2021/22 Utica Comets and ECHL Talk

[UticaHockey]

What role did Dolgon think Witkowski was serving? That guy could throw 'em with the best. He started his career as a definite enforcer (204 minutes in his 1st season with Syracuse) and his PIM throughout his career with the Crunch would continue to show his willingness to drop 'em. Maybe he's getting too old for that now or maybe won't be re-signed?

I think the fight he had with Vinnie this past season caused him to miss most of the remaining games for the Crunch last season. Vinnie was roughed up in that one and missed some games as well.

I forgot who it was but Witkowski actually got hurt late in the game after the fight with Vinnie. One of the Comets boarded him behind the net and he fell awkwardly into the boards.

One thing we know about Dolgon is he loves his enforcers because it sells well with the Syracuse fan base.

 

[SKNJD9]

 

[Bad Goalie]

I forgot who it was but Witkowski actually got hurt late in the game after the fight with Vinnie. One of the Comets boarded him behind the net and he fell awkwardly into the boards.

One thing we know about Dolgon is he loves his enforcers because it sells well with the Syracuse fan base.

The fight was in the 3rd period on Saturday, April 10.

I do remember that hit. It was Woo who hit Witkowski and he crumpled to the ice. When he was up he went to their room and that was it for Witkowski and the Comets for the season.

I commented that Jett needed to be ready the next time the 2 would meet because Wit would be looking to get even. It never happened.

 

[Guttersniped]

There will be room on the Comets roster for a few extras beyond the prospects, especially if they cut bait with some of the UFAs that played in Bingo. As I see it they will have 9 forwards after they sign Studenic.
AJ Greer was the most prolific scorer in Bingo last year with 14Pts/16GP. He is an RFA. He would qualify for VE status. 10 if signed.

Thomson definitely qualifies as a Veteran. Like Arseneau, he would not have to play every game, but would add some grit to the lineup anytime the coach feels it's needed. He would be a veteran. 11 if signed

People seem high on Schmelzer. The plus with him is he is not a veteran.The minus is he is not #1 center material. 12

They definitely need a #1 veteran center even if he skates on the 2nd line while they see if they have a prospect who can run at #1. 13

Still room for a couple more. maybe someone they have carried before or some new improved blood. this would give them 2 Vets and 1 VE.

They are desperately in need of a very good veteran D-man. All the D are young kids. I don't buy Colton White as that guy. It would be similar to when Benning tried to use both Ashton Sautner and Guillaume Brisebois in the same season with both sharing that role. Juolevi, Rafferty, Eliot, and Teves were not helped at all by those 2. Hell, Cull even tried to use 2nd yr Chatfield to carry Juolevi or perhaps carry each other. LOL

As I see it, they actually only have 5 D-prospects and all are under contract. They need 2 Vets or at least AHL experienced quality D-men. If Vets, that would make 4 Vets and 1 VE total on the roster.

If Hershey doesn’t resign Philippe Maillet then he seems like a possible 1C candidate since he’s a UFA. Trying to guess who will even be available this far from from free agency and before the Expansion Draft is bit challenging.

I’m not particularly worried about them picking up vet defensemen, they’ve done plenty of that before. Before last season Bing was exactly flush with defensive prospects so they brought in numerous vets and defensive warm bodies.

During the second half of 2019-20 Bing season when the team was making it’s run Colton White/Matt Tennyson was usually listed as the top pairing. Dakota Mermis/Josh Jacobs was common pairing before Mermis was called up at the end of season for 10 games. Julian Melchiori/Jeremy Groleau also played together. Kyle Cumiskey paired with several players, including Jacobs and David Quenneville.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

If Hershey doesn’t resign Philippe Maillet then he seems like a possible 1C candidate since he’s a UFA. Trying to guess who will even be available this far from from free agency and before the Expansion Draft is bit challenging.

I’m not particularly worried about them picking up vet defensemen, they’ve done plenty of that before. Before last season Bing was exactly flush with defensive prospects so they brought in numerous vets and defensive warm bodies.

