One can discount slumps or hot streaks etc if they want. I'll look and see that after 30 games this team is remarkably similar to the past two seasons. Currently sitting 23rd in points percentage. I know the Benning defenders are pointing to injury but the injuries JUST happened. This was a bottom 10 team when healthy. And no Sutter and Gudbranson don't count as major injuries...or at least they shouldn't.
The twins, god help them they are trying but they don't have it anymore, are somehow managing a 50 point pace. Eriksson is on a mere 40 point pace for $6 mi and that may be a pace significantly swayed by a hot streak. As posted yesterday....Granlund, Vanek, and Gagner have 1 ES goal each in the last 20 games. Well 21 games now.
The team hasn't been injured that entire time. And even if they have these are the guys that were supposed to provide the offense! They aren't. IT's not because Horvat has been hurt for 2 freaking games that the team is where it is at. It's because there is NOTHING after Horvat, Boeser and hell even the twins. There is NOTHING on the blueline. There is NOTHING on the farm.
That's the issue. Not injuries. Which means after 4 off seasons the root cause is clearly management. There is literally no other conclusion that can be made.
And a couple of good prospects that pretty much every team can boast about does not change the fact that this team and management is bad. It does not change the fact that everytime management lays out a supposed direction or plan they completely and utterly fail to deliver on that plan. This years plan was to insulate the young guys with experienced and reliable vets. Lol.
They have built a team that relies COMPLETELY on a rookie straight out of college, 22 year old center, 27 year old D-man and getting a great goaltender performance on the night out of inconsistent goaltenders. That's embarrassing after 4 off seasons, consecutive bottom 3 finishes and 3 top 6 picks.
"There is NOTHING on the farm."
For 5 years including this one all I have heard from the same folks you guys are arguing/debating with here is, "Wait until next year. You guys haven't seen the prospects yet, but wait until you see what you have coming this year."
So when we report there is nothing here on the farm, we hear the farm is only for the parent club and it doesn't matter what happens there as long as prospects develop and Vancouver can call up players. I contend prospects can't develop in a vacuum. They have to have a solid support cast and the Vnacouver management has been very lacking on their end in that capacity. Since the Canucks have been here all the fan base has done is complain about the lack of talent that most of the call-ups reveal. Those call-ups are from that support cast and the better prospects.
It is the Vancouer management's job to draft their future and there are 7 rounds each season and there had been three functional drafts before that Iwill address beofre Benning and the 4 since he's been there. That's 7 years of drafting to eventually send to the farm. You combine these picks with previous picks still on the rise and up to 5 or 6 key positional vets and a few non-vet UFAs and you have a team.
First we heard you can't expect much right now because Gillis was a terrible drafter. Wait until you get Jim's picks.
The picks in Utica from those 3 non Benning years were: Jensen, Grenier, Labate, Corrado, Tommernes, Gaunce, Mallet, Shinkaruk, Cassels, Subban, Blomstrand, and Cederholm.
Horvat and Hutton made the Canucks out of camp. Good, that's what you hope for in your perfect plans.
Gaunce made it after the better part of 2 seasons in Utica.
Out of Benning's first year, Utica got one by default, Virtanen and Demko was the first actual Blue chip prospect to ever be assigned here to start his pro career. McCann was kept in Vancouver with Jake and then pissed away. We all know the Tryamkin and Forsling stories.Petit wasn't signed and Stewart has graced our presence for a brief moment in his first season and he's back again now due to our injury situation combined with Vancouver's and the new coach, Cull is acquiring ECHL PTOs to play in his stead due the 2 very poor outings he had when given a chance.
From year 2 nobody yet. Brock made the Canucks which you would want for a top prospect and Gaudette is still in college. Zhuukenov and Jasek are in Europe and neither is setting any worlds on fire. Both were eligible for the AHL this season. Neill and Olson were not signed.
He had no
2nd/3rd picks.
From year 3 Lockwood is in college. Juolevi is in Finland. Candella, Stukel and McKenzie are in Jrs. Abols is in Sweden. Stukel, Abols, and McKenzie were eligible for the AHL by age but 3 were sent back to Jrs and Abols to Sweden, so it's likely they are not considered high up on the prospect list or they would have been, as any other Canadian JR with high hopes, in the league at age 20.
