Matt Brassard | D

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Too bad for Brassard. Getting hurt in the game that elimated his team from the playoffs. That really sucks. Hopefully he’s just a bit banged up and it’s not a serious shoulder injury.

 

I’d think he’d have earned an ATO if he’d stayed healthy. Even if it was just to join the practice squad, it would have been a good experience for him. 

 

He could still get signed and join Utica next season. Or back to the OHL for an overage year. But right now, he needs to concentrate on getting healthy.

[Quantum]

4 hours ago, UticaHockey said:

No Utica for Brassard.

 

Sounds like the injury is shutting him down. It's smart. I suspect he'll get a contract but that the Canucks will wait until the Summer to give him an ELC. It'll probably dictated by his injury status/how he does at the rookie camp. Canucks really aren't in a position to not give promising D-men a look. Rather give Brassard an ELC then not but, also, he does have another year until we lose his rights so, there's tons of time for the Canucks to make a decision. 

 

A little disappointed he's not getting an ATO, at the very least, but we'll see what happens next with Brassard.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Here’s the play where he got hurt. Goes end to end and nearly scores. But then the defender gets his stick in and trips up Brassard sending him hard into the boards.

 

Sucks that he got hurt.

 

But one positive: those “heavy feet” definitely seem to be working for Brassard and he flies past pretty much the entire opposing team.

Edited April 2, 2018 by SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME

[Ihatetomatoes]

For those who've watched Brassard and know more about him what are his chances of playing for Utica next year?

 

I'm just a stat watcher for the most part so I have no idea what level of talent a guy needs to be at to be an AHL player vs a ECHL player coming out of Juniors.

 

Is he a lock to be Utica bound? Is it unlikely? Or is he borderline and will tryout for the team much like a guy would tryout for the Canucks before deciding if he's an NHL player or AHL player?

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

6 hours ago, Ihatetomatoes said:

For those who've watched Brassard and know more about him what are his chances of playing for Utica next year?

 

I'm just a stat watcher for the most part so I have no idea what level of talent a guy needs to be at to be an AHL player vs a ECHL player coming out of Juniors.

 

Is he a lock to be Utica bound? Is it unlikely? Or is he borderline and will tryout for the team much like a guy would tryout for the Canucks before deciding if he's an NHL player or AHL player?

Borderline at this point. I think the Canucks hoped they’d get Brassard to Utica on an ATO so they could get a look at him before making a decision on his ELC and where they expect him to play. But then he got injured.

 

They still might sign him this year. But it’s hard to know what they’re thinking.

 

Brassard has probably shown enough to warrant a contract. But there’s still a year left on his rights and he qualifies for an overage year, so he could go back to the OHL.

 

I expect they’ll wait until camp before deciding where he’ll play. He’s not a lock at this point.

 

EDIT: I think mostly the question is how Brassard will cope with the uptick in speed/pace and skill at the AHL level compared to the OHL. He’s a decent skater but there have been some questions about his abilities in that area. He makes smart decisions, but it remains to be seen if he can process the game fast enough for pro hockey. Also his defensive ability. He’s usually solid, but when he has made poor reads and taken some bad beats in his own zone, it’s usually been against really high end forwards who bring pro-level speed, size, and skill—and he’ll face more of those guys in the AHL and NHL than he ever did in junior. On the plus side, he has good size, strong puck skills, a good shot, good first pass, can play physical, underrated skating, can QB the PP, he’s very smooth “walking the line,” he distributes the puck well, runs the play in the offensive zone, and he has that coveted RH shot—so lots of positives that might earn him a spot on the Comets. He’s just not necessarily a guy who looks “too good” for junior hockey (yet) so it’s a toss-up whether the Canucks decide to move him up to pro or develop him another year in junior.

Edited April 2, 2018 by SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Brassard’s end of season message:

 

 

Reads a lot like an end of junior career message. Or at least he’s being pretty cagey about where he’ll be playing next season. Most of the returning players who sent out tweets had some version of “see you next year” in their messages. And the guys who have graduated from junior put out messages similar to Brassard’s.

 

Remains to be seen whether or not he gets signed this year, but I’m thinking Matt’s hoping for an ELC this offseason and starting pro in the fall.

