LastWordArmy
Registered User
Canucks have some minor league depth on the way.
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/11/06/vancouver-canucks-boast-options-in-minors/
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/11/06/vancouver-canucks-boast-options-in-minors/
Damn...a straight forward GM
Hearing Cull on the pre-game show that the Comets haven't jelled jet and will be a far stronger team as the season unfolds.....have to agree with him....too much talent on this team for them not to go on an extended run at some point....and if they falter, they've got Demko to bail them out--particularly on the road.
Subban has been passed by on the prospect depth chart by the likes of Chatfield, Brisebois and even McEneny....doubt he gets qualified in the off-season unless traded first.....will be intriguing to monitor the development of both Chatfield and MacEwan....were very good at the prospects tournament and have a lot more give as the season wears on...and depending on how their junior teams fare, both Lind and Gadjovich could be available before the end of the season....and still a possibility Dahlen could arrive by January.
Still very bullish on the '17-'18 edition of the Comets.....if the Canucks avoid the rash of injuries that afflicted them last season, things will be solid in Utica.
Ever the optimist. When have the Canucks not had a rash of injuries?
Cull is partially the reason they have not yet gelled. He is the one sending out a different lineup every night. He's also the one jockeying the lines every night. Cohesion occurs with familiarity. Chemistry on lines develops as players come to know the nuances and styles of the the guys they work with every day at practice and every game they play together. This allows for the intuitive interactions you see develop between line mates. How they seem "to know where the other guy is going to be" or how they "know to go to a spot and the puck will be there". How you marvel when you see a guy throw a non look pass to a guy no one can believe he saw and that guy scores. He didn't see him. They just know which ever of them gets to that puck that the other will go to the area where the puck is going to be passed. They have practiced and planned for just such an occasion. That kind of stuff doesn't happen when you have 6 different line mates in 5 games time.
This isn't all Cull's fault because he was dealt a roster with an overload of vets he feels he has to give ice. Thus, he keeps scratching them in some semblance of order to keep them all fresh by playing as much as possible while being fair in sitting most of them a game here and there. So they are kind of fresh, but not sharp due to the lack of consistency in who they play with. The Comets have a GM and the Canucks have the main man. Between the 2 of them they need to figure out a way to lower the number of vets and in doing so acquire a couple of competent offensive minded centers who can keep up with the speed and game sense of the wingers. These two issues will bog down the efforts of this team all season and prevent the results you so "bullishly believe" will happen. Can't compete with the best without a consistent lineup and centers better than Bancks (a wing), Darcy (an ECHL place holder), Woods ( a banger, crasher, energy type 4th line AHL plug much lower on the food chain than Bancks and Hamilton), Cassels (soon to be a never was), and MacEwen (a rookie nowhere near accepting the responsibility of a #2 and probably not even a #3 job at center. He is on a wing and learning the pro game out there where the responsibilities are way less critical than in the middles. Not sure he ever becomes a pro center. He has the body, skill set, and mentality of a power forward.).
Until this is done there, will be a lot of frustration on this team as the guys struggle to achieve a goal they see ahead that will always ends up just out of reach.
They will be around .500 when they know they should be better. The key to success or somewhere shy of the brass ring will lie in the solution or failure to address these two major problems. Carrying on all season like a long playoff run is in the picture will end in disappointment. No team with a roster as talented, but as equally mismanaged as this one currently is can compete with the top teams who have a solid day to day roster filling in a gap when it arises with their depth players and sporting an actual group of real centers who are both scoring goals and feeding assists to scoring line mates will blow right past the talent laden players working more on their own due to the missing parts rather than the well tuned units they should have become.
This isn't a typical minor league problem that the team has to live with. This is a problem created by a failure to recognize simplistic concepts that every hockey mind should recognize.
A team needs 4 legitimate centers to compete. First you look at the big club and address the position there. Then you go down the list and make sure you have 4 on the farm, at least two of whom can be adequate space savers for the big club if needed. The farm is first constructed from players coming back, next you look to your new prospects that are eligible for the AHL, next you comb the NHL free agent market of tweener players that NHL clubs are giving up on, then you scour the list of AHL free agents. You can also check the rost3rwse of the European teams for a player you may be able to entice to come back to or come over to NA to play on the farm with a possible opportunity to get an NHL look. You HAVE to be able to find 4 legit centers this way. If you get to the final AHL roster and only have ONE, this is an example of gross mismanagement and no rational explanation for it can be given.