He had no
2nd/4th picks.
Year 4 hasn't produce anything partly due to age, though Gunnarsson, Palmu, and Lakatos were eligible by age for the AHL. They are all in Europe. These 3 and Lind, Gadjovich, and Brassard will all be eligible next Fall. So we will see then.
So thus far the Comets have primarily been comprised of Gillis picks, only 3 of which are in Vancouver.
I'm counting 3 Gillis drafts. 3 are Canucks. Those drafts also provided 8 everyday players for the Comets.
Benning has had 4 drafts and thus far 2 picks are in Vancouver. The Comets could by age eligibility have had 13 players already, but have had only 2 of which one is here now. I'm not certain of those 13 what number will actually end up in Utica as they are not all progressing as was hoped.
As stated above the farm is comprised of draft picks, ELCs meted out to undrafted prospects with promise, prospects still in development on ELCs, RFA extensions, non-vet free agents, and up to 6 key positional ex-NHL or AHL vets. A parent club has a variety of ways it can decide to man that team based on the number of prospects it has there, how ready they might be for top jobs, and what positions are missing among the prospects that need to be filled in to provide them with the best opportunities to grow and develop into NHL players as soon as possible. Also in the parent club's planning has to be having players available who can fill in at the NHL level for injured players.
All of this post has been to show how the prospect pool in Utica has not been populated by high level selections. The odds of most of them up to this point making the NHL has been low. Demko is the one Blue chip, most would say can't miss player in the Comets' 5 yr history. Therefore after Benning fired the acting GM Lorne Henning after the second season, the Comets have not been blessed in the team building beyond the Vancouver property assigned here and attention to positional needs seems to have been overlooked. There has only been one bona fide play making center acquired for this program in the last 3 seasons, Chaput, and he spent all but 10 games in Vancouver last year and is back up there again. The middle season the role was given to Gaunce and he spent half of the season in Vancouver. The centers after those 2 were not good at all from a play making position.
Anybody knows for wings to be successful they require play makers. If the Comets are going to be receiving some top level prospects as we are hearing once again, centers will once again be required. You need a solid defensive D-man. A #1 good defending and puck moving D-man to also QB the PP. A couple of high scoring wings. If these guys are not in the prospect group they have to be acquired outside of the system in the same manner the other 3o NHL teams stock their farms.
Jim hadn't paid enough attention to his duties here. One man can't oversee two teams at the same time. Henning had done it superbly for 2 seasons. Benning not so much for 2 seasons. He seemed to admit that and assigned GM Johnson to the job here and he has been equal to or worse than Jim at the job. Thus the Comets are currently a team in disarray being held together by one veteran D-man, a high scoring forward, a bunch of grinders, and some kids going out there every shift on a wing and a prayer hoping they don't get scored on again. The team really goes in the direction their goalie is going. Without headstanding goaltending this team has little chance. With their injuries compounded by Vancouver's the team has been decimated. Vancouver loses it's players and calls up a replacement. ALL they lost is the guy from their lineup who's hurt. When the Comet have 8 injuries, they lose 8 guys. Then they send up 3 more to replace the Canucks' losses and they are down 11. Trade one of their players and get no one back for them and they are down 12. Let another leave the team due to his dis pleasure at how he was being used or rather not being used and it's 13. You guys are feeling like your season may go down the tubes due to 4? injuries. Can you imagine the Canucks attempting to play games in the NHL while missing 13 of your game night 18 players???? It's unimaginable how this team is supposed to survive every night let alone compete. This team is about to sink into the abyss.
GM Johnson should be living on the phone, canvasing every AHL team, scouring the European rosters, looking for recent NHL/AHL releases and try to find 3 or 4 guys to become a part of his team for the remainder of this season. They need to be able to have some way to cobble together a team that can hold on until injured players return at both levels enabling them to put a full team back together and maybe put on a push for the final playoff spot. You know the line. "Once you get in, you never know what might happen!"
