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Capitals Sign Ryan Leonard To Entry-Level Contract

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11:59 a.m.: The Capitals confirmed Leonard’s deal, confirming it’ll carry the maximum ELC cap hit of $950K.

10:39 a.m.: The Capitals are expected to sign top forward prospect Ryan Leonard out of Boston College, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. He’ll sign a three-year entry-level contract beginning immediately and will likely make his NHL debut tomorrow against his hometown Bruins.

Leonard turning pro is far from unexpected. Selected eighth overall by Washington in 2023, he’s spent the last two seasons dominating collegiate play with Boston College. A natural center who can shift to the right wing, he boasts 61 goals, 48 assists and 109 points across 78 NCAA outings – giving him the most goals in the country by a margin of 16 since 2023-24. The 20-year-old has also posted a combined +66 rating over his past two collegiate seasons, often centering fellow 2023 first-rounder and Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault.

While Leonard’s time at BC didn’t result in a national championship, he’s won gold medals for the United States at top-level international junior play in three consecutive seasons. He captained the Americans at this year’s World Juniors, leading the team’s forwards in scoring with 5-5–10 in seven games.

The younger brother of former Sharks winger John Leonard now looks to prove he can be an impact goal-scorer at the NHL level with immediate effect. He’ll have a ton of support in a deep Washington lineup that leads the league in scoring with 3.63 goals per game, driven by a stratospheric team shooting percentage of 13.1. In terms of actual shot generation, the Caps rank a concerning 21st in the league at 27.6 per game. Adding one of the best shooters outside the NHL down the stretch should help boost that number slightly heading into postseason play, where he’ll compete to land a top-nine role ahead of names like Anthony Beauvillier, Brandon Duhaime, Andrew Mangiapane, and Taylor Raddysh.

This year aside, the news kicks off what should be an illustrious career for Leonard in D.C. as he aims to eventually take over as the team’s top sniper when Alex Ovechkin decides to end his record-breaking career. He’s the clear-cut No. 1 prospect in Washington’s system, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic opines, and ranks as the No. 4 forward prospect in the NHL behind Ivan Demidov, Will Smith, and Berkly Catton.

Ensuring Leonard is available for next season’s lineup is an essential piece of the puzzle for the Caps, who guarantee a cost-effective top-nine contributor to replace a pending UFA like the high-priced Mangiapane ($5.8MM AAV). They’ll have north of $12MM in cap space to fill just four roster spots, per PuckPedia – all at forward – allowing them to be a legitimate threat to sign one of the top 10 players available this summer.

With Leonard’s ELC going into effect immediately, it’ll expire and make him a restricted free agent following the 2026-27 campaign. That’s the same summer in which Ovechkin’s, John Carlson’s, and Connor McMichael’s current deals expire, along with a few other important depth contributors.

Image courtesy of Eric Canha-Imagn Images.

St. Louis Blues Sign Jimmy Snuggerud To Entry-Level Contract

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5:05 p.m.: The deal is official between the Blues and Snuggerud. The Hobey Baker Award finalist has signed a three-year, entry-level contract with St. Louis, and he’ll join the team for practice on Monday.

11:08 a.m.: The Blues are nearing an entry-level deal with top right-winger prospect Jimmy Snuggerud, per a report from team rinkside reporter Andy Strickland this morning. Snuggerud’s three-year pact will go into effect immediately and allow him to join the NHL roster for the remainder of the season and playoffs if St. Louis secures a berth.

The news comes less than 24 hours after Snuggerud’s junior season at the University of Minnesota ended, losing to UMass in overtime in the regional semifinals of the national tournament. He had two goals in the contest, including one late in the third period to tie the game at four after Minnesota blew a 3-1 lead entering the third. While he hoped to wait until April to arrive in St. Louis to suit up with the Golden Gophers at the Frozen Four, he’ll come for next week’s homestand in preparation for his NHL debut.

Snuggerud, 20, was the Blues’ first-round selection (No. 23) in 2022. The 6’2″ righty is tied with center Dalibor Dvorsky as the top prospect in the Blues’ system, and Scott Wheeler of The Athletic named him the No. 22-ranked NHL-drafted prospect last month. He’s the fourth-ranked right-wing prospect in the league behind a trio of top-10 picks in Montreal’s Ivan Demidov, the Capitals’ Ryan Leonard, and the Ducks’ Beckett Sennecke.

