Hughes outshines the world’s best juniors
It’s a midsummer edition of the weekly tracker, where we tally up the efforts of the Canucks’ prospects who played in the World Junior Showcase tournament in Kamloops this past week. QUINN HUGHES
We’re starting to see why Canucks GM Jim Benning didn’t flinch when Quinn Hughes dropped into his lap at the 2018 NHL draft.
Hughes was the best player at the Sport Chek World Junior Showcase tournament — and it wasn’t even close.
He scored the game-winner for Team USA ( White) against Canada (Red) in a 7-5 win on Tuesday. The goal was assisted by his brother Jack.
On Thursday, Hughes had three assists in a 5-4 OT win over Team Sweden. But none were better than the wizardry he displayed on the game-winning goal with one second left on the clock.
Said Swedish coach Tomas Monten: “He can easily make plays that you can’t see on the ice.”
Hughes put all his skills on display during this tournament: his ability to close down on a forechecker, his ability to lead a rush from the back end, his ability to protect the puck when in trouble, and his ability to dish it off to a teammate at an opportune time were all evident.
On Saturday, Hughes added two more assists against Canada in the teams’ tournament finale — a 6-5 loss for the U.S.
All in all, it was a spectacular tourney for the Canucks prospect.
MIKE DIPIETRO
Goalie prospect DiPietro was lit up in his tournament debut on Tuesday.
It was an uncharacteristic showing for the OHL’s reigning goalie of the year. DiPietro, a third-round pick in the 2017 draft, was 29-21-2 with a 2.79 goals against average and a league-leading seven shutouts for the Windsor Spitfires last season.
DiPietro came to play in Canada’s 4-1 win over Sweden on Friday. He stopped 18 of 19 shots in 31 minutes of play.
TONI UTUNEN
The Canucks’ fifth-round pick in June’s draft is a solid two-way defenceman.
Utunen, who played for LeKi in Finland’s second-tier league last season, had a solid tournament, but got beat a few times by opposing forecheckers.
Still, he was named Finland’s player of the game in Thursday’s 4-3 overtime loss to Canada.