During the second half of 2019-20 Bing season when the team was making it’s run Colton White/Matt Tennyson was usually listed as the top pairing. Dakota Mermis/Josh Jacobs was common pairing before Mermis was called up at the end of season for 10 games. Julian Melchiori/Jeremy Groleau also played together. Kyle Cumiskey paired with several players, including Jacobs and David Quenneville.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Always liked this guy.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Cross off another one. The slots keep opening up.

 

[KovalSNIPE]

Bad Goalie, we appreciate the effort but through all of that you didnt give a shred of evidence to back up some claims. One example:

5 Jonas Siegenthaler (RFA) - Jonas was under contract to Washington for 4 seasons. He played 131 games with the caps and put up 13 points and .099 PPG. They were not impressed and traded him to NJ during this past season. He played 7 games with the Caps and 8 with the devils and recorded 0Pts.
Giving this 24 yr-old a QO would be shocking to me. There will be better depth defenders on waivers before the season gets underway.

1) We are re-signing him. This has already been confirmed.

2) We were actually a far better team defensively when he was on the ice for us. Unfortunately I do not have the stats in front of me so I do sound a bit hypocritical here, but I'm not BS-ing you here. I believe Todd Cordell has the info on his twitter page somewhere. In addition, why would we trade a 3rd round pick for a throwaway player leading to an expansion draft? That is idiotic and poor asset management for a rebuilding team.

 

[Guttersniped]

Oh well.

 

[nugg]

Oh well.

Philipe, we hardly knew ye

 

[KovalSNIPE]

What is so significant about Philippe Maillet?

 

[Guttersniped]

What is so significant about Philippe Maillet?

Nothing now, people were discussing candidates for a Ben Street-style AHL tweener 1C (if not Street) and he was Hershey’s 1C. He actually started out with Ontario Reign as a NCAA FA. (The Kings and their savvy center signings.)

Matt Moulson and Maillet were the leading scoring in Ontario in 2018-19 and Washington/Hershey were so impressed that they stole them both as a scoring UFA duo. Old Man Moulson got one year AHL deals twice in Hersey. Maillet got a two year deal with a guaranteed salary of 200k in 2019-20 and 250k in 2020-21.

Malliet was their lead scorer in 2019-20 (61 GP 17G 24A 41 points) and was el fuego in 16 games (16 GP 6G 15A 21 points) he played this season when he wasn’t chilling on the taxi squad.

And I’m providing this unnecessary detail about random AHL player who was on the Hersey Bears and just signed a KHL team because MY BASELESS FANTASY ABOUT THIS GUY DISHING PUCKS TO OUR WINGER PROSPECTS IN UTICA DIED A QUICK BRUTAL DEATH. It’s hurts. Just because Malliet being our next AHL 1C had no basis in reality doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea or makes this any less painful for me.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Guttersniped]

I saw this I wondering how long they were going to play. But I checked and this loss is the end of the road.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

I saw this I wondering how long they were going to play. But I checked and this loss is the end of the road.

Yeah Sissons disappeared from the scoresheet down the stretch and into the playoffs. Basically a post-season non-factor.

COLBY SISSONS

Florida Everblades

5

0

1

1

-2

4

0

0

0.20

0.80

0

13

1

0

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[My3Sons]

VAN is going to keep the used stuff from its former AHL affiliate? Talk about low rent. In my view they should just give that stuff to season ticket holders. How much of a market can there be for game used AHL stuff?

 

[Bad Goalie]

VAN is going to keep the used stuff from its former AHL affiliate? Talk about low rent. In my view they should just give that stuff to season ticket holders. How much of a market can there be for game used AHL stuff?

You would be shocked. People stood in line for hours to be the first ones to get at the stuff:

- Brand new unused player personalized sticks
- Brand new unopened plastic bag wrapped personalized goalie sticks
- 2, 3 ,4 pairs or more of each goalie's personalized, names emblazoned into the leather, gloves, Goalie Pads, Markstrom and Demko as well as anyone else who wore the pads. (I have brand new autographed sticks, slightly used, autogrqaphed, factory personalized labeled pairs of gloves from Thatcher Demko and Jacob Markstrom as well as Richard Bachman, Joacim Eriksson, and Joe Cannata.
- Unworn Vancouver practice jerseys
- Comets practice jerseys
- Game worn but washed Comets home and away jerseys
- Players' skates including goalie skates (mint)
- Player helmets and gloves
- Brand new still in the packing Under Armor shower slides
- Comets gift shop jerseys, t-shirts, sweats shirts, hoodies, sweatsuits
- Comets and Vancouver ball caps, tuques, beanies, tassel hats, scarfs
- odd pieces of equipment
- locker stall nameplates
- other odds and ends I can't think of right now

New Jersey didn't do this with Binghamton Devils gear? I know Syracuse and Rochester does it as well.