He leaves behind a spectacular three-year college career in which the Minnesota native topped 20 goals each season, earning Hobey Baker Award nominations in 2024 and 2025. He’s tied for fifth in the country in scoring this season, leading the Gophers with 24-27–51 in 40 games. Over three years in the Minnesota program, the dynamic offensive threat totaled 66-69–135 in 119 games with a +51 rating and 113 PIMs. Since beginning his collegiate career in 2022-23, only the Panthers’ Jack Devine (Denver) has more total points, and no one has more goals.

Even amid a chase to secure a wild-card spot in the Western Conference, the Blues could likely benefit by inserting Snuggerud into a top-nine role out of the gate. Shifting Zachary Bolduc from right to left wing while bumping underperforming Mathieu Joseph (4-9–13 in 55 GP) down the lineup creates an opening for Snuggerud on the third line with Bolduc and Oskar Sundqvist, giving the red-hot Blues an extra offensive weapon for the final few games of the season. On the heels of eight straight victories, St. Louis’ playoff chances are up to 73.1%, per MoneyPuck. They also have a 20.4% chance of passing the Wild for the first wild-card spot.

Snuggerud will have his presumably bonus-laden ELC run through the 2026-27 campaign, making him a restricted free agent upon expiry. They’ll also have key young forwards Dvorsky and Jake Neighbours in need of new deals that summer, so that’s a potential cap crunch to look out for down the line, with veteran goalie Jordan Binnington’s deal also set to expire in 2027.

Image courtesy of Imagn Images.

Brad Marchand To Debut For Panthers Friday

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March 28: Marchand will make his Panthers debut tonight, Maurice confirmed (via Olive).

March 26: One of the most notable trade deadline additions has yet to debut with his new team. When the Panthers made a last-second move to acquire Bruins star winger Brad Marchand on March 7, the Boston captain was nursing an upper-body injury sustained the weekend prior. He’s been occasionally practicing with his new team as he nears a return to play, which Florida head coach Paul Maurice said could be Friday’s game against Utah (via the team’s Jameson Olive).

It’s not a set deal, and there won’t be a transaction prefacing it as Marchand isn’t on injured reserve. He last played on March 1, when a hit from Penguins defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph sent him awkwardly into the boards and then to the locker room.

Before the injury and subsequent trade, Marchand had his worst offensive campaign in a decade. Of course, the ever-consistent winger was still on pace for a respectable 63 points, not a massive drop-off from last year’s 67 and almost to be expected given Boston’s general offensive struggles this season. He’s still a bona fide top-six forward, especially on a Florida team that’s had to deploy names like depth pivot Jesper Boqvist and rookie Mackie Samoskevich in second-line roles as of late with Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk on the shelf. Whether he gets a look on the top line with Aleksander Barkov remains to be seen, but at the very least, he should slot in as the Cats’ second-line left wing alongside Sam Bennett – a duo of pests that will likely land Tkachuk on the right side when he’s ready to return.

Some good news on the injury front is a welcome change of pace for the Panthers, who’ve also had their blue line decimated by a suspension to Aaron Ekblad and an injury to Dmitry Kulikov. They’ve gone 3-4-0 in their last seven as a result, dropping back into a tie with the Maple Leafs for first place in the Atlantic Division – a tiebreaker that Toronto currently holds with four more wins in regulation and overtime. They’re scoring 2.29 goals per game over that stretch, far below their season average of 3.23.

Flyers Assign Jett Luchanko To AHL

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The Flyers announced Thursday that they’ve assigned top center prospect Jett Luchanko to AHL Lehigh Valley to finish the season. His major junior campaign with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League is over after they failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Selected 13th overall in last year’s draft, Luchanko was a surprise inclusion on Philadelphia’s opening night roster after a strong training camp. He appeared in four of Philly’s first five games of the season, going without a point and posting a minus-three rating. The 18-year-old did well in the dot for such a young player, winning 17 of 37 draws (45.9 FO%), but didn’t have good possession impacts at even strength (39.5 CF%, 43.8 xGF%).

