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Everything posted by UticaHockey
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2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
The way that the farm is managed will not change next year or the year after that as long as the current management team is still in place. Until Benning is fired and replaced with a GM that cares about the success of the farm team as an integral part of development it will be the same $&!# but a different year. I don't believe Benning has stepped foot in Utica for three seasons in a row dispite traveling with the Canucks on east road trips regularly. The Comets are so far down on his priority list it's like they don't even exist. Yes he has Ryan Johnson to manage the team but he does absolutely nothing to advocate for his team. He is just there to sound good in radio interviews and remind the Canucks listeners that "the AHL is a hard league" when the heat is turned up on lack of development and scratching of young players. They both can't be fired soon enough. -
He will be an RFA that Benning will need to qualify.
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If Green actually plays him in enough games to get a solid look at him then maybe you have a point. But if Teves mostly sits in the press box for the next three weeks a better evaluation of his skill would be made by sending him to Utica where he would play every game and in a lot more minutes per game. And the Cull doesn't play prospects argument doesn't apply here because the Comets are trolling the ECHL looking for warm bodies on defense to plug the holes of a sinking ship.
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Sautner was the only player papered down to the Comets at the deadline thus he is the only player that can be sent to the Comets at any point the rest of the season. Schenn could end up spending the entire rest of the season in the press box if Tanev is back and Hughes is able to start playing but he cannot come back to Utica. This is how Benning manages the farm. Sautner was the only player that was in Vancouver on TDL day that was made available to join the Comets at any point during the season. Brisebois can also be sent back because he was called up after the TDL day.
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Here is an example from just this morning. There are others too that I can send when I have a few minutes.
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And that is always the story with Benning's negotiation skills. The only way he gets players signed is to offer more term (Beagle etc) or immediate NHL playing time to AHL quality college free agents like Griffen Molino. Remember him...the guy that a couple years removed from a late season NHL signing by Benning is now on an AHL contract with the Marlies. Other GMs get college free agents to sign AHL tryout contracts for the final month with an ELC starting in July but not Benning. It's not like we are talking about Quinn Hughes here. Teves is 24 years old who statistically regressed from his previous two seasons.
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This guy's college career has AHL player written all over it so Benning signs him to an ELC for this season making him a RFA in July. How about an AHL tryout contract for the rest of this season and a one year ELC starting in the 2019-20 season? Utica's defense is decimated right now with McEneny done for the year plus Brisebois and Sautner in Vancouver. The only defenseman on the Comets playing on a NHL contract is Chatfield and he delivers more pizzas than Sbisa and Pouliot combined. A little help for the farm would have been nice.
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Not this year. Boosh got hurt last weekend and is week to week with a hand/wrist injury.
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Zero chance that Bachman will be in the ECHL next season. Only players on their ELC NHL contracts can be assigned to the ECHL without the player's consent. Bacher isn't about to agree to that. Besides he is selling his house in Colorado and buying a house in the Utica area.
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2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
It would probably be the easiest money I've ever made if I bet the the 2 - 3 whiny Utica fans would be replaced by 2X, 3X 4X whiny Abbotsford fans if they paid to watch this team play every night. Do you seriously think that no one would criticize how the farm is managed if the only difference is where the team plays it's home games? -
2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
To be eligible to play in the AHL this season (regular or post season) Lockwood would need to sign an AHL ATO contract for the remainder of this season and his NHL ELC starting in the 2019-20 season. -
2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
I have very little faith that Johnson and Benning will properly manage the Comets moving forward because I don't think they have a strategic plan for the AHL. Right now they are caught in the middle between the critics who say there are too many vets in Utica taking ice away from the kids and from those who criticize them for not making the Comets strong enough to give the prospects an AHL playoff experience. The mushy middle seems good enough for the current management team and I don't see that changing any time soon. -
Or complete sarcasm.
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Plus just looking at the numbers doesn't tell the whole story. Both players have missed games because of injuries. The number of games missed because they were healthy scratches were much lower.
