juniors is up for debate.
What’s not up for debate is how well he has been playing for the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors.
Woo, the Canucks’ second-round pick from last year’s draft, continues to produce from the back end for the Warriors and finds himself in the top five in the WHL in points per game for defencemen.
He’s also on track to have a more productive final junior season than the likes of Travis Hamonic and Morgan Reilly, former Warriors who now patrol NHL blue-lines.
Woo had been on a fourgame point streak, which was snapped on New Year’s Eve in a 3-1 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings. Woo was a plus-1 and had one shot in the win.
On Friday, the Warriors beat the Prince Albert Raiders 4-2. Woo had two assists and was a plus-1 against the best team in the league.
The Warriors were drubbed 6-0 on Saturday by the Portland Winterhawks — a game in which Woo was a minus-2 with no points — but that was an exception for the Warriors’ player of the month.
Woo has seven goals and 26 assists in 32 games this season for the Warriors. He’s also a plus-9 and has 30 penalty minutes.