I'll be going down to check out what they might still be offering this year. Probably have some new lids available.

I will agree that the Canucks are cheap bastards to have shipped all of the gear they used to make available to their AHL fan base out of town with them. It would have been a nice thank you gesture to the area's tremendous support. I would have liked to add a pair of Mikey DiPietro's gloves and a stick to my keeper's collection. It would have completed a collection of the gloves of all of the Utica Comets goalies to serve as #1 during their 8 years here.

 

[Bad Goalie]

The Utica Comets have announced the sale of tickets for opening night of the 2021-2022 season, Sunday, Oct. 17th, will go on sale Monday. Tickets can be obtained through empirestatetix.com. This is way earlier than opening game tickets have been made available to the public in the past. They are determined to sell out the game way in advance. Esche has stated that, so far, just under 3,000 season tickets have been sold to the 3,917 seats the building holds for hockey. You can still buy season tickets, but that number has usually been cut off at around 3,400 so as to have tickets available to the rest of the community. However, most of those tickets were snapped up way in advance as soon as they were made available to the public before the season started.

There are still some in town who haven't got the bad taste out of their mouths since New Jersey pulled the rug out from under the Utica fan base after the 1992-93 season. They required the rink be enlarged and it was done so by taking rows of seats out of the end of the arena thereby shrinking seating capacity. They also required locker room updates. They also were done. Then Lou just up and moved them out!

Now all of a sudden after the community has invested megabucks, from grants and other sources, to completely remodel the building itself, both inside and out, installed brand new luxury boxes, built restaurants and bars into the structure of the building, and installed state of the art facilities for every aspect of a professional hockey team's needs making it one of the classiest operations in the world of minor league hockey, New Jersey marches right back in to avail themselves of all those amenities without having had to invest a nickel. As I said, they have not ingratiated themselves with lots of Utica folks. My view? Hey, it's business. It's the way of the power brokers.

Others were praying for the Rangers and claim they would have a hard time rooting for the prospects that will eventually have the goal of beating their Rangers.

Some of those ilks have not renewed their season tickets. If they don't get over it, there are enough hockey fans in this area to replace that immature lame excuses for not supporting their local team. I hate the Rangers, loved Brodeur and pushed for the Devils during his reign as king of New Jersey, and have been an Islanders fan since the first day they came into existence.

I had no allegiance whatsoever to Vancouver B.C., but the Comets were my team and I rooted for their victory vs Binghamton, Bridgeport, and Hartford with no consideration whatsoever for the parent clubs they represented. I also wished every single Comet could reach his goal of becoming an NHL player and recognized they would not necessarily end up in the NHL with Vancouver and I could have cared less. I now wish the same for every New Jersey prospect.

I am a hockey fan first and foremost. I played the game at various levels for most of my life and it is my first love. I don't care who the Utica team is affiliated with, they are OUR team! Most of the fan base here is of the same mindset once the players start rolling into town. The Utica College hockey team sells out the Aud every game just like the Comets. They have their own entrance to their own top notch facilities inn the Aud. They are #1 in attendance of all Division III college hockey teams in the nation. We are a hockey town and learned the hard way what it's like to not have a team and I don't believe they want to suffer that empty hole in their winter lives ever again.

 

[Ski]

The Utica Comets have announced the sale of tickets for opening night of the 2021-2022 season, Sunday, Oct. 17th, will go on sale Monday. Tickets can be obtained through empirestatetix.com. This is way earlier than opening game tickets have been made available to the public in the past. They are determined to sell out the game way in advance. Esche has stated that, so far, just under 3,000 season tickets have been sold to the 3,917 seats the building holds for hockey. You can still buy season tickets, but that number has usually been cut off at around 3,400 so as to have tickets available to the rest of the community. However, most of those tickets were snapped up way in advance as soon as they were made available to the public before the season started.

