The Fourth 2019-20 Utica Comets Thread

[UticaHockey]

So I suppose the obvious inference is that Graovac, Sautner and Silovs are the first call-ups at their respective positions.

Graovac and Sautner make sense as injury depth but Silovs i didn't see coming.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Keep an eye on Scott Perunovich BG. I championed the Canucks drafting this guy the year they took Jett Woo and he went on to have a phenomenal college career. Truthfully he's probably too good for the AHL but if the Blues leave him down there he could be an AHL version of Quinn Hughes. I saw several of his games with Duluth and he'll make plays once in a while that'll bring you out of your seat.

I think the Blues are comfortable with the team they have and have sent the normal candidates for the AHL to Utica vs the almost "Oh yeah, we do have to assign some guys to Utica. Oh, well St. Louis has done the hard work for us so all we have to do is send down our non roster players. We won't have to go out and find a complementary group to fill out the roster."

Camp opens on the 26th and he hasn't signed one player who was not in camp. If the St. Louis acquired vet goalie Jon Gilliesdidn't exist the choice for #1 would be Kielly, 2 AHL GP and Silvos, 19 yr-old rookie with no AHL GP. Otherwise he assigned 2 RWs - Lockwood and Lind, 2 centers - Jasek and rookie Focht, 1 LW Gadjovich, 1 LD - Teves, and 2 RD - Woo and Eliot. If we are really truthful, of that 8 the real NHL prospects now are Lockwood, maybe Lind, and maybe Woo.

Gadjovich is nowhere near the skill level of a Goldobin, Boucher, MacEwen, Archibald, Grenier, Valk, and others.

You can easily add Bailey to that list and he can't get any ice with the Canucks and would have been re-asigned to Utica again if not for the Taxi Squad. None of these guys were good enough to become regular everyday Canucks.

MacEwen is also fighting for ice for the second season in a row.

Baertschi has holes that moved him out of the picture and Gadge can't hold a candle to Sven.

Ditto for Goldobin.

Hell, Gaunce was a star in the AHL and played parts of 5 seasons in Vancouver. Gadjovich isn't close to playing the way Gaunce did in the AHL.

Lind is a 3rd year AHL forward. This really is make or break for him and the season only has 36 or so games. If it holds true, that's it, no playoffs.

Lockwood showed more talent than Lind in camp and they will be in head to head competition. St.Lopuis sent no RWs so there will be guys playing their off wings to fill out the right side.

Jasek seems to be one of those guys that's doing okay and looks like he could make it only if. How many guys get that evaluation before failing to get a QO?

Woo is a rookie with positive prospectives and negative ones. He seems to have some hope so I'll reserve any opinions until I get to see him for 10 or 15 games.

Focht is long-g-g-g-g-g-g-g shot before he even takes the ice. Guys entering the AHL at center having put up his numbers in JRs are normally not considered good bets. Cole Cassels was a .86 PPG for his Jr career and put up 100Pts in his final JR season. Focht by comparison had a .61 PPG JR career and recorded 56Pts/61 GP in his final JR year.
What happened to Cole? BUST city. It doesn't mean Focht busts, but you'd have the better side of a bet if you said he would.

Teves has been unimpressive thus far and yet is slated as a 1-way $700K D-man. No defenseman entering his 2nd season in the AHL with that kind of contract is usually an absolute star. There was nothing resembling that term here last year and he certainly would have played more than 29 games without an injury taking him out of the lineup. Hell Eliot got 27 games and outpointed him 5-2 and 2 of Eliot's 5 were goals as opposed to Teves with 0G.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

The Canucks will loan players to the Moose this season. It reduces the quarantine period from 14 to 7 days for an AHL call up.

Canucks reach loan agreement with Manitoba Moose for three AHL players

Silovs is a 19 year old junior eligible goalie. He'll be eaten alive if he actually plays in Manitoba, which I doubt. I suspect that spot is really intended to be Dipietro's when and if the Canucks sign a vet third stinger for the taxi squad. Sitting Mikey on the squad all year would be disastrous for the kid's development. I expect Silovs to go back to junior when they get their season started, but I guess you never know. There's obviously no rule that says it has to make sense...

 

[Bad Goalie]

The Canucks will loan players to the Moose this season. It reduces the quarantine period from 14 to 7 days for an AHL call up.

Canucks reach loan agreement with Manitoba Moose for three AHL players

I had made mention a couple of times that Graovac and Sautner had not been assigned and were not on the Vancouver roster including the Taxi addition. There has been a lot of conjecture that the Canucks would seek to house some players on Canadian AHL teams.