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2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Like I said each individual season can be rationalized but four years in a row the Comets came out of the trade deadline as a weaker team than they had earlier in the month of February with no chance to even get back to the same level because some players were not made eligible to rejoin the team again at any point that season. To think that there will not be any injuries in the next 5 or 6 weeks that will allow a look at anyone in Utica while being possible is not probable. Other teams "manage" the emergency recall rules every year to bring players up and down for late season looks. Things changed in the way that the Comets were managed significantly when Henning and Gilman were fired and the void was never filled. -
2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
This is the fourth trade deadline in a row that the Comets became weaker at the deadline and had players that were Comets in the month of February not papered back down to make them eligible again that same season. Each year the moves or lack there of can be rationalized but four years in a row is a pattern if you ask me. Take a look at the transactions for TDL day the last year that Henning was the AGM in Vancouver and responsible for the Comets. Not only did they max out on the number of players papered down but they intentionally made the Comets stronger by trading for Conacher (AHL assigned player in Jeffery for AHL assigned player in Conacher) and assigning Baertschi here who they had traded for earlier. And they did not have any issues recalling players from the Comets after the deadline as injury replacements even though they maxed out on paper up and down transactions. After the deadline Corrado, Baertschi, both goalies Markstrom and Eriksson were recalled to Vancouver and then returned to Utica before the playoffs. There are ways to make your AHL team as competitive as possible while having players available for recall if needed. It just needs to be a priority and you have to put someone in charge of managing the AHL team that executes on that priority. They had that in Henning. They do not have that in Johnson. This leads to the question of what is Vancouver's strategy for Utica besides the obvious of development and a warehouse to store depth players for injury call up needs. Is there a strategy or do they simply wing it? Ryan Johnson talks out of both sides of his mouth when asked these type of questions. I'll paraphrase his two most common responses that he gives to the Vancouver media when pressed about why some of the rookies have been scratched in Utica this season. 1) Because the AHL is a difficult league and these kids need protection and if the Comets played all of the rookies at the same time in top minute roles the team would lose almost every night which isn't good for anyone including the young prospects. So winning is apparently important to him. 2) He has responded in at least two radio interviews that his goal is not to win a Calder Cup but these responses seemed defensive in nature because he was being pressed about winning versus development and playing veterans over prospects. But at the same time when he has been in more friendly interviews he has responded on numerous occasions that making the playoffs is extremely valuable experience for these kids because the intensity of the games is so much higher and the pressure of making the right play on every shift will help them when they reach the NHL. So if he believes that AHL playoff hockey is an important learning experience shouldn't he be doing something to help get his team there and potentially win a few rounds? I'll finish this rant with one additional data point. While Vancouver yet again did not make to players that were on the Comets in February available to return at any point again this season Buffalo and Carolina papered down two players that have been in the NHL all season and never played a single AHL game in Tage Thompson and Warren Foegele. The Belleville Senators who are one point behind in the standings for the final playoff spot were loaded up with both paper transactions and actual reassignments. I'm not saying that Gaudette and Schenn should be in Utica now because clearly the injury situation in Vancouver created a need for them there. But by not papering them the door was shut permanently closed for the rest of this season including the playoffs. Heck even Spooner was exempt from waivers at the TDL because he was in the AHL at the time of the trade if they wanted to paper someone other than Gaudette. -
Nice catch and 100% accurate. Juolevi was drafted out of the CHL so he was part of the NHL and CHL agreement and could not play in the AHL as a 19 year old. It was either the NHL, back to juniors or play in Europe.
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Gaunce has been the Comets best player for some time now. I'm torn because he deserved to be traded to a team that would give him a fresh start at an NHL opportunity but I'm selfishly glad he stays on the Comets roster down the stretch.
