Plenty of Roster Intrigue for Vancouver Canucks Development Camp

The Vancouver Canucks announced their roster for Development Camp that includes on-ice work beginning July 11th and running through July 14th on the UBC campus. Many names jump out, these are a few of the more intriguing ones. Seven’s a lucky number.

— Arshdeep Bains – The Surrey kid who lit up the Western Hockey League with a scoring title for Red Deer will attract a lot of eyeballs and well-wishers when he gets things started in a couple days. 43 goals and 112 points are impressive numbers even for a WHL over-ager, and now the undrafted 6-foot-1, 195 pound left-shot left wing will get to prove his mettle after signing with the Vancouver Canucks on March 11th.

— Daimon Gardner – Intriguing is just trying to figure out where he’s from; we’ve heard a few different places. Turns out the left-shot centre was born in Eagle Lake in western Ontario, moved to Winnipeg, then to Warroad, Minnesota, up north in what’s called the Iron Range, and played high school hockey while mixing in a bit of USHL. BC hockey fans will be able to follow his progress as he’s slated to the play for the Chilliwack Chiefs in the BCHL. A big 6-foot-4 body, the Canucks 4th-round pick will battle in camp against more mature players.

— Danila Klimovich – Needless to say, observers on-hand will expect to see another level from the Canucks 2nd-round draft pick from last summer. He brings a 6-foot-1 inch, 208 pound frame to camp with a year under his belt with the AHL Abbotsford Canucks. Vancouver needs some depth on right wing and would love this prospect to turn into the real deal. Just eight goals and ten assists in 62 American Hockey League games, but admittedly those numbers came in a bizarre, difficult season.

— Jonathan Lekkerimäki – The Vancouver Canucks first 1st-round pick since Vasily Podkolzin was selected 10th-overall in 2019, Lekkerimäki will obviously get lots of attention. The light and lanky right-shot winger was selected 15th-overall on Thursday after an impressive season in which he mixed time with the juniors and the Swedish Hockey League club in Djurgardens (Stockholm). His wrist shot is apparently a thing-of-beauty and he’ll have a chance to start unleashing it for the Canucks at some point this week.

— Jackson Dorrington – The Canucks 6th-round pick on Friday was some level of a steal by the club, if that’s even possible for a 6th-rounder. But Vancouver Canucks Director of Scouting Todd Harvey was pretty stoked about snagging this player. He’s a battler on the back-end from outside Boston; the lefty played in the USHL last season.

— Viktor Persson – The twenty-year-old right-shot defenceman will be interesting to watch after putting up 29 points in 65 games last season for the Kamloops Blazers in the WHL. Interesting simply because of the fact he’s a righty D-man and Vancouver would love him to be a pleasant surprise after being taken in the 7th-around in 2020.

— Arturs Silovs – Just how is the Latvian goaltender coming along? Vancouver’s 6th-round draft pick in 2019 split his time evenly last season between the AHL Canucks and the ECHL Trois-Rivieres Lions. He appeared more comfortable at the lower level. He turned age-21 in late March.

Oh yeah! And I heard Elias Pettersson will be there. That would be ‘Petey-two-point-oh’, the defenceman the Vancouver Canucks selected in the 3rd-round on Friday.