Abbotsford Canucks | Season Starting

[Wisp]

I starting watching in January 2019 and this is the best group of prospects during that span, easily.

Just feels like ... Players are developing. Who knows if they're NHLers. But it certainly feels like player development is doing everything they can here to have the best organizational depth possible.

Edit: the floor has definitely been raised. We'll see what the ceiling looks like.

 

[Lindgren]

Tolopilo's save percentage is now .932

 

[Blue and Green]

Klimovich playing like a man possessed.....what the hell happened?

I think that the coaching change has been good for Klimovich. And whatever the reason, he is not the utter rockhead that he was in years past. Could see that right from the first game this season. Mostly sound defensive positioning and has cut down on giveaways-- the latter issue still creeps in here and there, but even that now has as much to do with needing to polish his skills as it does with mental errors.

 

[Blue and Green]

And I'm assuming that Sammy Blais was missing because of the AHL veteran rule?

I don't know why Blais didn't play tonight but it wasn't because of the veteran rule. Friedman, Brisebois, Stevens and Twarynski were the only veteran skaters who dressed tonight.

 

[ManVanFan]

A very good performance by the guys in the lineup given that there are some noticeable absences at present. Just one caveat: San Diego has been a perennial bottom feeder in recent seasons and appears to be headed again toward the same fate.

How does a farm system of a team that is rebuilding suck constantly.

 

[ManVanFan]

Tolopilo - big, calm in the net. NHL back up qualities.
Woo - Does not have NHL qualities. He's like Mueller, tries hard but just lacks the skills to make it at the next level.
Raty - I thought he was too slow at making plays.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Best the AHL farm system has looked since the Moose?

Utica went to the finals 1 year. Markie in net. Baertschi, Gaunce and I don't remember who else. AHL streamed all playoff gms for free that year.

 

[Vector]

 

[Wisp]

Utica went to the finals 1 year. Markie in net. Baertschi, Gaunce and I don't remember who else. AHL streamed all playoff gms for free that year.

The Moose went to the finals too. Anyways I was coming at this from a player development & organizational depth perspective, certainly feels like they've raised the floor on prospect quality. Remains to be seen if they've raised the ceiling as well.

 

[VanJack]

Best players on the ice last night in no particular order were Klimovich (first star); Kudryavtsev, Pettersson, Lekkerimaki, Raty and Mueller.

Been a long time since a group of young guys barely 20, have had that kind of impact in their first few AHL games. It's a long season, and undoubtedly a few of them will hit the wall a few times before it's over.

But after what seems like eons, Canucks fans have some bonafide 'prospects' to actually cheer for on their AHL farm team.. And the list doesn't even include Wilander and Mynio, who might well be 1-2 in terms of their prospect blueliners.

 

[tyhee]

... Are there successful professional AHL to NHL programs that are administered by AHL GMs at all?

I think the AHL general manager's job is less than running the player development of prospects, though he'll have a hand in it, so the answer to your question would seem to be clearly no, but much of the success of an AHL team at development of players and the team's success in the standings is beyond his control.

Among NHL teams such as the Canucks that own their AHL affiliate, the NHL team chooses who does the coaching and provides the team with players who are on NHL contracts, so essentially the prospects and coaches are all provided by the NHL team.

What the AHL gm does that most affects the team's success, both in the standings and player development, is look at the players provided (or expected to be provided) to the AHL by the parent club and fill in the squad with players on AHL contracts. A good AHL GM looks at what his team needs in addition to the NHL-provided players, often needing to anticipate what the needs will be, and tries to sign players that fill those needs. It will also usually be the AHL general manager who find and signs players from the ECHL to AHL professional tryout contracts when his team is short of players because of injury.

A poor or mediocre AHL general manager may do little more than figure out how many positions he needs to fill and sign the number of players needed without much attention to what the team's shortcomings are. That's why we see, for example, @orcatown referring to the team needing but not signing muscle and why when the Comets were the Canucks' affiliate we used to see @Bad Goalie pointing out the failure of RJ to provide a good AHL playmaking center or a sound, knowledgeable but aging on-ice coach type of defenceman pretty much every season.

