Confirmed with Link: Canucks sign G Jake Kielly

Guardian452

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Jun 10, 2011
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Never even heard of this guy this signing will NOT save the season or make any diffy in Utica either. Makes NO sense. Just :facepalm:

90% of the college free agents will turn out to be nothing players. But if you don't keep signing 2-3 of them every year, you're guaranteed to miss out on the next Chris Tanev, Nate Schmit, Cujo, Adam Oates or Chris Kunitz.
 

BeardyCanuck03

@BeardyCanuck03
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I just think they're setting a precedent for all NCAA players that they will burn an ELC year instead of doing an ATO and getting maximum value out of the ELC.

Which will help them potentially grab a gem here or there. And I honestly think that the NCAA free agents get that majority of the time anyways. The ATO route is more for the players under club control, who aren't considered top end
 

me2

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Not worried about that for Kielly. Unless he somehow gets called up and posts a .920SV% over 25 games like Binnington, I doubt he is even getting a full one-way contract if he gets re-signed the next year.

Not terrible to burn a year on these guys, especially goalies who usually have to do multiple AHL years anyway so never get leverage. He replaces Demko in the AHL next year, if he struggles then walk away at the end of 2019-20 and bring DiPietro into AHL full time. If he plays well then excellent. Either way we need a youngish goalie for Utica. At worst we get an ECHL guy so we have an extra pro goalie to call up.
 
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VanJack

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With Bachman signed for one more season and DiPietro ticketed for Utica, where does this guy fit? Will he battle Kulbakov for playing time in Kalamazoo?
 

me2

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With Bachman signed for one more season and DiPietro ticketed for Utica, where does this guy fit? Will he battle Kulbakov for playing time in Kalamazoo?
Assuming DiPietro plays in Utica. If he isn't ready he might be sent to Kalamazoo to be a starter and get bigger minutes.
 

me2

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Why would they do that? I don't get that at all.

Canucks have cap space to burn, they are throwing signing bonus bribes at these college players to get him to sign. It isn't a bad idea, probably one of smarter things that has happened under Benning's regime if it means the difference between them signing here or signing somewhere else. I'm not upset about burning a year of the contracts of these nobodies, they won't have leverage to do anything about pushing for a pay increase next year or the year after, they will just get a QO or nothing. They are older so won't hit 7 year UFA before hitting 27/28 UFA status.

I'm not keen on running out of contract slots though.
 
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RobertKron

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Canucks have cap space to burn, they are throwing signing bonus bribes at these college players to get him to sign. It isn't a bad idea, probably one of smarter things that has happened under Benning's regime if it means the difference between them signing here or signing somewhere else. I'm not upset about burning a year of the contracts of these nobodies, they won't have leverage to do anything about pushing for a pay increase next year, they will just get a QO or nothing. They are older so won't hit 7 year UFA before hitting 27/28 UFA status.

I'm not keen on running out of contract slots though.

You'd think they'd want to retain flexibility in pursuit of picks at/leading to the draft, but who are we kidding?
 

F A N

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You'd think they'd want to retain flexibility in pursuit of picks at/leading to the draft, but who are we kidding?

That’s highly unlikely to be an issue. I assume that this pursuit of picks involve trading a player (who currently takes up a contract slot) for a draft pick or acquiring a “cap dump” for a draft pick. The former obviously doesn’t require contract slot flexibility while in the latter case, a contract can easily go the other way. I don’t see a scenario where a team looking to trade a draft pick to dump a contract onto the Canucks would call off the trade because the Canucks needed them to take on say Leighton’s contract.
 
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F A N

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I like this signing. Put up some pretty good stats. One of NCAA’s top goalies this season. The Canucks’ scouts should be pretty familiar with him.
 

Blue and Green

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Canucks have cap space to burn, they are throwing signing bonus bribes at these college players to get him to sign. It isn't a bad idea, probably one of smarter things that has happened under Benning's regime if it means the difference between them signing here or signing somewhere else. I'm not upset about burning a year of the contracts of these nobodies, they won't have leverage to do anything about pushing for a pay increase next year or the year after, they will just get a QO or nothing. They are older so won't hit 7 year UFA before hitting 27/28 UFA status.

Yes, there is no big deal to burning ELC with these types of guys. They will sign two-way contracts when these ELC deals expire. The earliest that they can walk is if they qualify as Group 6 UFA. After this season Teves will be two years away from potential Group 6; Kielly three years away; Rafferty will be two years away if he plays a pro game this season, three years away if he doesn't.
 