Clearly in need of more development time, the Flyers’ only option was to return Luchanko to juniors. He won’t be eligible for a full-time AHL assignment, at least while the OHL season is going on, until the 2026-27 season. The 5’11” righty put up a solid performance captaining a conference-worst Guelph squad, posting 21-35–56 in 46 games to lead the team in points per game. He posted a minus-three rating that stands out in a good way on a team with a -75 goal differential and also scored once in five games for Canada at the World Juniors.

Luchanko is the No. 2 prospect in the Flyers’ system and the 50th-ranked prospect in the NHL, according to Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. He’ll get his first taste of minor-league hockey over the coming weeks before looking to repeat a strong camp performance en route to cracking the Flyers’ opening night roster for a second time in 2025-26.

Blackhawks To Recall Kevin Korchinski

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The Blackhawks are calling up top left-handed defense prospect Kevin Korchinski from AHL Rockford, reports Scott Powers of The Athletic. The seventh overall pick of the 2022 draft could make his first NHL appearance in three months tomorrow night against the Golden Knights.

Korchinski joins a Chicago blue line that boasted just one defender over the age of 23 in its last outing, with veterans T.J. Brodie (healthy) and Alec Martinez (upper body) not dressed. They’ve recently brought up top right-shot prospect Artyom Levshunov, the 2024 second-overall pick. That high-powered duo joins other young names like Louis Crevier, Ethan Del Mastro, and Wyatt Kaiser, who have seen in-season promotions, as the Blackhawks evaluate which of them could appear on their opening night roster next fall.

Unlike Levshunov, Korchinski isn’t a rookie. The 20-year-old was a full-timer on Chicago’s blue line last year but understandably struggled without much support. After being limited to 5-10–15 with a -39 rating in 76 games in 2023-24, the Blackhawks deemed it best for his long-term development to spend more time down a level in Rockford. The IceHogs aren’t the strongest club offensively, producing 2.87 goals per game, and that’s reflected in the team’s stars’ semi-conservative point totals. Korchinski still leads their blue line with 3-24–27 in 54 games, but he’s still behind the curve defensively as he adjusts to professional hockey. His -17 rating is the worst on the team.

However, his upside always primarily stemmed from his skating, offensive involvement, and power-play versatility. He ranks third among Chicago prospects and 28th overall on Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s most recent ranking of league prospects. While there remains concern about his defensive-zone decision-making, he’s a good stick-checker that could make him an effective transition defender – once the rest of the Blackhawks’ roster is filled out enough to play better system-oriented hockey.

In nine NHL games this season, coming on a December recall, Korchinski went without a point and logged a minus-five rating while seeing 16:46 of ice time per game. He controlled 46.6% of shot attempts and 50% of expected goals at even strength, however, both notable improvements on last year’s possession numbers (44.4 CF%, 40.4 xGF%).

Korchinski, a World Juniors gold medalist with Canada in 2023, still has one year remaining on his entry-level contract and will be a restricted free agent in 2026. He’s under team control for at least five seasons beyond this one and won’t be arbitration-eligible until he logs four seasons with at least 10 NHL games.

Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports.

Philadelphia Flyers Fire John Tortorella

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After nearly three years behind the bench, John Tortorella is no longer the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers announced they’ve relieved Tortorella of head coaching duties and named associate coach Brad Shaw the interim head coach for the remaining schedule.

In the statement, Flyers’ General Manager Daniel Brière said, “Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach. John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer. John’s passion on the bench was only equaled by his charitable work in our community. As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for our team to move forward. I’d like to thank John for his tireless work and commitment to the Flyers.”

It’s a bold yet unsurprising move from Brière. From most statements, the Flyers’ front office had honest expectations for the team heading into the 2024-25 season, and even those haven’t been met. The biggest tell that a change behind the bench was incoming was Tortorella’s comments after Philadelphia’s embarrassing defeat against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

Tortorella was quoted saying, “This falls on me. I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now. But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”

He attempted to smooth over the sentence in the same statement; however, Tortorella’s statement that he’s uninterested in learning how to coach in ’this type of season’ is indicative of the duress he was under through March. Philadelphia performed relatively well through the first five months of the season with a 26-26-8 record through 60 games, but the bottom has completely fallen out from underneath them.