I can't think of a season since the 2014-15 season when it seemed to me that the AHL players signed to contracts with our AHL affiliate actually filled the team needs other than for the number of players to be provided. Things are improving for our AHL team, but mostly because the NHL team is providing a better calibre of players than was the case a few seasons ago so there isn't as much need for quality fillins on AHL contracts.

 

[Blue and Green]

Phil D sighting in warmups for tonight's game.

Ahac might be getting his first game, too, as he was also in the warmup. EDIT: No Ahac, took warmups but scratched.

 

[Lindgren]

Phil D sighting in warmups for tonight's game.

Ahac might be getting his first game, too, as he was also in the warmup. EDIT: No Ahac, took warmups but scratched.

They're underway.

Tolopilo has the net on the second of the back-to-backs, which I think is a mistake.

Pettersson and Friedman were the starting D pair. Wouters, Smith, and Nielsen up front.

PDG is in. No sign of Wolanin.

Abby down 1-0 after the first.

 

[Lindgren]

San Diego up 4-0 after two.

Should've started Patera.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Phil D sighting in warmups for tonight's game.

Ahac might be getting his first game, too, as he was also in the warmup. EDIT: No Ahac, took warmups but scratched.

I think the AHL general manager's job is less than running the player development of prospects, though he'll have a hand in it, so the answer to your question would seem to be clearly no, but much of the success of an AHL team at development of players and the team's success in the standings is beyond his control.

Among NHL teams such as the Canucks that own their AHL affiliate, the NHL team chooses who does the coaching and provides the team with players who are on NHL contracts, so essentially the prospects and coaches are all provided by the NHL team.

What the AHL gm does that most affects the team's success, both in the standings and player development, is look at the players provided (or expected to be provided) to the AHL by the parent club and fill in the squad with players on AHL contracts. A good AHL GM looks at what his team needs in addition to the NHL-provided players, often needing to anticipate what the needs will be, and tries to sign players that fill those needs. It will also usually be the AHL general manager who find and signs players from the ECHL to AHL professional tryout contracts when his team is short of players because of injury.

A poor or mediocre AHL general manager may do little more than figure out how many positions he needs to fill and sign the number of players needed without much attention to what the team's shortcomings are. That's why we see, for example, @orcatown referring to the team needing but not signing muscle and why when the Comets were the Canucks' affiliate we used to see @Bad Goalie pointing out the failure of RJ to provide a good AHL playmaking center or a sound, knowledgeable but aging on-ice coach type of defenceman pretty much every season.

I can't think of a season since the 2014-15 season when it seemed to me that the AHL players signed to contracts with our AHL affiliate actually filled the team needs other than for the number of players to be provided. Things are improving for our AHL team, but mostly because the NHL team is providing a better calibre of players than was the case a few seasons ago so there isn't as much need for quality fillins on AHL contracts.

It's nice to be remembered in such a positive way. Thanks for remembering I once was here. I tried my best to inform you of what I knew.

That 14-15 team was managed brilliantly by Vancouver Asst GM assigned to Utica as their GM, Lorne Henning assisted by Pat O'Connor, Director of Hockey Operations. Conacher had connections throughout the ECHL and was able to acquire/borrow the best players in that league to shore up the Comets depth.

After Benning fired Henning things were never the same and RJ was a major factor in the Comets falling from AHL prominence. He was not in any way, shape, or form involved with acquiring AHL level talent. O'Connor was working his ass off to find high level ECHL talent, but those guys are normally most effective in depth roles and are not capable of raising the competitive level of an AHL hockey team. Henning worked to bring in ex-NHL talent and top AHL level players as free agents and through trades.

 

[Blue and Green]

After dominating in Friday's game, the lads couldn't repeat the effort tonight and got whacked 4-1. Two quick PP goals at the end of the second period put the Gulls up 4-0 and pretty much ended the affair. Wouters broke the shutout with a penalty shot goal midway through the third.

Team needs more from its forwards; they've been the weakest group so far. The defencemen are mostly doing okay but there isn't a strong offensive threat among the guys that are currently playing and that deficiency is most notable on the PP. Goaltending has been mostly okay. Recapping the weekend for some players of interest:

Tolopilo played both games this weekend. Wasn't very busy on Friday but was there when the team needed him. Had his weakest game of the season tonight-- wasn't terrible but wasn't good either.

