2021-22 Utica Comets and ECHL thread - part V

[Bad Goalie]

I was hoping Mercer would be papered to the Comets even though I knew it was a longshot. But the possibility was there because Fitz had previously mentioned potentially doing it.

I'm a Comets fan so naturally I was hoping to strengthen the Comets roster heading into the playoffs. But fans tend to lose sight of the fact that hockey in both a sport and a business. From the business side why would Dawson Mercer want to go down to the AHL after completing a NHL season where he played in all 82 games?

Someone correct me if I am wrong but I am 90% sure that the salary players receive from their NHL contracts end when the NHL season ends. In the case of Mercer he will receive the full $832.5K plus bonus NHL side of his two way contract. He would not receive a penny more in salary for coming down to Utica to play in the AHL playoffs. He would receive is a portion of the AHL playoff revenue pool that is shared will all AHL players that participate in the playoffs.

The AHL playoff revenue pool is certainly not comparable to the pool of money available to the players in the NHL playoffs. The AHL is a gate driven revenue business and the sad fact is on average the AHL attendance drops significantly during the first two rounds compared to the regular season. The reason is many local businesses that buy season ticket packages do not purchase playoff ticket packages. It is just not something that they budget for so a large number of seats sold during the regular season remain unsold for the AHL playoffs.

For players on AHL contracts or two way contracts that played most of the year in the AHL it is a chance to earn a little extra money and keep playing longer. For players on one way contracts or those that played most of the year in the NHL the AHL playoff pool money is insignificant to what they have already earned.

To circle back to Dawson Mercer why would he want to come down and play for an AHL team that he has no connection with for pennies on the dollar? From the Devils perspective why would they want to send a young player down that exceeded expectations and is projected to play in all 82 games? Yes there is an argument that can be made that Mercer could help the Comets play deeper in the playoffs which could benefit the development of other prospects in Utica but it still isn't the best thing for Dawson Mercer himself.

If Mercer has a chance to play for his country at the worlds that would be a much greater perk than playing in the AHL playoffs as a reward for a nice rookie season. A hockey vacation in Helsinki is probably a little more rewarding than the AHL playoff grind in Utica.

I totally understand and agree. However, it is very frustrating to see so many NHL teams send guys to the AHL when they don't make the playoffs, and even send them down after the NHL team itself is eliminated a la Sven Baertschi to the Comets in 2015, for the AHL playoffs. They make make stronger teams even stronger while turning also rans into contenders.

No matter how it works out for the Comets they won't even be able to put their original team back together. Even Schnarr, Studenic, and Boqvist, on the opening day roster, won't be here. The only new addition the Devils were going to make was Jaros who was too arrogant to report and now no longer has a contract anywhere. They couldn't even risk papering down White because of waivers.

The Comets roster is a good one, but at 21 and 1/2 yrs average age of their 14 prospects they are very likely to be the youngest team in the playoffs.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

I totally understand and agree. However, it is very frustrating to see so many NHL teams send guys to the AHL when they don't make the playoffs, and even send them down after the NHL team itself is eliminated a la Sven Baertschi to the Comets in 2015, for the AHL playoffs. They make make stronger teams even stronger while turning also rans into contenders.

No matter how it works out for the Comets they won't even be able to put their original team back together. Even Schnarr, Studenic, and Boqvist, on the opening day roster, won't be here. The only new addition the Devils were going to make was Jaros who was too arrogant to report and now no longer has a contract anywhere. They couldn't even risk papering down White because of waivers.

The Comets roster is a good one, but at 21 and 1/2 yrs average age of their 14 prospects they are very likely to be the youngest team in the playoffs.

Boqvist played seven AHL games, Studenic played 13 for the Comets, White played six. White has played 0 NHL games since 3/16 @ Calgary. Hammond has played two NHL games since being traded for Schnarr, giving up seven and six goals. Schnarr has 1 G 3 A +5 in 11 games for Laval. Two of his primary assists came against Utica in a 5-3 Laval win. Rocket are 7-2-1-1 since the trade. Comets are 4-4-1-1.

 

[Guttersniped]

I totally understand and agree. However, it is very frustrating to see so many NHL teams send guys to the AHL when they don't make the playoffs, and even send them down after the NHL team itself is eliminated a la Sven Baertschi to the Comets in 2015, for the AHL playoffs. They make make stronger teams even stronger while turning also rans into contenders.