Since the calendar turned to March, the Flyers have played 13 games but only won two. Opposing teams are outscoring them by a margin of 29, and they haven’t scored a powerplay goal despite having 31 opportunities to do so. Additionally, the team’s penalty kill operated at a 69.6% rate, which would only be higher than the Detroit Red Wings if that were extrapolated over the entire campaign. Surprisingly, the part that may sting the most for Philadelphia is that they largely controlled play at even strength with a 50.5% CorsiFor% through the month.

The blame can never be placed at the feet of one man, especially in a team sport. Still, a change had to be made after the wheels completely fell off the season. Surprisingly, Philadelphia didn’t wait until the end of the regular season to terminate Tortorella. The veteran coach’s comments from the other night may have been the final nail in the coffin for the Flyers’ management. Tortorella ends his tenure behind Philadelphia’s bench with a 97-107-33 record in 237 games.

Meanwhile, Shaw earns his second stint as a head coach in the National Hockey League for the first time since the 2005-06 season when he replaced Steve Stirling behind the bench for the New York Islanders. Shaw was hired as the Flyers’ associate coach in 2022-23, his second stint on Tortorella’s staff since their time with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

There’s little expectation that Shaw will remain as Philadelphia’s head coach beyond this season. Still, the organization will do their due diligence during the hiring process, and Shaw’s hat may be in the ring. If he doesn’t remain with the team beyond the current campaign, Shaw will only serve 9 games as the Flyers’ head coach.

Image courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images.

Golden Knights Expected To Activate Shea Theodore, Raphael Lavoie

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The Golden Knights are expected to activate defenseman Shea Theodore from long-term injured reserve, Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. They’ve also removed forward Raphael Lavoie from injured reserve, Webster relays from the league’s media site, but he’s not on the roster, indicating he’s been reassigned to AHL Henderson. Vegas wasn’t using Theodore’s LTIR relief to stay cap-compliant, so they could activate him without an additional cap-clearing move.

Theodore will be a game-time decision for tonight’s road matchup against the Wild as a result, head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters, including Jessi Pierce of NHL.com. The 29-year-old has been out since sustaining an arm injury while suiting up for Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

The 10-year veteran is amid another spectacular offensive campaign. After starting the year with three multi-point efforts in his first six appearances, he put pen to paper on a seven-year, $51.975MM extension to keep him in Vegas for what could be the rest of his career. He went onto post 48 points in 55 games until the 4 Nations break, during which he injured his right arm on a hit from Swedish winger Adrian Kempe in the Canadians’ first round-robin game.

While injuries have taken a huge bite out of Theodore’s availability for the third season in a row, he remains one of the league’s premier point producers from the blue line. Since the 2019-20 season, Theodore’s 271 points rank 11th among defensemen, while his 0.75 points per game rank ninth among rearguards with at least 100 games played. The Golden Knights hope he can continue at this season’s 71-point pace upon his return, helping soften the blow of losing star center Tomáš Hertl to a shoulder injury for at least their next three games after he didn’t travel with the team, Webster relayed yesterday.

Theodore presumably returns to his usual spot, playing his offside with lefty Brayden McNabb on the team’s second pairing. The duo, who have been regular partners since the 2021-22 season, have controlled 52.7% of expected goals this season while outscoring opponents 25-21 at 5v5, per MoneyPuck. 24-year-old Kaedan Korczak will likely head to the press box after playing a regular role in Theodore’s absence, posting five assists and a plus-four rating in 13 games coming out of the 4 Nations break.

Lavoie presumably heads to the farm after being held out of the lineup since March 5 with an upper-body injury. The 24-year-old narrowly remains waiver-exempt, playing just nine NHL games this season and remaining on the active roster for under 30 cumulative days thanks to a series of paper transactions. The ex-Oilers prospect hopped between Edmonton and Vegas three times on the waiver wire in October before finally settling down with the Knights organization.

He hasn’t made an impact in the NHL lineup when dressed, averaging 10:05 per game and posting a minus-four rating without registering a point. He remains pointless across 16 career big league appearances, but he does have 13-8–21 in 32 showings for Henderson this year.