Pettersson is playing steady hockey, using his size well and pretty good with his awareness and positioning. He doesn't make many bad plays with the puck but there are limitations as to what he can do with it.

Kudryavtsev did some good things but occasionally got a bit scrambly. Lack of reach causes difficulty for him at times. He likes to jump up into the rush but his teammates don't usually take good advantage of his presence.

McWard is playing solid hockey with few mistakes and NHL-calibre mobility. I'd like to see him get another chance in Vancouver at some point. He's 23 and will be waiver-eligible next season so there's a time limit with him.

Lekkerimaki wasn't bad in his first action of the season but didn't stand out at all. He shows good hockey sense and good hands but he needs time to get stronger and faster. If he matures well physically he could perhaps become a solid second-line NHL winger.

Raty isn't making a giant case to return to Vancouver just yet.

Sasson has NHL wheels but just not enough in the rest of his game.

Klimovich was the most noticeable winger (not a high bar to clear, mind you), mostly for positive reasons although his puck management decisions were still problematic on a few occasions. He's alright now in terms of his defensive effort and positioning.

 

[VanJack]

The trials and tribulations of a young team. They can look like world-beaters one night, and then lay an egg the next.

They had a strong first 10-minutes, but gradually punched themselves out and lost steam. Penalty troubles also dogged them all night. After the first period, their zone exits were an adventure almost every time.

The defense collectively had a tough night, but weren't getting much help from the forwards in clearing their own zone. PDG drew back into the lineup, but hardly noticed him.

Lekkerimaki is so close to sniping multiple goals. He's pressing, but his release is all-world. Only a matter of time for him.

 

[The Stig]

Should be noted that the reffing was abysmal

 

[MS]

Rough result. Thought the team played pretty well for most of the first 40 minutes and were unlucky to be down 2-0 ... and then they give up 2 PPG and all of a sudden it's 4-0.

13 goals through 6 games is not good enough.

- Lekkerimaki was meh. Same general vibe I always get - you can see some impressive hands and puck skills but he's very small and he's doing everything on the perimeter.

- PDG was back and his play off the puck is just so obviously better than the rest of the forwards for either team it's hilarious.

- Raty was really quiet in this one. You hope getting sent down hasn't hurt his confidence, just 1 point in 4 games so far.

- have been hearing some good things about Klimovich ... and then on literally his first shift he makes a boneheaded turnover to gift San Diego a 2-on-0 rush. Looked a bit more confident than last year but still basically shit and dumb and there is no chance this player ever plays a shift on a Rick Tocchet team.

- thought this was one of the worst games I've seen Sasson play and he's another guy off to a really rough start with 1 point, -6 through 6 games.

- EP2 was weirdly good and played a game unlike any I've seen from him before. Was actually really impressive with the puck, holding it for ages, trying extra moves, looking very confident. Got caught flat-footed in the neutral zone on the 1-0 goal but it was at the end of a dominant Abbotsford shift where he was everywhere involved in the play so not too fussed about that one.

- I simply don't get the Cole McWard hype. He's a waiver-age, soft, middling AHL defender.

- Brisebois was really good. I thought he really struggled when he returned last season but this was the best game I've seen him play since 22-23. Skated well, always in the right positions.

- Tolopilo probably shouldn't have played both ends of the B2B.

 

[alternate]

I mean, what McWard hype though?

 

[MS]

I mean, what McWard hype though?

The club played him with Hughes through the 2023 preseason and when they're listing players they're really high on his name always seems to be in the mix. A few posters here also seem to really like him when they watch the games.

I just don't see it. Nothing about him projects.

 

[Vector]

I mean, what McWard hype though?

The team has name checked him constantly and apparently are interested in what he can do with the NHL team.

 

[Vector]

Best case scenario with Klimovich is he plays enough to get his stats up and he can be used as a trade chip.

 

[Jerry the great]

Best case scenario with Klimovich is he plays enough to get his stats up and he can be used as a trade chip.

Dude, you're married with children and live in the burbs...you have to have a better imagination than this. You just described a semi realistic outcome....which is very far from the best case scenario.

 

[Vector]

Dude, you're married with children and live in the burbs...you have to have a better imagination than this. You just described a semi realistic outcome....which is very far from the best case scenario.

I’ve watched him play live so much that I can’t envision a scenario where he’s actually able to make the NHL as a real player.