[AK_19]

As sad as it is, Matt Brassard had a better ppg in the Ohl in his D+1 than Olli Joulevi. Despite that, its considered questionable if he'll even make the AHL next year. 

[3rdGenCanuck]

2 hours ago, AK_19 said:

As sad as it is, Matt Brassard had a better ppg in the Ohl in his D+1 than Olli Joulevi. Despite that, its considered questionable if he'll even make the AHL next year. 

Brassard was drafted in his second year of draft eligibility. He was eligible to be drafted in 2016 but was passed over. So if you want to compare the two players you should really be comparing their 18 year old seasons or their 19 year old seasons rather than their D+1 seasons.

 

18 year old seasons (including playoffs):

Brassard: 73 GP, 13 G, 23 A, 36 TP, 0.49 PPG (OHL)

Juolevi: 72 GP, 13 G, 37 A, 50 TP, 0.69 PPG (OHL)

 

19 year old seasons (including playoffs):

Brassard: 72 GP, 17 G, 37 A, 54 TP, 0.75 PPG (OHL)

Juolevi: 44 GP, 9 G, 12 A, 21 TP, 0.47 PPG (Liiga) - Still playing

 

My advice: Be excited about how well Brassard is performing for a 7th round pick. Be excited about Juolevi putting up historical numbers for a U20 defenseman in the Liiga. Take it easy with the disappointment and hate surrounding Juolevi... It's getting a little out of control. Guy is a fantastic prospect.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Easy to forget that Juolevi is only 3 months older than Brassard.

 

I agree with @3rdGenCanuck, we should be happy to have both Olli and Matt in the system. Hopefully they both becoming cornerstones on our future D. Juolevi looks all but guaranteed to become an excellent pro. If Brassard can manage to join him, it’s icing on the cake.

[AK_19]

21 hours ago, 3rdGenCanuck said:

Brassard was drafted in his second year of draft eligibility. He was eligible to be drafted in 2016 but was passed over. So if you want to compare the two players you should really be comparing their 18 year old seasons or their 19 year old seasons rather than their D+1 seasons.

 

18 year old seasons (including playoffs):

Brassard: 73 GP, 13 G, 23 A, 36 TP, 0.49 PPG (OHL)

Juolevi: 72 GP, 13 G, 37 A, 50 TP, 0.69 PPG (OHL)

 

19 year old seasons (including playoffs):

Brassard: 72 GP, 17 G, 37 A, 54 TP, 0.75 PPG (OHL)

Juolevi: 44 GP, 9 G, 12 A, 21 TP, 0.47 PPG (Liiga) - Still playing

 

My advice: Be excited about how well Brassard is performing for a 7th round pick. Be excited about Juolevi putting up historical numbers for a U20 defenseman in the Liiga. Take it easy with the disappointment and hate surrounding Juolevi... It's getting a little out of control. Guy is a fantastic prospect.

I wasn't aware of this, thanks for informing me. 

[Quantum]

On 4/3/2018 at 9:43 AM, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

Brassard’s end of season message:

 

 

Reads a lot like an end of junior career message. Or at least he’s being pretty cagey about where he’ll be playing next season. Most of the returning players who sent out tweets had some version of “see you next year” in their messages. And the guys who have graduated from junior put out messages similar to Brassard’s.

 

Remains to be seen whether or not he gets signed this year, but I’m thinking Matt’s hoping for an ELC this offseason and starting pro in the fall.

I definitely think he's going to head to Utica next season. But I don't see a world where the Canucks sign him until after July 1st because of their current contract situation. They're close to 50 contracts and I think they need to get Cole Candella, Brett McKenzie, and (maybe?) Lukas Jasek under contract before June 1st or else they will lose those players rights. And since the Canucks drafted Brassard at last year's draft, they aren't obliged to sign him until June 1st 2019. However, since he was older when we drafted him, and he is AHL eligible in the Fall, my gut says he'll sign in the summer once guys like Anton Cederholm and MacKenze Stewart are finally off the books for the Canucks.

 

But I'm with you, I want to see him signed and in the pros in the Fall. Just a matter of timing, methinks.