No matter how it works out for the Comets they won't even be able to put their original team back together. Even Schnarr, Studenic, and Boqvist, on the opening day roster, won't be here. The only new addition the Devils were going to make was Jaros who was too arrogant to report and now no longer has a contract anywhere. They couldn't even risk papering down White because of waivers.

The Comets roster is a good one, but at 21 and 1/2 yrs average age of their 14 prospects they are very likely to be the youngest team in the playoffs.

Schnarr was a big loss considering the center depth. It would have been nice to have have added Thompson rather than have a player with less pro experience replace Schnarr.

I was hoping for perhaps more FA signings but we aren’t that sort of org (hopefully someday lol).

Smith would have possibly been a interesting add. His ATOI went down from 20:01 to 17:15 this season and he’s played 59 games, maybe a playoff run would have been a pick me up. He’s been on the IR twice though, so I don’t know what kind of shape he’s in. (And teams don’t typically send down guys with that much NHL experience who never have been in the AHL.)

Baertschi played 18 NHL games and 51 AHL games and was still on his ELC in 2014-15.

This is the opposite of Bing in 2019-20, which got stronger and stronger after additions came in via trades (Nick Merkley, Schnarr, Koukkanen, David Quenneville, Zane McIntyre) and when Boqvist was finally sent down, but we happened to have a bunch of guys to trade that year.

The only thing that happened this season was we shipped out a useful player for NHL goalie depth. They lost Studenic trying to send him down. It was unfortunate on the AHL side.

 

[My3Sons]

Schnarr was a big loss considering the center depth. It would have been nice to have have added Thompson rather than have a player with less pro experience replace Schnarr.

I was hoping for perhaps more FA signings but we aren’t that sort of org (hopefully someday lol).

Smith would have possibly been a interesting add. His ATOI went down from 20:01 to 17:15 this season and he’s played 59 games, maybe a playoff run would have been a pick me up. He’s been on the IR twice though, so I don’t know what kind of shape he’s in. (And teams don’t typically send down guys with that much NHL experience who never have been in the AHL.)

Baertschi played 18 NHL games and 51 AHL games and was still on his ELC in 2014-15.

This is the opposite of Bing in 2019-20, which got stronger and stronger after additions came in via trades (Nick Merkley, Schnarr, Koukkanen, David Quenneville, Zane McIntyre) and when Boqvist was finally sent down, but we happened to have a bunch of guys to trade that year.

The only thing that happened this season was we shipped out a useful player for NHL goalie depth. They lost Studenic trying to send him down. It was unfortunate on the AHL side.

Something tells me they were surprised by the good season that Utica is having. The Utica team was stacked with a bunch of prospects and the goal was most likely development of the young players more so than winning a minor league title. To me, Fitz doesn't sound like the kind of guy to go with plan B on the fly just because the AHL team plays above expectations. I would have preferred him to grab an extra player or two for a playoff run but at the end of the day he didn't believe it was worth the transaction costs in players or picks or dollars.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Schnarr was a big loss considering the center depth. It would have been nice to have have added Thompson rather than have a player with less pro experience replace Schnarr.

I was hoping for perhaps more FA signings but we aren’t that sort of org (hopefully someday lol).

Smith would have possibly been a interesting add. His ATOI went down from 20:01 to 17:15 this season and he’s played 59 games, maybe a playoff run would have been a pick me up. He’s been on the IR twice though, so I don’t know what kind of shape he’s in. (And teams don’t typically send down guys with that much NHL experience who never have been in the AHL.)

Baertschi played 18 NHL games and 51 AHL games and was still on his ELC in 2014-15.

This is the opposite of Bing in 2019-20, which got stronger and stronger after additions came in via trades (Nick Merkley, Schnarr, Koukkanen, David Quenneville, Zane McIntyre) and when Boqvist was finally sent down, but we happened to have a bunch of guys to trade that year.

The only thing that happened this season was we shipped out a useful player for NHL goalie depth. They lost Studenic trying to send him down. It was unfortunate on the AHL side.

Thompson was added on 3/31. He has 2 G 4 A in 5 GP since he was added.

 

[UticaHockey]

I totally understand and agree. However, it is very frustrating to see so many NHL teams send guys to the AHL when they don't make the playoffs, and even send them down after the NHL team itself is eliminated a la Sven Baertschi to the Comets in 2015, for the AHL playoffs. They make make stronger teams even stronger while turning also rans into contenders.

