The Vancouver Canucks will be looking for revenge on Friday night as they face the team that knocked them out of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs: the Edmonton Oilers.
Okay, it's not quite a grudge match, as the teams wearing the Canucks and Oilers jerseys will be composed of young prospects and AHLers rather than the likes of J.T. Miller and Connor McDavid. Still, it will be exciting to finally have hockey back after a long offseason as the Canucks' prospects face the Oilers' prospects in Penticton at the 2024 Young Stars Classic.
"This has been circled on my calendar for quite some time," said new Abbotsford Canucks head coach — and former Vancouver Canuck — Manny Malhotra. "It's nice to actually get on the ice with them and do hockey stuff...You're getting out of summer habits and summer hockey mode. The biggest thing is falling back into structure and recognizing details within the game."
Those who live in Penticton — or who made the trip for the weekend — can watch the games in person but those outside of Penticton are not out of luck. The Canucks will be , complete with play-by-play by Sportsnet 650's own Brendan Batchelor.
Batchelor will be joined by a different colour commentator for each game. Friday's game will feature Oilers reporter Paige Martin, Sunday's game against the Winnipeg Jets will feature Jets' radio colour commentator Mitchell Clinton, and Monday's game against the Calgary Flames will feature Flames TV's Brendan Parker.
In the past, the Canucks have streamed Young Stars games not only on their website but also on YouTube. According to the Canucks, the plan for this year is to stream the game entirely on Canucks.com. .
Canucks projected lines
Here are the projected lines and starting goaltender for Friday night's game according to Batchelor:
Ty Halaburda and Deagan McMillan will be healthy scratches, as will drafted defencemen Sawyer Mynio and Basile Sansonnens.
Oilers projected lines
The Oilers, meanwhile, will be with a first line that features two first-round picks: Sam O'Reilly, who they selected 32nd overall in this year's draft, and Matt Savoie, the ninth-overall pick in the 2022 draft by the Buffalo Sabres, who they acquired via trade during the offseason.
Connor Clattenburg - Sam O'Reilly - Matt Savoie
Matvey Petrov - Dalyn Wakely - James Stefan
William Nicholl - Jayden Grubbe - Ethan De Jong
Jesse Heslop - Carl Berglund - Brayden Boehm
Frankie Marrelli - Maximus Wanner
Hyde Davidson - Marc Lajoie
Nate Corbet - Rhys Pederson
Nathaniel Day
Connor Ungar
Young Stars Classic schedule
Here's the complete schedule of games for this weekend:
Friday, September 13
Game 1: Calgary vs Winnipeg at 4:00pm PT
Game 2: Vancouver vs Edmonton at 7:30pm PT
Saturday, September 14
Exhibition: Penticton Vees vs Salmon Arm at 3:00pm PT
Game 3: Calgary vs Edmonton at 7:30pm PT
Sunday, September 15
Game 4: Vancouver vs Winnipeg at 2:00pm PT
Monday, September 16
Game 5: Winnipeg vs Edmonton at 11:00am PT
Game 6: Calgary vs Vancouver at 2:30pm PT