This move leaves the Comets with 3 D-men assigned by Vancouver and they are not necessarily gems: Teves, Eliot, and Woo. Woo is a rookie while Teves (29GP) and Eliot (27GP) couldn't crack the top 6 last year when the D-corps was healthy and all present in Utica.

As far as Vanvouver players are concerned Graovac removes the only veteran center. That leaves Jasek as the only serious threat to succeed as an adequate center. Focht in a regular season would get some 4th line work to demonstrate his ability to function at the AHL level and his future ice would have been determined upon how well he performed. John Stevens would and should be a 4th liner or depth. Based upon the St.Louis candidates they may very well end up following that path anyways.

Again it's obvious that Benning has been content to let St. Louis do his job for him. The 19m they sent contain a very solid nucleus of high expectation prospects combined with some excellent to good veteran or at least successful experienced pros.

Graovac removes a Veteran and Sautner a Veteran Exempt from the roster. That leaves the Comet roster at this point with 2 Veterans. It would make adding Baertschi should he be assigned (he was another one of those like Graovac and Sautner without any assignment) and accept the assignment no problem. I would also leave the roster open to accept 2 more vets and a veteran exempt and still not have to sit any of them. I'm not certain any additions will be made, but they better do something as the roster as is will not have any kind of depth should injuries and St. Louis call-ups deplete the roster.

I knew when Johnson was quoted saying that the Comets this season would be dedicated to development that the players coming here from Vancouver would not be expected to propel the team to the top of the Division.

Putting a team on the ice that can't compete won't help the development of the players from either parent club. Camp opens the 26th. 5 days to fill in the blanks.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Graovac and Sautner make sense as injury depth but Silovs i didn't see coming.

I agree on this one, but maybe they want to get him some work. Will Manitoba give him a better shot? The Comets had 4 Goalies with him. That wouldn't even provide adequate practice time. It's very disjointed to try and rotate 3 goalies in and out in a practice session. None of the keepers feels comfortable. You can't get into any kind of rhythm. There's no comfort level. it's very difficult to develop confidence. You always feel cold each time you move back into the crease after sitting for 10 minutes or so. It's even worse if a #1 has been designated. That guy will get a full practice while the other 2 split the other net for every session or even worse, rotate every other practice. 4 keepers makes t impossible

The Zoo has reported they will play this season and that's where Arturs may still end up. On the other hand maybe one of Fitzgerald or Kielly ends up there and Silovs stays in Manitoba. Agreed it's a weird development.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Duplicate

 

[UticaHockey]

I agree on this one, but maybe they want to get him some work. Will Manitoba give him a better shot? The Comets had 4 Goalies with him. That wouldn't even provide adequate practice time. It's very disjointed to try and rotate 3 goalies in and out in a practice session. None of the keepers feels comfortable. You can't get into any kind of rhythm. There's no comfort level. it's very difficult to develop confidence. You always feel cold each time you move back into the crease after sitting for 10 minutes or so. It's even worse if a #1 has been designated. That guy will get a full practice while the other 2 split the other net for every session or even worse, rotate every other practice. 4 keepers makes t impossible

The Zoo has reported they will play this season and that's where Arturs may still end up. On the other hand maybe one of Fitzgerald or Kielly ends up there and Silovs stays in Manitoba. Agreed it's a weird development.

Kalamazoo is one of the teams that will not play this season so there are limited options for Silovs to play. I also read that Winnipeg is lacking depth at goalie so there is a need for another goalie on the Moose.

This is not a typical AHL season and will not be about wins and loses. Howard Dolgon the owner of the Syracuse Crunch who is as competitive as you can get said it best. Dolgon is one of the few remaining independent owners left in the league that owns the franchise. Dolgon was willing to opt in and have the Crunch play this season even though it will be a financial loss for him playing with no fans in the building. He said that he owes it to Tampa Bay to give their prospects a place to play and develop. He wants to play as few games as possible and is not in favor of any playoffs after the season is done. Just enough games each week to keep the team on the ice and then concentrate on a normal 2021-22 season.

Once the AHL season starts I fully expect it to be a mess with games either cancelled or postponed due to COVID positives on the various teams. Not all teams were planning on playing the same number of games right from the start and then COVID will change all of that anyway.

 

[VanJack]

These are trying times in the hockey world, and I wouldn't hold it against Benning and the Canucks if they loan some players to another AHL in Canada.