No matter how it works out for the Comets they won't even be able to put their original team back together. Even Schnarr, Studenic, and Boqvist, on the opening day roster, won't be here. The only new addition the Devils were going to make was Jaros who was too arrogant to report and now no longer has a contract anywhere. They couldn't even risk papering down White because of waivers.

The Comets roster is a good one, but at 21 and 1/2 yrs average age of their 14 prospects they are very likely to be the youngest team in the playoffs.

To me losing Studenic to waivers was a huge loss because he was the complete two way player that the Comets do not have a lot of on the roster. Waiver luck doesn't always come our way. Jaros not reporting prevented the Comets another veteran defenseman for the stretch and I didn't expect to see that when he was placed on waivers the day before trade deadline.

The Hammond for Schnarr trade was just a bad idea. I'm not sure what the point was in trading for a mediocre goalie who was injured at the time was. I thought picking up Hammond was to send Daws back to Utica but that never happened.

 

[My3Sons]

To me losing Studenic to waivers was a huge loss because he was the complete two way player that the Comets do not have a lot of on the roster. Waiver luck doesn't always come our way. Jaros not reporting prevented the Comets another veteran defenseman for the stretch and I didn't expect to see that when he was placed on waivers the day before trade deadline.

The Hammond for Schnarr trade was just a bad idea. I'm not sure what the point was in trading for a mediocre goalie who was injured at the time was. I thought picking up Hammond was to send Daws back to Utica but that never happened.

I think they wanted to send Daws back but Hammond's injury must have been worse than reported or he just lost his mojo sitting around rehabbing and here we are.

 

[Triumph]

To me losing Studenic to waivers was a huge loss because he was the complete two way player that the Comets do not have a lot of on the roster. Waiver luck doesn't always come our way. Jaros not reporting prevented the Comets another veteran defenseman for the stretch and I didn't expect to see that when he was placed on waivers the day before trade deadline.

The Hammond for Schnarr trade was just a bad idea. I'm not sure what the point was in trading for a mediocre goalie who was injured at the time was. I thought picking up Hammond was to send Daws back to Utica but that never happened.

The Devils only had 3 healthy goalies under NHL contract, an untenable situation. Hammond has obviously been a disaster, and with Blackwood maybe returning to game action by season's end, it will seem silly, but if Blackwood can play, it lets them send Daws back down. They couldn't risk Gillies on waivers before the trade deadline.

 

[Guttersniped]

Something tells me they were surprised by the good season that Utica is having. The Utica team was stacked with a bunch of prospects and the goal was most likely development of the young players more so than winning a minor league title. To me, Fitz doesn't sound like the kind of guy to go with plan B on the fly just because the AHL team plays above expectations. I would have preferred him to grab an extra player or two for a playoff run but at the end of the day he didn't believe it was worth the transaction costs in players or picks or dollars.

I think they wanted a good season, and targeted several vets for the team on day one of free agency, but they definitely didn’t plan for 1st in the East. They should have done more for the goalie depth, that in particular annoys me.

Lack of goalie depth made this year a lot bumpier for our goalie prospects. The center depth problem affects our winger prospects.

It’s not about stacking the team for wins & losses, a successful AHL team is good environment to develop your talent and it also attracts FAs from the CHL & NCAA. People keep pointing to how few stars come from this route but undrafted players make up the bigger % of the league than any round after the 1st two (by quite a bit).

There were 156 undrafted skaters in the NHL this season and 73 played at least 30 games.

95 skaters were drafted in the 3rd Rd and 55 played at least 30 games.

24 undrafted goalies played in the NHL and 7 played at least 20 games.

28 goalies were drafted in 3rd round and 13 played at least 20 games. (It’s a big goalie round.)

 

[Guttersniped]

To me losing Studenic to waivers was a huge loss because he was the complete two way player that the Comets do not have a lot of on the roster. Waiver luck doesn't always come our way. Jaros not reporting prevented the Comets another veteran defenseman for the stretch and I didn't expect to see that when he was placed on waivers the day before trade deadline.

The Hammond for Schnarr trade was just a bad idea. I'm not sure what the point was in trading for a mediocre goalie who was injured at the time was. I thought picking up Hammond was to send Daws back to Utica but that never happened.

Having three goalies who can play in the NHL with zero depth in the minors is bad idea.

