First things first.
Just hours after Sweden was eliminated at the World Hockey Championship, the Vancouver Canucks announced, as expected, that they have inked prospect Linus Karlsson to his entry-level contract.
"We are excited to officially welcome Linus to Vancouver," said general manager Patrik Allvin in the Canucks' statement. "He is a good goal scorer who plays a solid two-way game, and he is coming off an impressive rookie season in Sweden. We look forward to seeing him develop his game in North America."
As you've probably heard previously, Karlsson made headlines this season when he broke Elias Pettersson's rookie goal-scoring record in the Swedish Hockey League, posting 26 goals and 20 assists in 52 games. His situation is a bit different, however, since he's a 22-year-old who had previously spent three seasons in Sweden's second-tier pro league, Allsvenskan.
Pettersson was 19 when he set his record — but he did spend his full 2016-17 draft year with Timra in Allsvenskan before moving up to the SHL. The year before, in 2015-16, he split his time almost evenly between Timra's junior team and their men's team, where he managed nine points in 25 games.
Per
CapFriendly, Karlsson's contract is a two-year, two-way deal. It carries a small signing bonus in each year and a small performance-bonus component, with a base salary of the league-minimum $750,000 in 2022-23 and $832,500 in 2023-24. All told, that will be a cap hit of $883,750 if he's with the big club.
According to
Chris Faber at Canucks Army, Karlsson will touch down in Vancouver for the first time at the summer development camp, which is slated for July 10-15.
As you may remember, the Canucks acquired Karlsson's rights from the San Jose Sharks at the 2019 trade deadline, in a one-for-one swap for Jonathan Dahlen. Two years older, Dahlen was in his first full season with the Utica Comets when he was dealt away. He made his NHL debut with the Sharks last season, putting up 10 goals and 22 points in 61 games. But his season was wildly inconsistent, and he was healthy scratched at times as well as suffering some injuries.
Karlsson will be waiver exempt for up to 60 NHL games or three seasons, whichever comes first. So if he fails to crack the main lineup this fall, he'll be an offensive talent added to the roster in Abbotsford.
Here are the other potential Abbotsford players who are under contract for next season:
Forwards:
• Danila Klimovich
• Karel Plasek
• Carson Focht
• Arshdeep Bains
Though they are technically waiver exempt, I'm assuming that Nils Hoglander and Vasily Podkolzin will be back with the big club against next season.
Will Lockwood is an RFA with arbitration rights.
Defense:
• Kyle Burroughs
• Brady Keeper
• Jett Woo
I'm including Burroughs here in hopes that the Canucks' defense is deep enough next season that he doesn't make the big club out of camp. But it wouldn't be the worst thing if he made the big club out of camp: the 26-year-old local boy brought some much-needed bite during his 42 games with the big club, and carries a modest cap hit of $750,000 at the NHL level.
Vancouver also retains the rights to Guillaume Brisebois (RFA with arbitration rights) and Jack Rathbone (10.2(c)).
In net, Arturs Silovs is signed for two more seasons, while Mikey DiPietro is an RFA without arbitration rights.
There has been one other player personnel note from the big club over the last few days. After it was rumoured that impending UFA Alex Chiasson was looking at signing in Switzerland, his agent shot down those rumours, saying that his client hoped to be back with Vancouver next year.
Patrick Johnston from
The Province also got a comment from the Canucks:
Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told Postmedia Wednesday the Canucks would not be in a position to make a decision on re-signing Chiasson until after free agency opened in July.
I really liked what Chiasson brought to the table down the stretch, as the push for a playoff spot intensified. Ten of his 22 points from the year came during the month of April as his ice time spiked to 16:02 per game — miles above his season average of 11:36. Some of that would have been due to all the late-season injuries, but he delivered when called upon. And as one of only two guys in the room with a Stanley Cup ring, his leadership qualities also started to show as the pressure rose.
He was an inexpensive option this season. And much like Burroughs, as much as I'd kind of like to see him back, I'd also like to see the Canucks make other upgrades to the point where there simply wouldn't be room for him. I think that's what Rutherford is implying with his comment.
Finally — looping back to the World Championship.
Sweden's quarterfinal ouster by Canada was a big surprise. The Swedes had finished second in Group B and had beaten the top-ranked Finns in round-robin play, while Canada finished third in Group A and had lost to both Switzerland and Denmark in group play — the Canadians' first loss to the Danes in history.
Also, Logan Thompson had been playing as Canada's starting goaltender, but missed the final round-robin game against France due to injury, and was also unavailable for the quarterfinal. After playing in just two of Canada's first six games, Chris Driedger was pressed into action against France and Sweden.
In the quarterfinal, Sweden jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Carl Klingberg and William Nylander, then kind of sat back. Shots were 11-9 for Sweden in the first period, then an insane 19-1 for Canada in the second. Even crazier, Sweden scored on its only second-period shot, as Max Friberg boosted his team's lead to 3-0.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson drew an assist on that goal.
Early in the third, Canada got on the board off a goal from defenseman Ryan Graves — his second of the tournament. Then, the Canadians had to kill off penalties to Nicolas Roy and Drake Batherson before Rasmus Dahlin got whistled for a puck-over-glass infraction with just 3:52 remaining in regulation time.
Canadian coach Claude Julien pulled Driedger when he could, and Pierre-Luc Dubois got his team within one just as the penalty was about to expire, with 1:53 left to go — his team-leading seventh goal and 12th point of the tournament.
With time running down, Julien called time out. As play resumed, Driedger was pulled again. Just 30 seconds elapsed before a backhand shot through traffic by Mat Barzal found its way past Linus Ullmark, setting up a 10-minute 3-on-3 overtime period.
With all the momentum on their side, the game ended quickly. William Nylander got whistled for a tripping penalty just 25 seconds into the extra frame. After just 18 seconds of a 4-on-3 power play, Drake Batherson beat Ullmark for what proved to be the winner — sending Sweden home while Canada moves on to the semis to face reunited David Pastrnak and David Krejci and the Czechs.
The Czech team advanced with a 4-1 win over Germany — who had finished second in Group A, ahead of Canada.
The other semifinal will feature the host Finns, who advanced with a 4-2 win over Slovakia and are looking to add World Championship gold to their February gold medal from the Olympics. Juho Lammikko played 13:09 for the Finns, and had one shot on goal.
Finally, Team USA upset Switzerland to advance, shutting out the only unbeaten team in the tournament, which had finished first in Group A. Former Canuck Adam Gaudette is tied for the U.S. scoring lead with four goals and two assists, but it's yet another Boston Bruin, Jeremy Swayman, who changed the fortunes of the American team when he arrived late.
USA looked like they'd be in tough to even make the knockout round after opening the tournament with a win over Latvia, then eking out an overtime win over Austria and losing to Finland. But Swayman arrived in time to pitch a 3-0 shutout over Great Britain, then surprise Sweden with a 3-2 overtime win — with Bruins teammate Linus Ullmark in the Swedish net.
Swayman then closed out his portion of the round robin with another shutout, beating the Czechs 1-0. Strauss Mann took the net for the final-day win over Norway, then Swayman returned for the surprise 3-0 win over the Swiss.
Reaching the semifinals is a good result for coach David Quinn, after Team USA underperformed on his watch at the Olympics. They'll be in tough against Finland on Saturday, but will still get a chance to play for a bronze medal, at worst.
The Finland/USA showdown is set for Saturday morning at 4:20 a.m. PT. Canada plays the Czechs at 8:20 a.m. PT, then the medal games will go down on Sunday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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