The next issue is the vets. As an NHL GM you first have to construct your own team. In doing such you also KNOW that all the people in your camp can't make the roster. You have X number of players that you have signed to contracts either 1-way or 2-way. There are those not old enough to play in the AHL. Figure that out as quickly as possible and know who you are going to send back to JRs. There shouldn't be more than one or two at the most that you would give a shot to make the big club. Jrs. taken care of.
Now you know exactly which contracted guys you have left that will need to be distributed between the NHL and the AHL teams. You want to make sure you stock the farm with adequate value in potential call-ups, vets and top prospects, as well as provide spots for your remaining prospects. You also know the lesser prospects can be assigned to your ECHL team.
You must be aware of the AHL rules when constructing your NHL roster. If you create an NHL team with vets left over that you will try to pass through waivers to send to use as potential call-ups that is normal. What is not normal is to fail to look at what vets are already under contract to your farm and thus create a farm team with so many veterans that a log jam is created and you have to sit 3, 4 or more vets every game due to the AHL rules on veteran players. This will, hurt the vets you are trying to keep playing in order to be sharp when re-called. Turning around and signing more vet UFAs up top causing more of a log jam of vets becomes ridiculous unless you are prepared to trade a few off to correct the issue.
Vancouver did not handle this wisely in any of the situations above and created this mess for themselves. They had An NHL GM, a former NHL GM, and a newly appointed AHL GM and together the 3 of them didn't see this coming? Either a combined brain trust = to moron or a top dog that just plain didn't give a **** caused this outcome. The latter is where I stand. It's still fixable and now the job of the AHL GM to earn his keep. He will have to run any plans past Vancouver, but he can and must get something done to right the ship.
Your assumptions are that Benning and Johnson failed to assemble a roster that can win regularly because it has too many vets and lacks quality centers. But maybe they had no intentions of putting together an AHL roster to win games but rather a place to store extra depth in the form of older veterans to be called up as injury replacements. Cull's job under that premise is to keep the vets in game shape in case a recall is needed. Not every NHL parent team makes winning in the AHL a priority. A lot of Canucks fans felt like the Comets were stacked and should be Calder Cup favorites but I never bought into that hype because the roster was poorly constructed and I don't believe winning is a priority for Benning.
Theoretically, when Stecher returns the Vancouver D # hits 9 again and a new demotion occurs. You guess who, but unless it's Pouliot, it will be vet # 10 (Biega? Really stupid to chance losing him when Pouliot can go up and down as many times as needed with no issues).
Pretty sure Pouliot has to go through waivers. He's been playing fine anyway and should not be sent down.
While it's technically possible to have 10 or 11 vets sent to Utica it's not very likely. To assume all of the players currently on IR coming back without anyone else getting injured is a stretch.
While it's technically possible to have 10 or 11 vets sent to Utica it's not very likely. To assume all of the players currently on IR coming back without anyone else getting injured is a stretch.
I couldn't agree more with you that Benning doesn't believe winning is a priority and deeply believe that was the philosophical difference that got Henning fired. I also believe, and it's not backed by any proof just my gut feeling, that Benning is such an egotist that having an AHL GM that could build a Calder Cup contender from the dregs he was dealt in 2013-14 in 2 seasons made Jim feel challenged, especially since Jim had announced that he was building a contender and in the same time frame was sitting near the bottom of the entire NHL. It could be reasoned after another brutal finish last season and after acquiring a handful of good players for the farm that the same possibility of AHL success exists once again. Thus, he didn't break his ass to surround those few with a lot of support in order to limit their possible accomplishments as a team. The individual can prosper (a la Goldobin, Boucher, Demko, and Holm), but the team on a whole will have its problems due to the missing links. He knew there were no play making centers here and he did nothing to rectify the problem. It's a conspiracy theory I admit, but one with a whole lot umph behind it. If it wasn't a plan then it is evidence of a different suggestion, STUPIDITY.
Anyways, the stocking of vets at the AHL level, that I did state in my post you quoted, is a norm. The majority of AHL teams try to do that and we see it early on in preseason as all the teams waive vets all at once and seem to almost have an unwritten rule to just let it go. Note that not all of these guys are considered vets by the NHL veteran rules, e.g. Gaunce. These guys along with top prospects comprise the pools that the NHL team can draw from. However, the AHL team also has a couple top notch AHL level players in that mix as well to mesh with those previously mentioned players to create a semblance of a team. That usually means 4-6 centers and 8-10 wings that usually total around 16 forwards (Utica currently has 17 forwards) from which 4 game day lines can be drawn up. The rest become the backups and reserves. The D-corps usually has 8 or 9. Utica currently has only 7.