The problem is the USA-Canada border and the quarantine rules. Recalling a player from Utica means two weeks in quarantine, before the player can even step on the ice. So the players/prospects who end up in Utica, are probably going to spend the season there. And this is probably a good thing when Cull is penciling in his lineup card.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Kalamazoo is one of the teams that will not play this season so there are limited options for Silovs to play. I also read that Winnipeg is lacking depth at goalie so there is a need for another goalie on the Moose.

This is not a typical AHL season and will not be about wins and loses. Howard Dolgon the owner of the Syracuse Crunch who is as competitive as you can get said it best. Dolgon is one of the few remaining independent owners left in the league that owns the franchise. Dolgon was willing to opt in and have the Crunch play this season even though it will be a financial loss for him playing with no fans in the building. He said that he owes it to Tampa Bay to give their prospects a place to play and develop. He wants to play as few games as possible and is not in favor of any playoffs after the season is done. Just enough games each week to keep the team on the ice and then concentrate on a normal 2021-22 season.

When did the Zoo decide to shut down. I swear I googled them a very short time ago and they were slated to start up when the rest of the ECHL did. However, all the more reason Benning should have found a couple of experienced guys to add to the roster. They don't have the Zoo to stash Johnson's pack of AHL call-ups. The Blues sent a few prospects (putting it lightly) who aren't any better than those Johnson acquired last season. The Blues fans referred to them as plugs. Plugs don't help any prospects develop.
Once the AHL season starts I fully expect it to be a mess with games either cancelled or postponed due to COVID positives on the various teams. Not all teams were planning on playing the same number of games right from the start and then COVID will change all of that anyway.

I agree with Dolgon. The problem is Benning did not place any players here to develop the few prospects he did send down without MAJOR support from the Blues. He did nothing to support his prospects with players in the same way St. Louis did for there's. Look at the non prospect experienced players they signed this season. Benning signed not one.

When did the Zoo decide not to play? I swear I googled them not that long ago and they were slated to start up when the Rest of the ECHL did. However, This is even more of a reason that Benning should have signed a couple three experienced guys since Johnson was unable to stash his normal group of "AHL replacements in the Comets need of help due to injury or recall. The Blues sent some very good prospects and support players, but depth was not part of their 19. The Blues fans basically said we were getting some very good players along with a bunch plugs. Plugs have never and never will help prospects to develop.

P.S. How is it that you and I seem to have different sources of info? LOL
Keep up the good work. Keep me honest.

How about this one. Miller returned and Benn will tonight. That means the Cancuks have 23 active roster players and 6 Taxi members + 1 more now. Doesn't that mean they have to dump 1 now? They can't keep extra guys around until they might need them. That was the point of the Taxi squad and there's is full. Do I need correcting?

 

[UticaHockey]

I agree with Dolgon. The problem is Benning did not place any players here to develop the few prospects he did send down without MAJOR support from the Blues. He did nothing to support his prospects with players in the same way St. Louis did for there's. Look at the non prospect experienced players they signed this season. Benning signed not one.

When did the Zoo decide not to play? I swear I googled them not that long ago and they were slated to start up when the Rest of the ECHL did. However, This is even more of a reason that Benning should have signed a couple three experienced guys since Johnson was unable to stash his normal group of "AHL replacements in the Comets need of help due to injury or recall. The Blues sent some very good prospects and support players, but depth was not part of their 19. The Blues fans basically said we were getting some very good players along with a bunch plugs. Plugs have never and never will help prospects to develop.

P.S. How is it that you and I seem to have different sources of info? LOL
Keep up the good work. Keep me honest.

How about this one. Miller returned and Benn will tonight. That means the Cancuks have 23 active roster players and 6 Taxi members + 1 more now. Doesn't that mean they have to dump 1 now? They can't keep extra guys around until they might need them. That was the point of the Taxi squad and there's is full. Do I need correcting?

I follow Kzoo on Twitter to get their updates. They made the announcement in early December.

 

[Bad Goalie]

I follow Kzoo on Twitter to get their updates. They made the announcement in early December.

OK. I don't tweet.
How about my second question. The Canucks are 1 body over the limit with the return of Benn. Doesn't someone have to go? Doesn't mean it has to be to Utica, but the Manitoba deal was 3 players and they were named. 1 somebody has to be sent somewhere.

