We're rolling into the long weekend and now just one week away from the fist game of this year's Young Stars tournament.
Today, I'll wrap up my tournament preview by profiling the Vancouver Canucks' invitees on defense and in goal.
INVITEES - DEFENSE:
Jakob Brahaney - Undrafted after two years of eligibility, 19-year-old Jakob Brahaney put up some decent numbers on the back end with the Kingston Frontenacs last season, with five goals and 30 points in 67 games. He also tied for the Frontenacs team lead with a plus-25 and has pretty good size at 6'1" and 181 pounds. Perhaps a bit of a late bloomer, he took big steps forward when he moved into a top-four role in Kingston last year. You can read more about Brahaney
here.
Kaleb Bulych – Going into his second full season with the Vancouver Giants, Kaleb Bulych is a Saskatchewan native who was not selected in his first year of draft eligibility last June. The 18-year-old is built like Elias Pettersson at 6’1” and 165 pounds and is said to be a decent puck-mover, though his offensive upside appears to be limited.
Jagger Dirk - A legacy player, Jagger is the son of former Canucks defenseman Robert Dirk, who came to Vancouver along with Geoff Courtnall, Sergio Momesso and Cliff Ronning in one of Pat Quinn's best trades, when he sent Garth Butcher and Dan Quinn to the St. Louis Blues at the 1991 trade deadline.
A big stay-at-home defenseman, Robert spent three years with the Canucks, putting up 27 points and 401 penalty minutes in 271 games. He was dealt to Chicago at the 1994 trade deadline.
Jagger doesn't have his dad's size—he's listed at 6'0" and a hair under 200 pounds. He's already 25 years old, but he is a somewhat legitimate prospect. Dirk was signed to an AHL contract with the Comets after playing seven games with the Binghamton Devils last season following the conclusion of a four-year career at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.
Young Stars will be a homecoming for Jagger, who was born in Penticton in May of 1993, while his dad was a member of the Canucks. He spent four years with the Kootenay Ice of the WHL before heading for university.
Garrett McFadden - A 21-year-old who captained the Guelph Storm last season, Garrett McFadden had a solid 44 points in 68 games but his defensive awareness may not be terrific—last season, he improved to a career-best minus-25. He's also on the small size at 5'11 and 180 pounds. After his OHL season was over, McFadden got a brief tryout with the Laval Rocket in the AHL, where he picked up one assist in four games. He's off to Acadia University this fall.
INVITEE - GOAL:
Thatcher Demko is a Young Star no more! After two tournaments—and his first NHL game last season—Demko's Instagram stories show that he's still home in California; he should be arriving in Vancouver soon to start getting ready for main camp.
That leaves Michael DiPietro to share the net in Penticton with Ivan Kulbakov - a soon-to-be-22-year-old from Belarus who signed a one-year AHL deal with Utica in July. Kulbakov is entering his third season in North America. He had a 1.99 goals-against average and .919 save percentage with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL in 2016-17 before dividing his time between the ECHL's Quad City Mallards and the AHL Cleveland Monsters with the Columbus organization last year. He also played two games for Belarus at the World Championship in May.
Playing behind the returning Demko and Richard Bachman, Kulbakov will most likely start his year in the ECHL with Kalamazoo but he could get a chance to move up if the people get their way and Demko gets called up to the Canucks.
What happened to Michael Garteig? The Prince George native struggled last season, with a .887 save percentage and 3.81 GAA in 24 games in Kalamazoo. His underlying numbers were better during his eight appearances with the Comets but with an 0-4-1 record for the year at the AHL level, it makes sense for the Canucks to replace the 26-year-old with a younger netminder who should have more potential upside.
Kulbakov will be interesting to follow. He made history as the first Belarusian goalie ever to appear in the NHL when he played in a preseason game with Columbus last year.
I'll send you into the weekend with the video from the annual Fishing for Kids tournament, which reportedly raised $1 million for the Canucks Autism Network. This year, Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen were the player representatives on the trip.
I'm not a fisherperson, but I do want to make the trip to Haida Gwaii. Trying to figure out the best way to make that happen.
Enjoy your weekend!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»