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GoldenAlien

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Everything posted by GoldenAlien

  1. Five hall of famers on that list. Pretty elite company.
  2. Madden scores again to extend his point streak to 7 games (7G + 8A during this stretch). McDonough gets an assist and Northeastern wins the Belpot (an annual NCAA tournament in Belfast between four teams).
  3. The Comets win 4-1. Eliot opened the scoring with his second of the year. DiPietro stopped 23 of 24 shots for a 0.958 SV%. Baertschi got an empty netter and the primary assist on Boucher's goal in his return.
  4. Some Petey-esque moves here:
  5. The Hockey News' top 100 players under 21 rankings is out: https://thehockeynews.com/all-access/article/the-top-100-hockeys-best-players-21-and-under 1. Dahlin 2. Pettersson 3. Heiskanen 4. Makar 5. Laine 6. J. Hughes 7. Lafreniere 8. Byfield 9. B. Tkachuk 10. Q. Hughes Podkolzin also makes the list at No. 76. The rankings are based on projections of what a forward will be at age 23, a defenseman at 24 and a goalie at 25. I personally would've put EP40 over Dahlin as No. 1 and Quinn over Jack for No. 6. Can't see why Tkachuk projects better when Quinn is a month younger and outscoring him as a defenseman... but hey.
  6. This actually happened during his draft year:
  7. Woo had a goal and an assist in Saturday’s game. He’s quietly on a 4 game streak — 2G and 3A in the past week.
  8. Gadjovich scores the opening goal and Goldobin gets a hat trick (including an empty netter) as Utica tops Laval 4-2 in a rematch. Sautner had a goal waved off, but Lind gets two assists and DiPietro stops 41 of 43 shots for a 0.953 SV%. The win moves the Comets into fourth place in the North division and back into a playoff spot.
  9. After getting scratched in Northeastern's first three games then going pointless in his first four games, McDonough has come on strong with 9 points in his last 6 games. Nice stats for a freshman, even though he took a year after high school to play in the USHL. He said he was a late bloomer who was 5'8", 150lb as a high school sophomore and it took time to adjust to his new size. Could be a real diamond in the rough. Two assists and a goal tonight:
  10. Gadjovich is finally back, gets the primary assist on Jasek’s goal then pots one himself. Hopefully the big guy can stay healthy the rest of the season.
  11. Four point night for Madden, including a hat trick: Plus an assist on McDonough's goal: Madden's up to 18 points (11G + 7A) in 13 games. Three points (1G + 2A) for McDonough this game.
  12. You'd have have to go back a couple pages but that was not the point. UticaHockey's gripe is that Vancouver did not sign a second AHL centre. He's implying that the "depth" that Graovac provided at centre helped the Canucks win the game, when in reality the guy played on RW. If he wasn't already with the team, Bailey, another big body, could've easily gotten the call, seeing as he's a natural winger. If the Canucks did have a second AHL centre, it wouldn't make a difference in this game considering we already had four NHL ones.
  13. Yes, the Canucks won 6-3 because of Tyler Graovac, who didn't even play centre. If he wasn't already called up that winger spot could've easily gone to say, Bailey. You're reaching. Please show some evidence that a second Graovac would have a real, tangible impact on the Canucks' playoffs hopes this season or in the future, if you're going to keep harping on this subject.
  14. Depth and flexibility are just buzzwords that mean nothing unless they help a team win. A team with five Graovacs is deeper than one with only three, but the first team is not any better than the second. The only goals in the NHL is to either make the playoffs and get as far as you can, or build for the future. Everything else is a means to an end. If depth helps you win, then that's helpful depth. Guys like Baertschi and Goldobin can be important because they're NHL-caliber players. It's entirely plausible that they can replace someone in our lineup and perform just as well, or even better. Say Ferland and Pearson go down, and we fill in with Baertschi and Goldobin. Obviously these guys have different skillsets, but both could make up for the lost production. If we have to go with Miller - Baertschi - Goldobin instead of Miller - Pearson - Ferland down our top 3 LW, we could still make the playoffs. So this depth is important because it augments our playoff chances, it allows us to be in the race even if we have a couple injuries. Graovac, on the other hand, is an obvious downgrade on any centre on our roster. There is no way that the Canucks are making the playoffs if the bottom three lines are centred by Gaudette - Graovac - Graovac. How is that lineup going to get any further than Gaudette - Graovac - Schaller, which is what would currently happen? If it can't, then it's not useful depth. It doesn't help us make the playoffs even if we have injuries. It's important to have depth that helps you win. It's not important to have depth that just gives you names to fill in on a chart. There's no sense in wanting the appearance of depth -- that's just optics. It's confounding in general that anyone cares about moves (or lack thereof) that have zero impact on Canucks' current or future prospects. Why does this matter at all, if you agree it doesn't change our playoff hopes or prospect pool? I suppose my overall point, is that Graovac just makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. The Canucks don't have more of him simply because the team doesn't need more of him.