[DeltaSwede]

I'm pretty sure Brassard will return to the OHL for next season as well.

 

Depending on how the season goes, that's when the ELC decision will come. Feels like a more logical approach considering the limit of contracts a team is allowed. 

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

10 hours ago, Quantum said:

I definitely think he's going to head to Utica next season. But I don't see a world where the Canucks sign him until after July 1st because of their current contract situation. They're close to 50 contracts and I think they need to get Cole Candella, Brett McKenzie, and (maybe?) Lukas Jasek under contract before June 1st or else they will lose those players rights. And since the Canucks drafted Brassard at last year's draft, they aren't obliged to sign him until June 1st 2019. However, since he was older when we drafted him, and he is AHL eligible in the Fall, my gut says he'll sign in the summer once guys like Anton Cederholm and MacKenze Stewart are finally off the books for the Canucks.

 

But I'm with you, I want to see him signed and in the pros in the Fall. Just a matter of timing, methinks.

Candella and McKenzie would need to be signed this year. Jašek has a full year of draft rights remaining (however 5 points in his first 2 AHL games makes a pretty good case for signing him now).

 

Brassard I’m split on. I think he’s deserving of a contract, it’s just a question of when. If there’s any issue regarding contract slots and signing him preventing us signing someone else, I’d be open to waiting a year. Certainly an overager OHL season won’t hurt him, especially with Oshawa having a solid group of young players who might be ready to make some noise. On the other hand, Brassard is a RHD with size who can QB a power play. We aren’t exactly deep in players of that ilk, so it might be worthwhile to get him to the pros now rather than later.

 

10 hours ago, DeltaSwede said:

I'm pretty sure Brassard will return to the OHL for next season as well.

 

Depending on how the season goes, that's when the ELC decision will come. Feels like a more logical approach considering the limit of contracts a team is allowed. 

Could definitely shake out that way, depending on what the Canucks want to do with the contract slots for 2018-19.

Edited April 5, 2018 by SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME

[TGT68]

And I would guess the options for contracts will open up some when we have expiring contracts come off the books and decisions are made about players that walk or get re-signed.  

[aGENT]

53 minutes ago, TGT68 said:

And I would guess the options for contracts will open up some when we have expiring contracts come off the books and decisions are made about players that walk or get re-signed.  

Chances are there's a trade or two this summer as well.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Didn’t notice until today but apparently Matt’s been attending the Comets-Marlies series:

 

 

Not sure if he was hanging around with the team or he was just there as a fan.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Sounds like Brassard’s shoulder injury is on the more severe side, at least in terms of his surgery and recovery time. Word is that he’s expected to be out until around Christmas.

[aGENT]

Damn, that sucks. Was hoping to see further development there as he really seemed to take off this year. Hopefully he can regain that trajectory relatively soon after getting back.

[Nancouver]

1 hour ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

Sounds like Brassard’s shoulder injury is on the more severe side, at least in terms of his surgery and recovery time. Word is that he’s expected to be out until around Christmas.

Damn! Was hoping he’d get a contract as well. Rooting for this guy big time 

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

1 hour ago, Nancouver said:

Damn! Was hoping he’d get a contract as well. Rooting for this guy big time 

Yeah, me too. But I can definitely see why they’re waiting on the contract now. Really no upside for Vancouver in inking Brassard this year. He won’t be ready for training camp and can’t compete for a Utica spot this season. And while the injury hardly puts him into “damaged goods” territory (yet), there is some risk he doesn’t get a great surgery result and ends up with issues. 

 

Probably better for everyone to just wait for next year on the contract. Well, not better for Brassard, I suppose, since he’s missing out on a signing bonus and some security. But the injury timeline pretty much guarantees he’s another year away from going pro. He needs to just heal up and get back playing. Hopefully the contract will take care of itself next year based on his 2018-19 results over a half season and (likely) playoffs.

 

I still have high hopes for Brassard and see him becoming a good AHLer and eventually a bottom pairing NHL defenseman with some power play ability. Of course, that’s assuming his surgery and rehab goes well and he doesn’t have any lasting effects from this injury.

Edited May 31, 2018 by SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME