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2019-20 Utica Comets Thread


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2 hours ago, Googlie said:

Yeah. - I had to check to see if maybe he played last night, but no.  Wonder why, cos he was playing well.

 

And on a side note, Comets are struggling with their outlet passes in the absence of OJ.  Might well be the Comet's Edler.  Prone to gaffes, but still the best passer on the team

 

No further score half way thru the second.

Wait a second, are you trying to tell me OJ is a difference maker!

Ps thanks for the updates

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7 minutes ago, Dats hockey said:

Wait a second, are you trying to tell me OJ is a difference maker!

Ps thanks for the updates

Not sure that the result would have been any different were OJ playing, cos he doesn't take face offs, and that was the Comets biggest weakness tonight.  Plus undisciplined penalties.  But maybe they wouldn't have had the 2 delay of game penalties were he playing, cos they were panic moves to clear the zone and if he is anything, he is cool under pressure.

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In context Justin Bailey was scratched in favor to dress Carter Camper due to Seamus Malone being injured last game.

 

Currently Jasek-Camper-Hamilton are the teams top three centres.  Need some help down the middle and someone that is veteran exempt as the team is currently struggling to juggle with that dynamic.

Edited by CRAZY_4_NAZZY
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I dont know why they didnt re-sign Brendan Gaunce. Sure, he didn't fit into Vancouver's plans (6 goals and 10 assists in 118 NHL games, one of which was with Boston),  but his AHL numbers are decent. ...... 55 goals and 71 assists in 216 games with Utica and Providence.  He's a UFA this June, and currently at $700k, so might be a good pickup for next season.

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42 minutes ago, Googlie said:

I dont know why they didnt re-sign Brendan Gaunce. Sure, he didn't fit into Vancouver's plans (6 goals and 10 assists in 118 NHL games, one of which was with Boston),  but his AHL numbers are decent. ...... 55 goals and 71 assists in 216 games with Utica and Providence.  He's a UFA this June, and currently at $700k, so might be a good pickup for next season.

Perhaps Gaunce didn't want to sign back here and went to look for an opportunity elsewhere.

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41 minutes ago, Canuckster86 said:

GM JB doesn't care about Utica, it is pretty obvious. If your playing guys out of position maybe go sign someone that plays the correct position to fill the void....Not rocket science

You do know that the Utica GM can sign players to AHL contracts to resolve this situation too right? Perhaps they're just trying to ride out the storm rather than make rash decisions. The Canucks are limited in contract space that they probably want to save should there be quality college or CHL UFAs. AHL contract level players aren't that great either and who knows who's out there. This is a good challenge for the wingers to improve their faceoffs and try to add a different dynamic to their skill set to have them stand out. At some point the injured players will come back and perhaps management knows some guys are close, so no point signing someone. Maybe Sutter gets a conditioning stint.

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5 minutes ago, theo5789 said:

You do know that the Utica GM can sign players to AHL contracts to resolve this situation too right? Perhaps they're just trying to ride out the storm rather than make rash decisions. The Canucks are limited in contract space that they probably want to save should there be quality college or CHL UFAs. AHL contract level players aren't that great either and who knows who's out there. This is a good challenge for the wingers to improve their faceoffs and try to add a different dynamic to their skill set to have them stand out. At some point the injured players will come back and perhaps management knows some guys are close, so no point signing someone. Maybe Sutter gets a conditioning stint.

The Utica GM is Ryan Johnson who reports directly to Jim Benning.

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10 minutes ago, theo5789 said:

You do know that the Utica GM can sign players to AHL contracts to resolve this situation too right? Perhaps they're just trying to ride out the storm rather than make rash decisions. The Canucks are limited in contract space that they probably want to save should there be quality college or CHL UFAs. AHL contract level players aren't that great either and who knows who's out there. This is a good challenge for the wingers to improve their faceoffs and try to add a different dynamic to their skill set to have them stand out. At some point the injured players will come back and perhaps management knows some guys are close, so no point signing someone. Maybe Sutter gets a conditioning stint.

I think they are just weathering the storm. They should send MacEwen back down and bring up Bailey. I don't think  MacEwen is a vet so Bailey would be sitting anyways, might as well be with Vancouver on the road trip. MacEwen can fill-in at centre till Graovac and Malone get healthy again or GMRJ signs another centre.

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52 minutes ago, theo5789 said:

Do you think Benning is telling Johnson to not sign any AHL contracts?

They already have a handful of players who are not Canucks property.  That's what happened a couple  of years ago when we brought up Archibald - he was Comets property and had to be signed to a Canucks contract to play with us

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55 minutes ago, theo5789 said:

Do you think Benning is telling Johnson to not sign any AHL contracts?

We are at 47/50 for roster spots. So I would think there is not much room for the AHL GM to go sign guys as the NHL club will want flexibility for trades etc. Fact is we have a ton of wingers some not even worthy of being in the NHL and we waived some more that are in the AHL.

 

Most AHL teams will get depleted as NHL teams call upon the AHL depth when injuries occur. But, we do seem to run into the same issue every year with a certain position and the lack of depth.

 

Its not 100% JB fault, but we had to call up an emergency OHL G last year because we had 0 G depth organizationally. Hopefully we are able to move a W or LHD for a depth C in the A or something

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25 minutes ago, Canuckster86 said:

We are at 47/50 for roster spots. So I would think there is not much room for the AHL GM to go sign guys as the NHL club will want flexibility for trades etc. Fact is we have a ton of wingers some not even worthy of being in the NHL and we waived some more that are in the AHL.

 

Most AHL teams will get depleted as NHL teams call upon the AHL depth when injuries occur. But, we do seem to run into the same issue every year with a certain position and the lack of depth.

 

Its not 100% JB fault, but we had to call up an emergency OHL G last year because we had 0 G depth organizationally. Hopefully we are able to move a W or LHD for a depth C in the A or something

AHL contracts don't affect our NHL contract limits as far as I know. Benning likely has given freedom to Johnson to make moves to help their team. Benning can only do so much to help with the situation. I brought the contract limits issue which is why there's only so much Benning can do in this case, so it's not like he doesn't want to help Utica. Benning isn't going to go out and find AHL contracts as that is Johnson's job. But like I also mentioned earlier, it could be them simply riding out the storm and using this as a learning experience for the team to see how the wingers could potentially add one more thing to their arsenal which helps with unexpected development.

 

You cannot plan for everything and some things are simply out of our control. Things take time and that goalie situation was unfortunate. If you remember, we had acquired a goalie, but that goalie was swiped up when we tried to send him down. We couldn't acquire another goalie in that short and our goalies got hurt. It was just an unfortunate sequence of events, something that couldn't have been planned for. We had several centers (Gaudette made the NHL, others got hurt), certainly too many wingers, but that's just the way it is. Hopefully something can be done, but it's not as simple as "go do it".

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