Megna was returned today raising Utica's vet #s back to 8.
Edler is going on the road trip and is expected to return at some point giving the Canucks 8 D and when Stecher comes back that will be 9! So, to start Wierciochmight be returned to Utica's vet corps because they have been going with 7, but they can keep all 8 and he could remain.
Theoretically, when Stecher returns the Vancouver D # would hit 9 and a demotion definitely occurs. You guess who, but unless it's Pouliot, it would be vet # 9/10 depending on how many D the Canucks want to keep sitting. I assume definitely Wiercioch now if he is still there and the Canucks will keep 8 to go with their 13 forwards. No reason to subject any of the 8 remaining to waivers. This would give Utica 9 vets.
EDIT - Looks like Pouliot, though not a vet by AHL rules, would have to pass through waivers to come down just like Biega.
Eriksson is due to return around the same time and if no forwards are on IR at the time, the Comets will get another player and unless Vancouver wishes to part with Gaunce or Jake it will be yet another veteran (Burmistrov?) making vet #10. There is only one expendable Canuck forward who can go up and down without waiver issues and that's Jake. What a furor sending Jake down would cause.
This will put 4 vets in the stands every night Utica plays. 3 was bad enough, but 4??? Jake and Pouliot would reduce the # to 8 and only 2 would be sitting every night. I don't see that happening so the number would stand at 10 vets and 4 in the stands.
A call-up of a non vet could mean another vet would come down unless he's an injury call-up.
I don't care if Benning was stocking vets for recall or not, there will be no other team in the AHL carrying 10 vets on their roster. I have a real good feeling you aren't going to find many, if any, with 9 either. Why not? Because no NHL GM, even if he has to be nudged by his AHL facsimile, is that out of touch with reality. It is just plain STUPID and there is no other word to define it.
EDIT - The numbers in this post have been adjusted with a revised read through in which I mistakenly counted 9 D upon Edler's return when it fact it will only be 8 and 8 D and 13 forwards requires no demotions. Stecher and Eriksson require demotions as long as the 21 already accounted for are still healthy. That could raise the vets in Utica to 10.
I just think Benning is not a good GM. He kinda gets the big picture, but all the small mistakes are killing him.
Boucher was called up today which makes the Comets veteran problem even worse since he was the only veteran exempt player on the Comets roster. BG will not be happy about this one.
In the case of Molino the eye test matches his points production. He has been invisible. What little that I've noticed of him is that he looks out of place and would be better served in the ECHL right now.Molino looked so promising in his sample of games last yr... I thought with his speed, he would eventually be able to carve out becoming the next Hansen-like utility forward for us... Obviously a LOT of time time left.. but his 0pts in his 6 gms doesn't look good. I know the team has just produced 2.8 g/gm... but...
How has been or not been utilizing his speed? How he's looked?
Eww.. too bad.In the case of Molino the eye test matches his points production. He has been invisible. What little that I've noticed of him is that he looks out of place and would be better served in the ECHL right now.
Eww.. too bad.
Thought we had a diamond in the rough.
Dat speed... then that goal in the rookie tourny.
Maybe he puts it together a bit as the experience increases.
Thanks.
how has zach mac looked lately? I still have some hope that he can turn out to be a 3rd or 4rth liner in the NHL
At this moment I'd say he is holding his own.. He was injured coming out of camp and missed the first 5 games. He has been in the lineup for all 5 since he was activated. Cull is trying to make a fit for him outside of the bottom forwards and thus he has ended up on the following lines:
Archuibald/Woods/Mac
D'Aoust/Mac/Rodin
Bancks/Gaunce/Mac All 3 are centers and all 3 are wings so it was tough to decipher who was actually playing where because they rotated all over the place and all 3 took draws.
Rodin/Gaunce/Mac
LaBate/Cassels/Mac
He skates his *** off and plays physical. He has not been strong on the puck nor has he handled it well. Hew has not been much of an offensive threat. He's a rookie getting his feet wet. You needn't worry about his ascension to the NHL for quite some time.