 

[Bubbles]

OK. I don't tweet.
How about my second question. The Canucks are 1 body over the limit with the return of Benn. Doesn't someone have to go? Doesn't mean it has to be to Utica, but the Manitoba deal was 3 players and they were named. 1 somebody has to be sent somewhere.

Yeah the math doesn't work once Benn comes back. I assume it would be a AHL waiver free player can come off the taxi squad and be replaced. More of a paper transaction?

 

[UticaHockey]

Yeah the math doesn't work once Benn comes back. I assume it would be a AHL waiver free player can come off the taxi squad and be replaced. More of a paper transaction?

I haven't been paying attention to the rosters this year but it looks like once Benn is added someone will need to be assigned to the AHL. From Cap Friendly it looks like there are 23 players on the active roster and six on the taxi squad which is the max for both I believe.

 

[iceburg]

This is not going to be a normal AHL season. If anyone expects otherwise, they will be disappointed. The parent club will do anything they can to save $$ this year and I don't blame them at all. Merging with St Louis, not signing more players, are all part of the times we're in. They are streamlining costs that are less consequential to winning at the NHL level. It will no doubt have an impact on prospect development (not playing for 11 months can stunt any career). But most people up and down the economic spectrum are feeling an impact.

 

[Bad Goalie]

This is not going to be a normal AHL season. If anyone expects otherwise, they will be disappointed. The parent club will do anything they can to save $$ this year and I don't balme them at all. Merging with St Louis, not signing more players, are all part of the times we're in. They are streamlining costs that are less consequential to winning at the NHL level. It will no doubt have an impact on prospect development (not playing for 11 months can stunt any career). But most people up and down the economic spectrum are feeling an impact.

Yeah, ME too and the rest of COVID devastated America. Oneida County where Utica is located has been the #1 county in NY State for the number of new COVID cases per 1,000 population.

 

[iceburg]

Yeah, ME too and the rest of COVID devastated America. Oneida County where Utica is located has been the #1 county in NY State for the number of new COVID cases per 1,000 population.

Wanted to hit the like button but it didn't seem right. Sorry to hear your area is one of the worst hit. Stay safe BG.

 

[UticaHockey]

This is not going to be a normal AHL season. If anyone expects otherwise, they will be disappointed. The parent club will do anything they can to save $$ this year and I don't balme them at all. Merging with St Louis, not signing more players, are all part of the times we're in. They are streamlining costs that are less consequential to winning at the NHL level. It will no doubt have an impact on prospect development (not playing for 11 months can stunt any career). But most people up and down the economic spectrum are feeling an impact.

The added working agreement with St Louis benefits everyone involved. It likely enabled Esche to financially have the Comets opt in to the AHL this season. It lowered the cost for the Canucks by not needing to sign extra players just for the AHL and it gives them flexibility to loan players to other Canadian AHL teams. It solved the problem of St Louis not having an AHL team for their players to be assigned to. It really is a win-win-win situation.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Sven Baertschi will be coming to Utica according to his agent. The announcement came in the final sentence of an OD article this morning announcing the hiring of Jason Shaya (SHY-uh) as the new play-by-play guy. He's going to handle the TV side and he said someone else will be doing the radio side. All Comets season ticket holders will receive a subscription to AHL-TV for the season compliments of the Utica Comets, thus the two broadcasters. We used to just get the radio feed when watching AHL-TV.

I have mentioned a couple times that Sven has been floating in the wind after not having made the Canucks roster. He will be at least one experienced player assigned to the Comets to actually help develop the prospects vs the many assigned by St.Louis. The Blues signed the guys I'm talking about before this season strapped for money or not the NHL franchise obviously felt they were necessary to help their prospects. I guess the Comets prospects can piggy-back on them.

Welcome back Sven. The Comets fan base appreciates your effort.

 

[Bad Goalie]

The added working agreement with St Louis benefits everyone involved. It likely enabled Esche to financially have the Comets opt in to the AHL this season. It lowered the cost for the Canucks by not needing to sign extra players just for the AHL and it gives them flexibility to loan players to other Canadian AHL teams. It solved the problem of St Louis not having an AHL team for their players to be assigned to. It really is a win-win-win situation.

This is all true. It just let's Jimbo, who has been lax at filling this responsibility for years, off the hook..

 

[iceburg]

The added working agreement with St Louis benefits everyone involved. It likely enabled Esche to financially have the Comets opt in to the AHL this season. It lowered the cost for the Canucks by not needing to sign extra players just for the AHL and it gives them flexibility to loan players to other Canadian AHL teams. It solved the problem of St Louis not having an AHL team for their players to be assigned to. It really is a win-win-win situation.

