Being a healthy scratch wasn’t a completely foreign concept to Hunter Shinkaruk when he began his first professional hockey season last autumn.

But that didn’t mean sitting in the press box on a rare occasion as a member of the Utica Comets was any easier to take for the Vancouver Canucks’ 2013 first-round draft pick.

“I’ve had that a few times when I was 16 in junior,” Shinkaruk said Thursday, as Canucks prospects skated ahead of Friday’s Young Stars Tournament game against the Edmonton Oilers and, perhaps, phenom Connor McDavid at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton.

“Obviously it is tough. You don’t want to have that happen but that’s part of hockey and that’s part of life. There’s going to be things that don’t go well but you’ve got to come to the rink and work as hard as you can. I thought the way I finished the year, it was about as good as I can going into this camp.”

Shinkaruk, who missed the final half of his 2013-14 junior season in Medicine Hat following hip surgery, finished his AHL rookie season with 16 goals and 31 points in 74 regular, and four goals and six points in 23 playoff games, as the Comets made it all the way to the Calder Cup final.

His point totals were far from overwhelming. It could be argued they were, in fact, quite the opposite.

By his own admission, Shinkaruk, a prolific scorer in junior, got off to a slow start as he adjusted to the grind of the AHL, but took the glass-half-full approach for his performance in the second half, including the playoffs.

“The first half of the year was a little bit of ups and downs,” said Shinkaruk.

Both he and Comets head coach Travis Green, who will be behind the bench for the Canucks prospects in Penticton, pointed to added responsibilities, such as ice time late in close games, for Shinkaruk as the season progressed as evidence of the young forward’s growth.

“It’s a tough league. He had almost half a year off. I liked how his game progressed,” said Green.

“A lot of people can look and pick apart anything they want but … it’s not an easy league to score in, especially that time of year. But I was happy with his season and I’m looking forward to seeing how he’s worked this summer to come back as a better player.”

If Thursday’s skate was any indication, it appears Shinkaruk will start the tournament on a line with fellow top prospects Jake Virtanen, taken sixth overall in the 2014 draft, and centre Cole Cassels, selected in the third round of 2013 and coming off an impressive season that culminated with a Memorial Cup championship with Oshawa.

The line combos have already been up for some online debate, although they could be subject to change quickly.

It’s an indication of how Vancouver’s pool of forward prospects has grown in the past two or three years, which comes at a time when the Canucks appear headed down a path of getting younger – while publicly maintaining they’re still trying to remain competitive in the Western Conference.

A number of young players in Vancouver’s system could be vying for a roster spot with the Canucks for this season. And if not in October, an audition with the big club could present itself later on, if the team is hit hard with injuries or out of the playoff picture.

“I’ve kind of thought I’ve had a chance since I was 18,” said Shinkaruk, who had a long look with the Canucks in the pre-season just a few months after he was drafted.

“Every year that goes by, it’s another year you want to make it. You want to get up there and you want to stay there.”