Just going with Gillies & Daws in the NHL with Schmid in the AHL as the 3rd (and only depth guy) is simply risky. Also Ruff clearly didn’t want to play Gillies at all ever again, because he was awful, and Hammond was at least potentially better.

The idea that it was about sending Daws back, at least before Blackwood was back, was not something the team said. Ruff likes having a chance to win games and Daws is the only guy giving him that.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Having three goalies who can play in the NHL with zero depth in the minors is bad idea.

Just going with Gillies & Daws in the NHL with Schmid in the AHL as the 3rd (and only depth guy) is simply risky. Also Ruff clearly didn’t want to play Gillies at all ever again, because he was awful, and Hammond was at least potentially better.

The idea that it was about sending Daws back, at least before Blackwood was back, was not something the team said. Ruff likes having a chance to win games and Daws is the only guy giving him that.

Fitz said he "owed it to the team" to trade for Hammond.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Sarge saying he's surprised how good the team is.

Management did nothing to prepare them for the playoffs. This team is not as good as their record.

 

[My3Sons]

Fitz said he "owed it to the team" to trade for Hammond.

No, I thought he said he owed in the teens from the team poker game and the players said they'd chip in the couple of extra dollars to get to a round $20 to give to MTL to get Hammond.

 

[UticaHockey]

Sarge saying he's surprised how good the team is.

Management did nothing to prepare them for the playoffs. This team is not as good as their record.

Has Sarge always been this exciting and outgoing?

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Has Sarge always been this exciting and outgoing?

Always.

 

[Billdo]

Sarge saying he's surprised how good the team is.

Management did nothing to prepare them for the playoffs. This team is not as good as their record.

Yet here they are. It's better than the nonsense we've had in the A, don't be a wet blanket.

 

[My3Sons]

Yet here they are. It's better than the nonsense we've had in the A, don't be a wet blanket.

how about a moist towelette? or a baby wipe?

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Thought he might sign with the Kraken.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Yet here they are. It's better than the nonsense we've had in the A, don't be a wet blanket.

Well the good news is if they lose out, it will only be a twelve game winless streak, so they can't finish the season matching their thirteen game winning streak to start the season. Last season was a lost 34 game pandemic season. The season before Binghamton was cruising strong to a playoffs berth before Covid shut that down, so I'm not sure what nonsense you're referring to.

Comets and Schmid are .500 since February. Mitens has been .500 all season. Utica is 1-3-1 in April. They could have clinched three games ago. They back assed their way in. Their first half performance has been enough to carry them this far. It won't be enough to carry them through the first round unless something changes between now and then. I was hoping this team would be better than the 2015-16 team led by Matt Lorito and Mike Sislo with Wedgewood and Danis.

I'm not the only poster who has said this team doesn't have enough depth to go on a deep successful run.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

how about a moist towelette? or a baby wipe?

You're a better poster than this man.

 

[Billdo]

how about a moist towelette? or a baby wipe?

Dude wipes...

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Dude wipes...

Your'e the Reid Boucher = Bad Dude poster aren't you?

 

[Billdo]

Well the good news is if they lose out, it will only be a twelve game winless streak, so they can't finish the season matching their thirteen game winning streak to start the season. Last season was a lost 34 game pandemic season. The season before Binghamton was cruising strong to a playoffs berth before Covid shut that down, so I'm not sure what nonsense you're referring to.

Comets and Schmid are .500 since February. Mitens has been .500 all season. Utica is 1-3-1 in April. They could have clinched three games ago. They back assed their way in. Their first half performance has been enough to carry them this far. It won't be enough to carry them through the first round unless something changes between now and then. I was hoping this team would be better than the 2015-16 team led by Matt Lorito and Mike Sislo with Wedgewood and Danis.

I'm not the only poster who has said this team doesn't have enough depth to go on a deep successful run.

I get it, I was half joking. They've hit a rut but I'd much rather them back their way in than be on the outside. Who knows what can happen when the playoffs start?

 

[Billdo]

Your'e the Reid Boucher = Bad Dude poster aren't you?

I posted it when it first started but I'm not really sure what direction you're taking this so I'll go with yes to see where we are going.

 

[My3Sons]

You're a better poster than this man.

You know full well I have to hit my quota of dad jokes or the other old guys will get mad at me when we queue up for Geritol at the nursing station.