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And Shinkaruk currently has 10 points in 42 AHL games this season and has been a healthy scratch multiple times. When Shinky was traded close to the deadline it hurt the Comets that season because nobody was coming back to the AHL in return but I did understand completely why the Canucks dumped him when they did. I never saw Shinkaruk as a NHL player. And this trade hurts the Comets again because there is no AHL player coming back in return but I understand completely why they are trading him now instead of a year from now if the Canucks evaluation of him is that Dahlen will not progress into a top 6 NHL forward and he has no chance of becoming a bottom 6 player.
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I've been posting my reservations about Dahlen on the Utica Comets forum off and on all year. I'll repost my summary from yesterday here. The problem with Dahlen was a sense of entitlement and believing what was written about him on social media. The best part of this is I won't have to read anymore that Dahlen needs to be called up and play with EP40 NOW! I would have gave him another year to improve his skating before trading him but if he didn't look like a legitimate NHL prospect a year from now his value would have been even less so they decided to cut bait now. Dahlen just wasn't adjusting to the North American game very well. He was effective on the power play were he had room to maneuver but was a non factor at 5 on 5. At even strength he was a perimeter player who looked scared of contact. And there was no explosiveness in his skating that would allow any separation from anyone defending against him. He had some nice breakaway goals when he cherry picked behind the defense looking for a stretch pass but he never created space organically by out skating a defender. If he spent the summer working with a power skating coach and eventually became more confident with the physical nature of the North American game to go along with his natural skills he could develop into a NHL player. But to basically pout because he didn't get called up in his rookie season before putting in the work to get there is a sense of entitlement if you ask me. The kid is 21 and now has been traded twice. He and his agent should think about that stat and do some self examination about how hard is he willing to work for that NHL career.
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2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
There are similarities in their situations but they are different players. Similar in that neither had any explosiveness in their skating and Shinky never recovered from hip surgery in juniors. But Shinkaruk was much more willing to engage physically. He just wasn't good at it and was pushed off the puck easily. Shinkaruk had a shoot first mindset where Dahlen looks to make a pass even when a shooting lane is available. -
2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
The problem with Dahlen was a sense of entitlement and believing what was written about him on social media. The best part of this is I won't have to read anymore that Dahlen needs to be called up and play with EP40 NOW! I would have gave him another year to improve his skating before trading him but if he didn't look like a legitimate NHL prospect a year from now his value would have been even less so they decided to cut bait now. Dahlen just wasn't adjusting to the North American game very well. He was effective on the power play were he had room to maneuver but was a non factor at 5 on 5. At even strength he was a perimeter player who looked scared of contact. And there was no explosiveness in his skating that would allow any separation from anyone defending against him. He had some nice breakaway goals when he cherrypicked behind the defense looking for a stretch pass but he never created space organically by out skating a defender. If he spent the summer working with a power skating coach and eventually became more confident with the physical nature of the North American game to go along with his natural skills he could develop into a NHL player. But to basically pout because he didn't get called up in his rookie season before putting in the work to get there is a sense of entitlement if you ask me. The kid is 21 and now has been traded twice. He and his agent should think about that stat and do some self examination about how hard is he willing to work for that NHL career. -
2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Sautner was the only player papered down to Utica. Mazenec had to be physically sent down because he was on an emergency recall and Demko was activated from IR. MacEwen was physically returned to because he wasn't needed on the roster with Pearson coming in and Edler returning. So technically Sautner is the only player currently on the Canucks roster that can be sent down to Utica at any time the rest of this season including the playoffs. Why Gaudette and Schenn were not papered and made eligible is mind numbing but it happens every year with Benning. -
2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Lind and Dahlen missed practice this week as well because of illness. Gadjovich was injured during the WBS Penguins game when he was shoved into the net. None of these players were held out of the game last night because of pending trades. -
2018-19 Utica Comets Thread
UticaHockey replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Waiver claims can be made up to 12 noon EST the following day after a player was placed on waivers. (That is if the player was placed on waivers by 12 noon the previous day. Benning had a habit of announcing that he was going to place someone on waivers around 3:00 to 4:00 pm EST earlier this year which gave the rest of the league about 45 hours to think about a claim rather than the mandatory 24 hours.)