The Canucks have made it very clear that they'd be seeking help down the middle to support their superstars Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. It was rumored that the Canucks thought very highly of the pending UFA Ivan Barbashev. However, a recent comparison suggests that the Canucks already have a similar player down their pipeline.
The Canucks drafted a young Belarus in the second round of the 2021 amateur selection, Danila Klimovich, who's now in his second season on North-American soil. The Athlectic's analyst, Thomas Drance, made an extremely intriguing statement suggesting that Klimovich's high-end potential would resemble the Stanley Cup-winning and one of the best third-line centerman in the league, Ivan Barbashev.
It's fair to say that at this point Klimovich is still very much a project in development. Klimovich has improved significantly through his first two years of professional hockey and he definitely has all the required tools to develop into a prominent third-line centerman. Standing at 6'02'' and 205 pounds, a rare right-handed shot pivot, he's an energetic player and if Jeremy Colliton makes him the player he is meant to be, it would be huge for the Canucks.