Blackhawks’ Jason Dickinson Out For Season

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Blackhawks head coach Anders Sorensen told reporters today that center Jason Dickinson is done for the year after sustaining a wrist injury (via Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times). For now, Chicago still has 12 healthy forwards, so don’t expect a corresponding move – at least not immediately.

A couple of weeks ago, Dickinson returned to the lineup after a high ankle sprain sustained just before the 4 Nations break held him out of a month’s worth of action. He then hurt his wrist while fighting Blues forward Jake Neighbours in the first period of Saturday’s loss and missed Sunday’s game against the Flyers.

He ends his season with 7-9–16 in 59 games, a far cry from his career-best 2023-24 campaign that earned him a two-year, $8.5MM extension. His career high was 22 points when Chicago acquired the pivot from Vancouver during training camp in 2022, but he put up back-to-back 30-point campaigns to begin his Blackhawks tenure – including 22 goals and 13 assists for 35 points last year while playing in all 82 games. It was Dickinson’s first time hitting double-digit goals in his 10-year career, and his plus-four rating on a team with a -111 goal differential earned him outside Selke Trophy consideration.

While Dickinson’s shooting percentage has remained at a respectable 12.5%, he’s not generating individual chances near the rate he did last year. He averaged 0.95 shots on goal per game in 2024-25 compared to 1.54 in 2023-24. He’s also attempting 12% fewer shots per game than last season. Some of that can be attributed to a marginal decrease in average ice time (15:42, down from 16:34), but it’s still a disappointing regression.

He remains an effective checking forward, winning under 49.5% of his draws while contributing 53 blocks and 102 hits. Unfortunately, his substantial possession impacts from last year also nosedived in 2024-25. His expected rating dropped from -4.3 to -10.9 at even strength, while his CF% decreased from 46.4 to 43.4. That’s amid a slight overall increase in Chicago’s 5v5 possession play, checking in at 44.7% of shot attempts so far in 2024-25 after finishing with 44.3% in 2023-24.

Dickinson had spent the majority of his time in the lineup centering a line with Ilya Mikheyev and Teuvo Teräväinen. Captain Nick Foligno assumed that role against Philly and could do so for the remainder of the year, although the Hawks have shuffled their lines frequently in the past few months.

Capitals Sign Jakob Chychrun To Eight-Year Extension

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Washington Capitals have signed defenseman Jakob Chychrun to an eight-year, $72MM extension ($9MM AAV). An extension between the Capitals and Chychrun has seemingly been in the works for some time, with rumored interest dating back to the beginning of the season.

The deal comes across as a market-setter for upper-echelon defensemen ahead of unrestricted free agency kicking off in a few months, not too dissimilar from how Leon Draisaitl’s eight-year, $112MM extension influenced the market for superstar forwards. Of course, Chychrun would be the top name on that market if he didn’t reach an agreement with Washington. Instead, he gets a deal that gives him much-desired stability while tying him for the tenth-highest-paid defenseman in the league, at least for next season.

Acquired from the Senators last summer in what was Chychrun’s second swap in as many years, the soon-to-be 27-year-old has re-emerged as a top-20 rearguard in the league. He’s seemingly shed the injury-prone label that followed him at the beginning of his career in Arizona, playing in 147 of 152 possible contests since the beginning of last season. After spending the first eight years of his time in the NHL with middling Coyotes and Senators clubs, he’s tracking to make the postseason for the first time aside from Arizona’s appearance in the 2020 bubble – playing a crucial role on the current President’s Trophy favorite.

The Caps’ league-leading offense is something to behold, considering their question marks entering the season about their depth, and a large part of their system success can be attributed to how general manager Chris Patrick retooled their blue line on the fly. Along with signing Matt Roy, acquiring Chychrun gave the Caps another puck mover with historically strong possession impacts to slot into their top four. He’s held up his end of the bargain, ranking third in the league in goals by defensemen with 18 and adding 25 assists for 43 points, second among Washington defenders behind John Carlson’s 46. He’s split the year between pairings with Carlson and Trevor van Riemsdyk, leading to a slight reduction in ice time compared to his career average. His 20:56 ATOI is his lowest mark since the 2018-19 campaign, but that’s a testament to Washington’s blue line depth more than anything else.

