elvis15 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 15 minutes ago, UticaHockey said: To be honest if Benning is done from a Utica standpoint we were completely ignored today. When I followed the free agent signings on Twitter today I watched Tampa Bay, Buffalo, Montreal and Ottawa all with AHL teams in the Comets division all sign free agents specifically meant for the AHL. Not a single Vancouver signing was for an AHL player. Sure I understand the extra NHL depth that was signed will potentially push a couple guys down to Utica but unless some quality AHL guys are signed to either NHL or AHL contracts this team is going to be weak again. Technically, we signed a number of fringe/depth players for the Canucks, who will either not pass muster and be sent to the AHL or force our younger players (Boeser, Goldobin, Boucher, Holm, Pedan, etc.) down to Utica. We've already re-signed Megna, who was meant for the AHL last year, and could still re-sign Chaput as well as Archibald. If we try and send down any waiver eligible players, they could get claimed and that means nothing for Utica, but it's not that the AHL has been completely ignored. There is still plenty of time to sign tweener players as well, since this is just the first day of free agency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UticaHockey Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Curtis Valk gets his first NHL contract.....with Florida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UticaHockey Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 12 minutes ago, elvis15 said: Technically, we signed a number of fringe/depth players for the Canucks, who will either not pass muster and be sent to the AHL or force our younger players (Boeser, Goldobin, Boucher, Holm, Pedan, etc.) down to Utica. We've already re-signed Megna, who was meant for the AHL last year, and could still re-sign Chaput as well as Archibald. If we try and send down any waiver eligible players, they could get claimed and that means nothing for Utica, but it's not that the AHL has been completely ignored. There is still plenty of time to sign tweener players as well, since this is just the first day of free agency. I understand that it is just the first day of free agency but Benning is so focused on getting NHL free agents signed that he pushes Utica's needs off until all of the good ones are taking. Most NHL teams have an Assistant GM that concentrates on AHL depth players but Vancouver doesn't. They used to and the last time that they did we went to the Calder Cup finals but then they fired him. I'm sure there will be a signing or two yet to come but they will be looking at the left over scraps by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stonecoldstevebernier Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 3 minutes ago, UticaHockey said: Curtis Valk gets his first NHL contract.....with Florida. Sucks to see him go since he made huge strides last season but happy he gets to sign his first NHL deal. He made the best of a great opportunity with the Comets. Agree, there have been some nice Canucks signings today but it would be wise for JB to shift his focus to add some AHL pieces now. Today's acquisitions pretty much ensure that one of if not both of Boeser/Goldobin will start in Utica (possibly Dahlen too if he stays in NA). Guys like Boucher and Megna don't seem to have a place in the NHL lineup either, unless something changes, like a Sutter trade maybe. But we saw last year how quickly those supposed AHL anchors can suddenly become NHLers with no intentions of sending them back down again, as soon as injuries strike, which they will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derp... Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 AHL specific pieces and NHL depth are almost the same thing no? Burmistrov Rodin Wiercoech Megna Chaput Boucher and Pedan are no gaurentees for the NHL The one signing I would like to see is Archibald. Don't worry though the roster will be good down there. Green knows he needs to give the new coach some legit pieces to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuxfanabroad Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 24 minutes ago, UticaHockey said: Curtis Valk gets his first NHL contract.....with Florida. Good for him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UticaHockey Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 9 minutes ago, Derp... said: AHL specific pieces and NHL depth are almost the same thing no? Burmistrov Rodin Wiercoech Megna Chaput Boucher and Pedan are no gaurentees for the NHL The one signing I would like to see is Archibald. Don't worry though the roster will be good down there. Green knows he needs to give the new coach some legit pieces to work with. Don't get me wrong I understand the logic. The added NHL depth will create competition and push a few guys down to the farm. But essentially some of these signings just replace other guys that were on the NHL roster last year and are gone now. In a perfect world Megna and Chaput would have been Comets last year but injuries forced them up with the big club. They both may very well start out as Comets again this year if they are displaced by the new signings but to think injuries won't be a problem this year is being naive. The Comets were a very offensively challenged team last year and it looks like they will lose their top tree scoring forwards. They need to be replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRAZY_4_NAZZY Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 I dont know if the Canucks will really do much more in terms of signing guys other than their remaining 6 RFA's. Doing so will take them to 46 contracts our