There are still some in town who haven't got the bad taste out of their mouths since New Jersey pulled the rug out from under the Utica fan base after the 1992-93 season. They required the rink be enlarged and it was done so by taking rows of seats out of the end of the arena thereby shrinking seating capacity. They also required locker room updates. They also were done. Then Lou just up and moved them out!

Now all of a sudden after the community has invested megabucks, from grants and other sources, to completely remodel the building itself, both inside and out, installed brand new luxury boxes, built restaurants and bars into the structure of the building, and installed state of the art facilities for every aspect of a professional hockey team's needs making it one of the classiest operations in the world of minor league hockey, New Jersey marches right back in to avail themselves of all those amenities without having had to invest a nickel. As I said, they have not ingratiated themselves with lots of Utica folks. My view? Hey, it's business. It's the way of the power brokers.

Others were praying for the Rangers and claim they would have a hard time rooting for the prospects that will eventually have the goal of beating their Rangers.

Some of those ilks have not renewed their season tickets. If they don't get over it, there are enough hockey fans in this area to replace that immature lame excuses for not supporting their local team. I hate the Rangers, loved Brodeur and pushed for the Devils during his reign as king of New Jersey, and have been an Islanders fan since the first day they came into existence.

I had no allegiance whatsoever to Vancouver B.C., but the Comets were my team and I rooted for their victory vs Binghamton, Bridgeport, and Hartford with no consideration whatsoever for the parent clubs they represented. I also wished every single Comet could reach his goal of becoming an NHL player and recognized they would not necessarily end up in the NHL with Vancouver and I could have cared less. I now wish the same for every New Jersey prospect.

I am a hockey fan first and foremost. I played the game at various levels for most of my life and it is my first love. I don't care who the Utica team is affiliated with, they are OUR team! Most of the fan base here is of the same mindset once the players start rolling into town. The Utica College hockey team sells out the Aud every game just like the Comets. They have their own entrance to their own top notch facilities inn the Aud. They are #1 in attendance of all Division III college hockey teams in the nation. We are a hockey town and learned the hard way what it's like to not have a team and I don't believe they want to suffer that empty hole in their winter lives ever again.

Congrats on keeping the A in your fine City of Utica. You'll have plenty of prospects to follow with the recent success the Binghamton club had before the Pandemic. Fans should be excited in the near future despite the dismal results on display over the course of the last 4 seasons. Our faithful in the Southern Tier region remain optimistic as hockey has been a fallback form of entertainment in the last 40 years plus.

 

[Ski]

Congrats on keeping the A in your fine City of Utica. You'll have plenty of prospects to follow with the recent success the Binghamton club had before the Pandemic. Fans should be excited in the near future despite the dismal results on display over the course of the last 4 seasons. Our faithful in the Southern Tier region remain optimistic as hockey has been a fallback form of entertainment in the last 40 years plus.

But I am still pissed with the way it was handled. NJ pulled the plug after asking for financial agreements despite the team playing in a Newark practice facility.

Dirty deal.

 

[Bad Goalie]

But I am still pissed with the way it was handled. NJ pulled the plug after asking for financial agreements despite the team playing in a Newark practice facility.

Dirty deal.

We in Utica can empathize with the Binghamton natives. The Devils pulled the rug out from under the Comets after the end of the 1992-93 season after requiring the Utica powers to make all kinds of changed to the Aud.

The only consolation I can offer is that Binghamton is not that far away and you guys are always welcome in Utica. We saw quite a few of you every time Binghamton visited the Aud over the past 8 years. At least now we would be cheering for the same team.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Bad Goalie]

Less than a 2 hour ride between the 2 cities and the Utica Aud is less than 5 minutes from the thruway exit. Problem is that most of the ECHL guys are usually not worth the call-up when it comes to trying to fill in for an actual AHL regular. The thing to do is carry 4 extra AHL level forwards and at least #s 7, 8, and 9 on D. Those forwards drop off in talent after the first 2, but are at least AHL level 4th liners like a Cam Darcy or John Stevens. The D are all AHL level talent and often consist of a prospect or 2 with a seasoned AHL defender like Blujus.