MADDEN LIVING UP TO DRAFT STATUS
Versatile Northeastern centre comes through in big moments
It’s the latest edition of the weekly tracker, where we tally up the efforts of the Vancouver Canucks’ highest-profile prospects:
TYLER MADDEN
First we had the kayak celebration. Then, last Monday, we got the snow angel.
And while Madden didn’t score in Monday’s 4-2 win against Boston College in the Beanpot tournament final, the NCAA rookie is proving to have a penchant to produce in the game’s biggest moments.
Madden had one assist and four shots on goal in Northeastern’s second successive tournament win after a 30-year championship drought.
Last week, he scored the overtime winner for the Huskies against a strong Boston University side in the Beanpot semifinal, and it was another sensational moment for the 19-year-old.
With the score tied 1-1 in early OT, Madden took a stretch pass at the opposition’s blue-line, broke into the zone and wired a wrist shot past the goalie’s glove hand.
Madden then did what Madden does best: an impromptu sliding snow-angel celebration that left him buried under a dog pile of rabid Huskies teammates.
The overtime hero finished the game with six shots on net (five in the third period), a plus-1 rating and went seven-for-19 in the faceoff circle.
He was a lightning rod all game, deking and dangling his way to another electrifying performance.
Madden’s 13th-ranked Huskies did drop a 3-2 OT decision Thursday at Connecticut, a game in which the centre had one assist and five shots on net, but also went a minus-3 and a sub-par eightfor-22 on faceoffs.
Madden is showing the skill and determination that led the Canucks to draft the versatile centre in the third round of last year’s draft.
On draft day, Canucks general manager Jim Benning was encouraged to learn Madden would be joining Northeastern from the Tri-City Storm of the USHL.
With one Beanpot tournament win under his belt, Madden’s well on his way to filling the big hole left by fellow Canucks prospect Adam Gaudette.
The New York native now has nine goals and 13 assists in 23 NCAA games this season. He’s also a plus-1 overall.
JACK RATHBONE
We were hoping for a Canucks prospect faceoff for the Beanpot title. But alas, Rathbone’s Harvard squad couldn’t get by Boston College last Monday and lost a tight, 2-1 affair at the TD Garden.
The Canucks’ 2017 fourth-rounder was his sturdy self in the game, booming a couple of shots on target and finishing the game even in the plus-minus department.
The right-side defenceman did get an assist in Friday’s 5-3 win over 20th-ranked Union College and added two more shots on net.
Rathbone, 19, has four goals and eight assists in 22 NCAA games, with a plus-6 rating and only four penalty minutes all season, which says a lot about his superior skating ability and on-ice awareness.
JONATHAN DAHLEN
Goal scorers score goals, and Dahlen is doing his part for the Utica Comets.
The AHL rookie lit the lamp twice this past week and added a couple of assists for good measure.
The Comets played a threegames-in-three-nights stretch that started Friday, and while Dahlen didn’t score in Friday ’s 5-2 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, he did manage an assist. But Dahlen picked up the pace Saturday, another 5-2 win, this time against the Rochester Americans in Utica.
Dahlen scored a goal, finished the game a plus-1 and had three shots on net in the win. He was also named the game’s third star.
Dahlen’s goal was a testament to the work he’s put in to be a factor without the puck.
It also highlighted his exceptional scoring ability.
The slick Swede blocked a clearing attempt at the blue-line, put the puck through the Rochester defenceman’s legs and slung it through the goalie’s pads to give the Comets a 3-2 lead.
Then in Sunday’s 5-4 overtime loss at the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Dahlen put it in overdrive with a goal, an assist and three more shots on net. After a so-so stretch of games, Dahlen now finds himself just one point shy of the AHL’s top-20 rookie scorers with 14 goals and 13 assists in 47 games this season. He’s also a minus-13.
JETT WOO
Woo is a big, bad defenceman at the best of times.
At the worst of times, he can step over the line with a bodycheck that requires supplemental discipline.
Woo unleashed another monstrous hit in a 6-1 loss at the Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday, a hit that got him a game misconduct and a two-game suspension from the WHL.
The hit was on the Blades’ Kirby Dach, who at six foot four is a big boy in his own right. Woo appeared to catch Dach on the blindside before the puck hit his stick. Woo stacked up 17 penalty minutes in his abbreviated appearance.
Dach would later tell Sportsnet 650 that he’s played against Woo since he was 12 years old and “he plays you honest,” so there doesn’t appear to be any hard feelings between the two, despite Woo ringing his bell another time earlier this season as well.
Woo, 18, has had a standout season thus far, with 10 goals and 37 assists in 45 games for Moose Jaw.
QUINN HUGHES
Help me help you. Hughes had his way with archrival Michigan State this past weekend, with four helpers in two games and a few more plays that almost paid off.
The Wolverines’ roving wunderkind was just getting warmed up Friday in a 5-3 win against the Spartans. He had one assist, three shots on net and a plus-2 rating.
Then on Saturday in Detroit, in the annual Duel in the D, Hughes helped Michigan along again in a 5-2 win in which the Canucks’ seventh-overall pick last year notched three more assists, four shots on net and a plus-2 rating.
Hughes now leads all NCAA defencemen with 25 assists and is fifth in NCAA defensive scoring.
Hughes has four goals and 25 assists in 25 games this season for Michigan. He’s also a minus-1 overall.