of 50, and knowing how JB likes to do things, likes to leave a wiggle room to sign FA prospects. Depending how the rest of the summer looks could look like this Baertschi-Horvat-Eriksson D.Sedin-H.Sedin-Granlund Rodin-Sutter-Gagner ______-Gaunce-Dorsett Edler-Stecher Del Zotto-Tanev Hutton-Gudbranson Markstrom Nilsson leaving Boeser, Boucher, Goldobin, Virtanen, Chaput, Megna, Burmistrov and maybe Dahlen, Labate to fight for potential 1 or 2 extra forward spots leaving Pedan, Holm, Juolevi, Wiercoch, Subban, Biega, and McEneny to fight for the final 1 or 2 defensive spots. Any flip of the coin, Utica will have a deeper team with skill. I will predict this for Utica's opening night roster Boucher-Chaput-Goldobin Dahlen- MacEwen-Megna Molino-Cassels-Virtanen Labate-Hamilton- Carcone Holm - Pedan McEneny-Subban Cederholm-Chatfield Sautner - Brisebois Bachman Demko through in a mix of Utica most likely to sign a few FA's for themselves, to fulfill the veteran presence. Not too shabby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E. Lindros Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Do the canucks free agent signings mean goldy, dahlen, boeser, virtanen, megna, boucher are all likely to be in utica? Boeser could be in nhl same as virt but they need top 9 minutes, we have alot of forwards now... Sedin sedin granlund Baer bo eriksson Rodin sutter gagner Dorsett gaunce burmistrov Chaput Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UticaHockey Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 8 minutes ago, CRAZY_4_NAZZY said: I dont know if the Canucks will really do much more in terms of signing guys other than their remaining 6 RFA's. Doing so will take them to 46 contracts our of 50, and knowing how JB likes to do things, likes to leave a wiggle room to sign FA prospects. Depending how the rest of the summer looks could look like this Baertschi-Horvat-Eriksson D.Sedin-H.Sedin-Granlund Rodin-Sutter-Gagner ______-Gaunce-Dorsett Edler-Stecher Del Zotto-Tanev Hutton-Gudbranson Markstrom Nilsson leaving Boeser, Boucher, Goldobin, Virtanen, Chaput, Megna, Burmistrov and maybe Dahlen, Labate to fight for potential 1 or 2 extra forward spots leaving Pedan, Holm, Juolevi, Wiercoch, Subban, Biega, and McEneny to fight for the final 1 or 2 defensive spots. Any flip of the coin, Utica will have a deeper team with skill. I will predict this for Utica's opening night roster Boucher-Chaput-Goldobin Dahlen- MacEwen-Megna Carcone-Cassels-Virtanen Labate-Hamilton (AHL property) -??? Holm - Pedan McEneny-Subban Cederholm-Chatfield Sautner - ??? Bachman Demko through in a mix of Utica most likely to sign a few FA's for themselves, to fulfill the veteran presence. Not too shabby. Benning tried to go through last season with just 46 NHL contracts and it was a disaster once the injuries started to pile up. For the second year in a row.... Of the 46, one slides if Olli goes back to juniors. Dahlen has the option of returning to Sweden instead of playing in Utica. Stewart is a completely wasted contract and Laplante isn't much better. Realistically there are only 43 useful contracts which does not get you through a full season of injuries. Is Dorsett fully recovered? Is Rodin's knee going to get him through a full season.....he hasn't even started to skate yet. It all looks good on paper but the past two seasons tells me there is not enough depth in the AHL on NHL contracts to get through the inevitable injuries. And on top of that Vancouver tends to lose someone every year to waivers at the start of the season. Corrado two year ago, Etem last year....Boucher this year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRAZY_4_NAZZY Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 10 minutes ago, UticaHockey said: Benning tried to go through last season with just 46 NHL contracts and it was a disaster once the injuries started to pile up. For the second year in a row.... Of the 46, one slides if Olli goes back to juniors. Dahlen has the option of returning to Sweden instead of playing in Utica. Stewart is a completely wasted contract and Laplante isn't much better. Realistically there are only 43 useful contracts which does not get you through a full season of injuries. Is Dorsett fully recovered? Is Rodin's knee going to get him through a full season.....he hasn't even started to skate yet. It all looks good on paper but the past two seasons tells me there is not enough depth in the AHL on NHL contracts to get through the inevitable injuries. And on top of that Vancouver tends to lose someone every year to waivers at the start of the season. Corrado two year ago, Etem last year....Boucher this year? However I dont know if Olli wants to go back to junior thus might be loaned in Europe but Im not sure if a contract slides if they are loaned. Even for Dahlen as well. Any regardless, is there a limit Utica can sign FA's themselves? I know they had Valk, Archibald, Bancks, Shields, Negrin, and Hamilton on AHL deals, Maybe gives them more incentive to find some more players? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UticaHockey Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 3 minutes ago, CRAZY_4_NAZZY said: However I dont know if Olli wants to go back to junior thus might be loaned in Europe but Im not sure if a contract slides if they are loaned. Even for Dahlen as well. Any regardless, is there a limit Utica can sign FA's themselves? I know they had Valk, Archibald, Bancks, Shields, Negrin, and Hamilton on AHL deals, Maybe gives them more incentive to find some more players? AHL contracts are technically Utica contracts but since Vancouver controls 100% of the hockey operations that still falls back on Benning. I'm sure there will be a few AHL deals coming at some point but the quality of the players is still to be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elvis15 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 3 hours ago, UticaHockey said: Curtis Valk gets his first NHL contract.....with Florida. That does sting a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theo5789 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 I believe Chaput and Megna were the intended AHL signings and they should be there for good this year. They have good AHL numbers. If Boucher is sent down, he is another player that has good AHL numbers. If Goldobin is sent to Utica, that's another prolific scorer in the AHL. Throw in the possibility of exciting young talent in Dahlen and maybe Boeser for more offense. Hopefully Virtanen takes the next step offensively and physically to create more excitement. MacEwen and Molino will be solid additions for their roles. Cassels, Labate and Carcone have more time to work on their games and add in the vets of Bancks and Hamilton and that pretty much fills out all the forward spots. On defense, the addition of Brisebois should be interesting alone. Subban will be looking for a chance for some call ups as well as McEneny. There's a chance Pedan or Wiercioch could be waived and sent down. Holm will be trying to impress as well and apparently Cederholm is coming back to NA to give it another shot after being more seasoned. I don't see a lot of room to add anymore AHL depth because we need to develop our own prospects eventually and we finally have deeper depth to provide a decent team without plugging it up with too many AHL players. Edit: I should add that there is always a couple surprise signings from good showings after the Youngsters and also I believe Palmu may get a look as well, who is another dynamic forward that could make games exciting for Utica. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaudette Celly Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 7 hours ago, stawns said: Megna, almost for sure. I think Chaput and Bouch stay in Van though Not after today's signings. Gagner will be on the team, as well as Dorsett and almost certainly Rodin and Boeser. Gaunce requires waivers now, so Megna and Chaput will be in Utica (as they were supposed to be last year) and Boucher likely on waivers as a late cut. Pedan and Biega are also on the NHL bubble now. No specifically-AHL signings yet, but they were busy today. I'd expect to see some, but we also have a decent influx of prospects coming in as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UticaHockey Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 14 hours ago, UticaHockey said: AHL contracts are technically Utica contracts but since Vancouver controls 100% of the hockey operations that still falls back on Benning. I'm sure there will be a few AHL deals coming at some point but the quality of the players is still to be seen. To qualify my point about not much quality left for AHL players when there is no initial focus on filling out the farm. This is a ranking of the top AHL free agents by an AHL blogger. As you scroll down the list look at how many names are gone after the first day. Henning needs to be replaced with another assistant GM who is responsible for the farm. Henning had the role and did a great job but was fired. Pat Conacher is tasked with finding mid season injury replacements from the ECHL but he is not part of the Vancouver think tank in July puts the roster together for both teams. http://highlandparkhockey.blogspot.com/2017/06/2017-18-ahl-free-agent-tracker.html?m=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stawns Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 8 hours ago, Hutton Wink said: Not after today's signings. Gagner will be on the team, as well as Dorsett and almost certainly Rodin and Boeser. Gaunce requires waivers now, so Megna and Chaput will be in Utica (as they were supposed to be last year) and Boucher likely on waivers as a late cut. Pedan and Biega are also on the NHL bubble now. No specifically-AHL signings yet, but they were busy today. I'd expect to see some, but we also have a decent influx of prospects coming in as well. I think they are more likely to send down a young gun like Boes or Goldy (or both) to play top offensive mins in Utica, rather than 4th line mins or press box duty. Megna will drop to Utica, but I can see them keeping Chaput for depth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaudette Celly Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 More Canuck roster changes may come, but right now I figure Goldobin, Virtanen, Holm, and Molino will start in Utica, and Boucher, Megna, Chaput, and Biega will be waivered down. Not a bad start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UticaHockey Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 23 minutes ago, Hutton Wink said: More Canuck roster changes may come, but right now I figure Goldobin, Virtanen, Holm, and Molino will start in Utica, and Boucher, Megna, Chaput, and Biega will be waivered down. Not a bad start. The sad part is Virtanen is an invisible player for most Utica fans. When we look at possible rosters for the Comets we don't even see his name. If he is sent down or if he stays up it really doesn't matter because he had no impact whatsoever last year. Pretty sad statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluralsight Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Sorry if this is a repeat question, but does Jordan Subban needs waivers to be sent down to Utica this year? Or does he have another year before that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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