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Fans of the Vancouver Canucks might have trouble stomaching Lance Bouma’s scouting report on Gustav Forsling.

“He’s very smart, very fast and moves the puck well,” Bouma said of his Blackhawks’ teammate after Chicago’s morning skate Thursday at Rogers Arena in preparation for meeting the Vancouver Canucks there that night.

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“I think he’s improved a lot from last year, and he’s still a young guy,” added Bouma.

Forsling, a 21-year-old defenceman, has all the tools to develop into the NHL power-play quarterback that the Canucks have been searching for seemingly forever, if you go off Bouma’s account.

The Canucks had Forsling in the mix until they traded their 2014 fifth-round draft pick out of Linkoping, Sweden to the Blackhawks on Jan. 29, 2015 in exchange for defenceman Adam Clendening.

Clendening played 17 games with Vancouver that season, and was shipped to the Pittsburgh Penguins that summer as part of the Brandon Sutter deal. Clendening has since made stops with the Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers and Arizona Coyotes.