All good things. Do you think it will be something that sticks beyond this season or is it a one off?

 

[UticaHockey]

All good things. Do you think it will be something that sticks beyond this season or is it a one off?

Everything should return to normal for the 2021-22 season. I'm going by memory and not rechecking but I think it was a total of three AHL teams that opted out for this shortened season. Those three teams left St Louis, Florida and Nashville without an AHL team to send players to. St Louis and Vancouver are sharing the Utica Comets. Florida and Tampa Bay are sharing the Syracuse Crunch. Nashville and Carolina are sharing the Chicago Wolves.

There are also a handful of AHL teams that will play out of their NHL parent team's practice rinks to save money. The one that impacts the Comets is Binghamton which is a short in state 2 hour bus ride. Binghamton will not host the Devils this year, instead the Binghamton Devils will play at the NJ Devils practice facility in Newark, NJ. The schedule hasn't been released yet so I'm not sure if the Comets will even play Binghamton this season.

 

[Bad Goalie]

All good things. Do you think it will be something that sticks beyond this season or is it a one off?

Unless the COVID issue causes the same issues to persist this is it. Sure like last season's Hobey Baker award winner, Scott Perunovich, and last year's AHL scoring leader, Sam Anas. D-man Steve Santini and forwards Nathan Walkker and Curtis McKenzie up front were vets brought in to mentor their kids.

At least it looks like Baertschi will be here as the sole vet representative from Vancouver.

Hugh McGing is their other college guy like Lockwood. The Comets could have had 3 under normal circumstances. Rathbone as the Perunovich comparable and Lockwood and Michaelis the comparables to McGing.

There are comparables to Gadjovich and Lind as well as Teves, Eliot, and Woo.

The Blues had no goalie prospects of note so they went out and signed Jon Gillies a free agent from Calgary after they gave up on him after 5 years. His AHL numbers aren't bad, but they have been looking for home grown netminding for some time now and he wasn't a fit. He will be #1 in Utica while Mikey wastes away in Vancouver. Kielly with 2 AHL games and Fitzgerald with 8 AHL games in 2 seasons will be the back-ups.

It's going to be one and done as a joint venture. They have the makings of a decent team. They also have two coaching staffs. The team's ability to gel will be highly dependent upon the 2 staffs meeting eye to eye.

 

[iceburg]

Unless the COVID issue causes the same issues to persist this is it. Sure like last season's Hobey Baker award winner, Scott Perunovich, and last year's AHL scoring leader, Sam Anas. D-man Steve Santini and forwards Nathan Walkker and Curtis McKenzie up front were vets brought in to mentor their kids.

At least it looks like Baertschi will be here as the sole vet representative from Vancouver.

Hugh McGing is their other college guy like Lockwood. The Comets could have had 3 under normal circumstances. Rathbone as the Perunovich comparable and Lockwood and Michaelis the comparables to McGing.

There are comparables to Gadjovich and Lind as well as Teves, Eliot, and Woo.

They had no goalie prospects of note so they went out and signed Jon Gillies a free agent from Calgary after they gave up on him after 5 years. His AHL numbers aren't bad, but they have been looking for home grown netminding for some time now and he wasn't a fit. He will be #1 in Utica while Mikey wastes away in Vancouver. Kielly with 2 AHL games and Fitzgerald with 8 AHL games in 2 seasons will be the back-ups.

It's going to be one and done as a joint venture. They have the makings of a decent team. They also have two coaching staffs. The team's ability to gel will be highly dependent upon the 2 staffs meeting eye to eye.

Thanks. It all makes sense.
I am struggling to understand the rationale for DiPietro being on the taxi squad. “Working with Ian Clarke” is not a substitute for playing games.

 

[Bubbles]

Thanks. It all makes sense.
I am struggling to understand the rationale for DiPietro being on the taxi squad. “Working with Ian Clarke” is not a substitute for playing games.

Like Bad Goalie has mentioned, it just seems Benning has really done nothing in that regard. DiPietro needs to play games, or even sit on a damn bench. Benning could have easily signed the numerous amount of veteran free agent goalies to sit on the taxi squad.

 

[UticaHockey]

The AHL schedule is supposed to be released in an hour but the Belleville Sens and Toronto Marlies do not have Provincial approval to play yet so they may not be included in the initial release of the schedule. This season should be interesting.