Aside from the point totals (his 0.662 points per game are 17th in the league among defensemen), he continues to positively impact the Caps’ ability to keep the puck out of their net. His 52.8 CF% is second among Washington defensemen behind Carlson at even strength, and his +4.6 expected rating is third. While his overall shares are driven more by his offensive production, his raw defensive numbers at 5v5 (26.15 scoring chances against per 60 minutes, per Natural Stat Trick) are still in line with his teammates.

Chychrun will return to D.C. next season along with all five of his regular teammates on defense, barring any trades. As the aging Carlson and van Riemsdyk weigh their future past next season, Washington’s defensemen at No. 2-4 on their depth chart – Chychrun, Roy, and Rasmus Sandin – are all signed through at least 2029. The other piece of the puzzle, Martin Fehérváry, is set to be an RFA in the summer of 2026 in Washington’s last year of team control. The Caps are committing $33.025MM in cap space to their blue line for 2025-26, 34.6% of the $95.5MM upper limit.

Overall, Washington now projects to have $14.125MM in spending money this offseason with six roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. They don’t have any particularly high-cost pending free agents on the active roster, so that should be enough flexibility to retain who they want while making a somewhat impactful add on the open market.

Since the beginning of Chychrun’s breakout 2020-21 campaign in Arizona, when he finished 10th in Norris voting, he ranks 27th in the league among defensemen in points per game (min. 100 games). He has 94-165–259 in 532 career games with Arizona, Ottawa, and Washington.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

PHR’s Josh Erickson contributed significantly to this article.

Canucks’ Elias Pettersson, Nils Hoglander Out At Least Four Games

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The Vancouver Canucks will be without star centerman Elias Pettersson and top-six winger Nils Hoglander for the remaining four games of their current road-trip per NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. Both players missed Vancouver’s team practice on Sunday after each leaving Saturday night’s game with injury. Pettersson exited with roughly five minutes left in the second period. He didn’t appear to sustain an injury, though none of his final five shifts lasted longer than 30 seconds. Hoglander exited with under two minutes left in the second and also didn’t appear injured, though he did get in a choppy stick battle in his final shift. Both players are out with undisclosed injuries.

The Canucks were two games into their second six-game road trip of the season. Pettersson and Hoglander were both pivotal pieces of the lineup in the road trip’s kickoff game against St. Louis on Thursday. Pettersson led all forwards with 20 minutes of ice time and recorded two assists, while Hoglander scored one assist in 17 minutes of ice time. Neither scored in their limited action on Saturday, and Vancouver will now be forced to fill two glaring holes in their top-six.

Rookie Aatu Räty is expected to earn an immediate promotion to the lineup. Räty hasn’t played since January 31st, which was itself a one-off start after not receiving routine NHL minutes since December. He’s appeared in 21 NHL games in total this season, netting just four points split evenly. Räty has been far more productive in the minor leagues, where he leads the Abbotsford Canucks in both total and point-per-game scoring with 39 points in 41 games. The Canucks recalled Räty ahead of Saturday’s game, and he’ll now have a golden chance at hardy minutes with Vancouver away from home for another week.

The Canucks are also carrying rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki, who has rotated into the NHL lineup throughout March. He’s managed seven appearances and one assist through the month, bringing his season-long totals up to four points in 18 NHL Games. Lekkerimaki has also scored 19 goals and 28 points in 32 AHL games this year. He’s received as little as nine minutes of ice time through his recent stretch in the top flight, though Hoglander’s absence should break open at least a third-line role. Räty and Lekkerimaki could also be beneficiaries of the large chunk of power-play minutes that both Pettersson and Hoglander leave behind.

This will be a great chance for Vancouver’s top prospects to show they can shine. The Canucks will need all the support they can get, as they find themselves five points away from a Western Conference Wild Card with two games in hand. They’ve posted a menial 5-4-1 record over their last 10 games – not enough to get ahead the red-hot, 8-1-1 St. Louis Blues or the productive 5-2-3 record of the Calgary Flames. Even with opportunity at hand, it’s hard to imagine the rookies will live up to Pettersson’s 45 points in 64 games this season, which leads all Canucks forwards. Hoglander’s 21 points in 66 games, and gritty middle-six role, will likely be a bit more acheivable to match.

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