  15. @Horvat is a Boss Prospects pools are relevant because the only reasons why signings should be made are because one, it improves the team's immediate playoff prospects, or two, it improves the team's future by elevating the potential of its prospects pool. Simply put, signing another Graovac would do neither. The Canucks do not currently have young players at centre to rush into a NHL spot, so that's a moot point. If Sutter, Beagle, and one of Horvat/ EP40 get injured, then a bottom 3 of Gaudette - Graovac - Graovac 2.0 is not going to get the Canucks any further than Gaudette - Graovac - Schaller. The fact that Schaller is better on the wing doesn't matter. He won't be as good as Beagle but compared to Graovac, he's no worse. And Arvidsson played 70 games in the AHL as a 21 year old and another 17 games the season after. There are first liners developed in the AHL, so if getting more centres increases the long term potential of wingers, we should see these kind of players coming out of the Marlies, but we don't. Bracco is exactly my point. Boucher would probably be leading the AHL in scoring too if he hadn't been injured. We don't want more Boucher. We rather have more Motte. Will Lind become Motte? Maybe. That won't be determined by whether he plays with Hamilton or Graovac. Motte was a star in college; most NHL bottom sixers were scorers at lower levels. How much Lind scores in the AHL won't matter as much as how well his skillset fits in the NHL. But the bigger point is if he can't be a driver himself in the AHL, then he won't ever make it to the NHL. This is a league where Chris Terry and Nathan Walker are top scorers. Where Max Legace is a legitimately good goalie. If a prospect can't score on Legace unless they get an all-star centre, how will they score against anyone in the NHL? At the end of the day, which NHL prospect made it further in their career because of an AHL centre? Small side point, but Perron was a trade -- the Canucks gave Pyatt and a 6th to SJ for him and a 7th. There may not have been a centre available for that trade. I don't need to rationalize because the decisions that were made were rational. Your fixation on extra centres, on the other hand, is not. If anyone has an obsession, it is not I. I included Toronto because the original point was why the Canucks didn't do what the Leafs did. It would be strange to respond with reasons why the Canucks didn't do what Carolina did, no? However, I'll summarize in fewer words. Please just respond to the following: 1. Signing an extra AHL centre will not improve the Canucks' playoff chances. If you have evidence to the contrary, please explain and be specific -- not a vague, wouldn't it be better to have more centres? 2. Signing an extra AHL centre will not improve the long term potential of the Canucks' prospects pool. Gadjovich will not turn into Tom Wilson because he played with Graovac instead of Hamilton. If you have evidence to the contrary, please explain and be specific. Depth in itself is not desirable. Depth that helps you win is desirable. The Canucks would be deeper with an extra five Graovacs, but it would not be more likely to win the Cup. Therefore, this is not useful depth. The NHL isn't some bloated communist regime, people aren't pushing around paper just to create some work for others. Why does it matter if the Canucks did or did not sign someone who ultimately makes no difference to the team's current or future playoff prospects?
  16. @UticaHockey@Horvat is a Boss I won't quote your posts to save space on my (admittedly) lengthy post, but curious minds can scroll or go back a page. The point, and why Toronto's cap space, prospects pool and NHL performance matter, is that the sole purpose of an NHL-owned AHL team is to make the NHL team better. Whether that be providing depth for call ups, or improving its prospect pool, or whatever else, end of the day the only result that matters is that the farm system led to a better NHL team. For example, if the Marlies could accelerate or improve the development of its defensemen so the Leafs can fill its back end with young, quality talent, that would be very helpful to the team's performance. If the Marlies could elevate the potential of its forwards, perhaps the Leafs wouldn't need to sign Tavares (or Marleau then lose a first rounder), which would do wonders for its cap. Or if they could turn Timashov into Arvidsson, they could've easily traded Nylander before they ever ran into contract issues and not miss a beat. If signing extra AHL vets would help them accomplish those things, then we would see the results on the big team. Instead, we see a team with all the money and resources in the world, sitting outside of a playoff spot with a prospect pool ranked lower than the Stanley Cup champs'. If these vet signings didn't elevate the Leafs' prospects pool or their playoff chances, then what are they for? What does it matter if the Marlies go 76-0 if the Leafs miss the playoffs? Conversely, what does it matter if the Comets went 0-76 if the Canucks win the Cup? The only reason there are the Utica Comets right now and not the Peoria Rivermen is because the Canucks believed that getting its own team would up its competitiveness at the NHL level, not because the Aquilinis were itching to expand their business to upstate New York. As to whether an extra Graovac would help the Canucks, for all intents and purposes, it would not. If the Canucks lost three of its starting centres for any