New Canucks prospect Josh Bloom brings high energy and PK prowess

In the shadow of bigger and more significant trade deadline moves, the Vancouver Canucks bolstered their prospect pool by acquiring 19-year-old winger Josh Bloom from Buffalo for Riley Stillman.

Drafted by the Sabres at the end of the third round in 2021, the 6-foot-2 forward was part of the Ontario Hockey League crop who didn’t have a draft-eligible season because of the pandemic.

The 19-year-old, who was named the captain of the Saginaw Spirit this season, saw himself traded to the North Bay Battalion for a myriad of OHL draft picks.

Since that move, Bloom’s offensive contributions have seen an uptick, scoring 45 points (21-24-45) across 42 games. While flashy end-to-end scoring dominates the Oakville-born forward’s highlights, it’s only part of the equation of what makes Bloom an intriguing prospect.

Penalty killing prowess

When down a man, Bloom is a downright menace when pushing pressure on puck carriers. He ups his pace, forcing subpar passes, and is like a mosquito trapped in your tent — he will not stop annoying you until he can force you into a fit.

Bloom finds and locks down secondary threats, scans the ice to create a mental map of opponents’ positioning, and can shred seconds off the penalty kill.

This utility is not only translatable but important when considering a potential role for Bloom in the future. If a player is an adaptable defender, there’s less onus on being a projectable scorer at higher levels.

Flashing skill in transition

Bloom has also proven to be able to translate defensive sequences into offensive success. Across the past two OHL seasons, the former 95th-overall pick has amassed a whopping 11 shorthanded goals — tied for first among all players across the league. Bloom accomplishes this by anticipating and jumping into pass lanes, pushing physical pressure, stripping blue line pucks, and leveraging his acceleration to separate from defenders.

He’s crafty in tight, able to pull the puck across his body for highlight real handles.

Bloom is surprisingly manipulative as well, able to change the direction of his feet to push a goaltender one way, only to cut against the grain for an open net. He disguises his release to open up parts of the net and leverages his heavily learning wrist shot to place pucks in hard-to-save areas of the net.

A lot of Bloom’s shooting on the rush can come outside of the slot, which doesn’t typically bode well against NHL goaltenders, but when he is in high-danger areas, he’s always a threat to score.

The former Saginaw captain also has a wide variety of passing skills. He’s like a spinning top at times, cutting back against the grain to send a tape pass through a newly opened lane. Bloom can one-touch pucks, layer passes through multiple defenders, and as long as he’s pushing north-to-south, can work give-and-go attacks.

Where Bloom struggles is when he starts working the puck laterally through traffic. He often tunnels into the puck — you can even see his eyes pointed down at his blade, missing obvious pass options, running into immense pressure, and frankly making sub-optimal plays.

If this is an issue in the OHL, it suggests Bloom will have to default at higher levels into being more of a straight-line attacker who can flash skill, rather than someone who is going to change their routes. With that, means a potential loss in scoring potential but more efficiency in the long run.

A dangerous shooter

This puck management issue extends into Bloom’s on-puck work in the offensive zone. While he still is a talented distributor who can slip pucks through opponents’ triangles and connect at distances, he picks risky options constantly and lacks scanning habits to find where his teammates have moved to. Bloom relies on instinct, and that is when you see a lot of successes and failures.

Luckily, Bloom doesn’t need possession to be effective in the offensive zone. His off-puck movement, timing into high-danger areas, and pass-supporting habits are top-notch. Combine that with the aforementioned shooting skill, and Bloom is a dangerous one or two-touch shooter. In terms of adaptability to higher levels, this ability can continually be leveraged to produce high-danger scoring chances.

Future outlook

When looking through the Canucks’ prospect pool, there is a lack of high-energy forwards who could occupy a penalty-killing niche in the professional game. Bloom could end up being a premium version of this archetype. He may not be a possession monster, but a middle-six, counter-attacking, defence-first, player who already is flashing leadership intangibles, is definitely a possibility.

Bloom will have to become a more effective forechecker — Mitchell Brown’s tracked data from his previous seasons show a lack of offensive zone retrievals — this means he isn’t winning pucks from defenders on the end boards, but this of all things can be learned. Regardless, Bloom’s addition could bear dividends down the road.

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