Dude played for Team USA at the Olympics. Clearly he's going to be Petey's winger this seaosn.Looks like some AHL depth is being picked up today as well.
How many AHL teams can boast an Olympian?Not exactly the AHL stud you would hope for for a guy who’s likely going to play in Abbotsford. Maybe Allvin and co. Think he has another level he can get to.
Can't believe all these years after drafting him in the 1st round, he's back in the organization. What a story!
Can't believe all these years after drafting him in the 1st round, he's back in the organization. What a story!
Goes for a lot of kids. Can score in the NCAA, CHL, and even A, but not enough production at NHL level. Once you get to an age like around 25 or so, you are no longer a prospect and that 4th line role that a team can spot you with offensive chances, the team then opts to move onto a younger prospect with upside. We had hopes for Gaudette and Madden (traded to LA, but he seems to be in the same boat as well in that he's not transitioning his game). Probably needs to play more like his father to make it in the NHL.Was a big-ish prospect in 2022 coming off a huge senior NCAA season and a strong Olympics showing. Didn’t sign for Winnipeg, got traded to Arizona, had a really strong showing to close out that season … and then has just flatlined since as a 0.5 PPG AHLer. Kind of a guy stuck in Studnicka land as a skill C at lower levels who isn’t top-6 NHL material and hasn’t been able to reprofile.
The Athletic said:Smith is likely to open the season with the Abbotsford Canucks and serve as a Sheldon Dries replacement at the American League level, but this is a young player that Canucks assistant general manager Ryan Johnson has been keeping close eyes on since his college days. He may be American League bound to open the season, but the club targeted him with NHL upside in mind.
“He was highly touted out of school,” Johnson recounted to The Athletic on Monday, “He ended up in the Bryan Little trade to Arizona.
“He dealt with a bad ankle injury right out of the gate and I felt like he never really caught up to what I’d seen from him in college. I watched him closely, and knowing his situation, you started to notice by the end of last year and throughout this year, that he was standing out in terms of his details and skill level and compete.
“These second organization guys are guys I really look at. Do they need a different opportunity? A different look? A new setting? Some new belief in them?”