extended period of time, the season is toast. What, we're going to roll into the playoffs with a lineup of Pettersson - Gaudette - Graovac - Graovac? It wouldn't matter if we stashed 15 extra centres in the AHL. There aren't players who can be had on a $1 million contract and pass through waivers, but be just as good as Sutter or Beagle, let alone Horvat or EP40. Look at the Marlies' centres -- Adam Brooks, Tyler Gaudet and Pierre Engvall. Which one can replace Sutter/ Beagle with no noticeable drop in performance? The Canucks started the season with EP40 and Horvat as locks for 1C and 2C, Sutter and Gaudette competing for 3C, and Beagle as 4C. Schaller have played all three forward positions in the NHL and can fill in at centre. Is he as good as Beagle? No. Would he be as good as Graovac? Sure. Is there a difference in going with Gaudette - Graovac- Schaller as the bottom 3 centres vs Gaudette - Graovac - Graovac 2.0? I highly doubt it. The Canucks didn't sign any more centres because it makes little sense to waste contracts on players who make no tangible impact on the team's playoff chances. Speaking of contracts, every team only gets 50 and the Canucks are at 47. KHL's regular season ends on Feb. 27, 2020 and Tryamkin's team currently sits outside of a playoff spot. Lockwood is a senior at Michigan and must be signed if the Canucks want to keep him. Rathbone is in his D+3 and putting up a good run, Madden is in his D+2 and may also want to turn pro. That's four possible spring signings, and doesn't include undrafted college or CHL free agents. Is an extra Graovac going to do more for the Canucks in the long run, than being able to sign all of its prospects, or being able to take a chance on another Rafferty or MacEwen? Maybe just as pertinent is that AHL centres don't typically boost the long term potential of their wingers. Could Lind have gotten a few more points last year if he played with an AHL all-star? Sure. Did his play warrant being on the first line with the team's best centre? No. Would his main weaknesses then -- strength and speed -- be improved by playing with a better centre? Unlikely, though a better centre could mask some of his problems. But he's better this year, regardless of who he plays with, because he put in the work over the summer and is more mentally prepared for the game. The Canucks are in the business of developing NHL players, not AHL scorers. Boucher is a far better AHL player than Motte ever was. Means nothing to the Canucks. Not to mention, Lind, Gadjovich and Jasek are not making the NHL with EP40 as their centre. They're probably going to get called up with Beagle as their centre. If they can't perform in the AHL without a star centre, then how will they ever make it against the best in the world? In general, the hand-wringing over Utica's weekly performance is overblown. Prospects development isn't a month-to-month process. Lind's long term potential is no different in November than October, even though his scoring rate changed. The emphasis is on rounding out their skillsets, not padding their stats. So the Comets lost some games. As long as it has good training and coaching staff and plays meaningful games down the stretch -- both of which have been true since its inception -- then it's doing its job. It doesn't win games for the sake of winning games, it wins games only if it ultimately leads to a better prospect pool for the Canucks. Remember all that uproar about the Gagner loan? Whose career did he make at the Marlies? Shouldn't Jeremy Bracco be Alex DeBrincat by now considering all the great centres he played with? So really, the point is that in the bigger picture, the Canucks didn't do what the Leafs did because what the Leafs are doing have shown no positive impact on their franchise. The point is signings are supposed to deliver results. And if the result is an overpaid, underperforming team with a subpar prospect pool, then perhaps the Canucks were right to not emulate those moves.
  17. So much depth yet sitting at No. 21 in the NHL with $0 in projected cap space. Missed the playoffs 10 seasons out of 11 from 2005 to 2016, but has an incredibly mediocre prospect pool — ranked No. 21 by Pronman, No. 21 by Sporting News, and No. 21 by EP Rinkside. (Canucks’ prospects were ranked No. 5, No. 8, and No. 4 by the same organizations). Does not seem like a model organization to follow, unless the height of the Canucks’ aspirations is to win the Calder Cup.
  18. Full 360 lacrosse move in traffic:
  19. Big Zack wins it for Utica in sudden death with Goldobin and Sautner getting the assists. The Comets get their first win of November and breaks a 4 game losing streak. Another solid game by DiPietro, stops 28 of 30 shots, 0.933 SV%.
  20. Another goal for Rathbone tonight: He's really got all the tools of a modern NHL puck moving D -- elite skating, crisp passing, heavy shot.
  21. Three point night for Madden on his 20th birthday, including assists on two goals by fellow Canucks prospect McDonough: McDonough and Madden were named second and third stars of the game, respectively. Madden also led the team with 8 SOG. Now has 10pt (6G + 4A) in 10 games this season.
  22. He also stayed out of loyalty to his school: The Youngstown Phantoms had his rights at the time, he could've gone to the USHL but he didn't. All in all, a classy kid.
  23. You don’t have to fight to be tough. This guy’s a warrior and an unsung hero.
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