Bad Goalie

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Impossible to have much of an opinion on this. No idea if he’s Garteig-type ECHL depth or an actual Utica option and real prospect. Will get more of an idea in training camp.

I take it this is yet another signing not going to Utica?

You would be correct. Kielly and Rafferty have signed NHL contracts like Teves and will stay in Vancouver. More of the same stupidity from Benning keeping his undrafted NCAA UFAs in Vancouver.

Woo (ATO), Eliot, and Mitchell Vanderhaan (ATO) out of NCAA Cornell have been sent to Utica.

Woo and Eliot had already signed 3-yr ELCs. Eliot is reassigned to Utica by Vancouver as his Jr days are done.

EDIT - Woo left practice in Utica early with an undisclosed INJURY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So much for getting an early look at this kid.



.
 
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VIPettersson

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You would be correct. Kielly and Rafferty have signed NHL contracts like Teves and will stay in Vancouver. More of the same stupidity from Benning keeping his undrafted NCAA UFAs in Vancouver.

Woo (ATO), Eliot, and Mitchell Vanderhaan (ATO) out of NCAA Cornell have been sent to Utica.

Woo and Eliot had already signed 3-yr ELCs. Eliot is reassigned to Utica by Vancouver as his Jr days are done.

EDIT - Woo left practice in Utica early with an undisclosed INJURY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So much for getting an early look at this kid.



.
To be fair, only my assumption of course, that letting them play a game in Vancouver was a clause before signing with the Canucks.
 

Balls Mahoney

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Big fan of this signing. Kielly was pretty special at the college level and looks to have some decent potential. With Demko graduating, it's good to get more bluechip netminders into the system. Not sure if he'll be more than a Joe Cannata but he should be serviceable for Utica the next few years.
 

Guardian452

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Jun 10, 2011
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You would be correct. Kielly and Rafferty have signed NHL contracts like Teves and will stay in Vancouver. More of the same stupidity from Benning keeping his undrafted NCAA UFAs in Vancouver.

Woo (ATO), Eliot, and Mitchell Vanderhaan (ATO) out of NCAA Cornell have been sent to Utica.

Woo and Eliot had already signed 3-yr ELCs. Eliot is reassigned to Utica by Vancouver as his Jr days are done.

EDIT - Woo left practice in Utica early with an undisclosed INJURY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So much for getting an early look at this kid.



.

Go cry in the Utica boards. Believe it or not, Benning’s first priority was to ask “what do I need to do to get you to sign to play for Vancouver”, and not “do you want to play in Utica for the rest of the season”.
 

Balls Mahoney

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Go cry in the Utica boards. Believe it or not, Benning’s first priority was to ask “what do I need to do to get you to sign to play for Vancouver”, and not “do you want to play in Utica for the rest of the season”.

So you're in favor of signing prospects and then having them do nothing while we have a farm team that desperately needs talent and we're responsible for overseeing?
 

Guardian452

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So you're in favor of signing prospects and then having them do nothing while we have a farm team that desperately needs talent and we're responsible for overseeing?

No. But the only way to sign quality college free agents is to burn the first year of the ELC. Look at every college free agent that’s been signed to an ELC. The signing team has burned the first year of the ELC.
 
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FroshaugFan2

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Dec 7, 2006
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No. But the only way to sign quality college free agents is to burn the first year of the ELC. Look at every college free agent that’s been signed to an ELC. The signing team has burned the first year of the ELC.

That isn't even close to being true.

Of the 18 college free agent signings this year, ten have burned a contract whereas eight have their contracts starting next season.

Outside of the Canucks most college free agents don't burn the first year of their contract.
 

Blue and Green

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The better that a college UFA is, the more competition there is for his services. Without offering ELC's for this season, we almost certainly don't get a threesome of that calibre. Utica's season is shot anyway; I'd rather have a better and deeper group of prospects there next year than a lesser group available immediately.
 

Canuck Luck

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Shortridge whom didn’t play as many games but had much better stats just signed a contract starting next season with sj. Has an ATO to play for their sj ahl affiliate for this season. Wonder why we continually sign lesser players to contracts starting this season when every other team isn’t.
 

F A N

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Aug 12, 2005
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Why would they do that? I don't get that at all.

It actually gives you more flexibility and chances are his AAV would be lower going this route. He'll be 23. If he's any good he should look capable of being a 1A/1B starter in Utica by end of next season. If not you can walk away. I remember that the Canucks were after Alex Lyon and ended up with Garteig. In Garteig's case he was signed for one year and was kept in the system without an NHL contract for another year.
 

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