As a Comets fan first I like the fact that Green emphasizes winning over developing but I would be less than honest if I didn't recognize that fact and think it's Green putting his quest for an NHL coaching job over developing NHL players for Vancouver.
Demko didn't dress for back to back games with the flu and Bachman got on a hot streak. Now Demko has been pretty much stapled to the bench (one start in the last nine games) because he has been winning with Bachman. I can't believe Vancouver management is allowing this to happen.
Come on! Demko was sick enough to require a PTO 2 straight games.
You think he was hale and hardy right after those 2 days? This particular illness kicks the **** out of the recipients for a good two weeks. He might have felt well enough to sit on the bench, but to perform at a top notch professional level would be highly questionable.
Then Bachman went on a terrific run. Green has been rotating them all along except for 2 instances. Demko got a run when Bachman was hurt and when Bachman returned, he sat while the run lasted. Then Demko sat a couple while Bachman ran his streak out.
Demko started the last game before the break. Bachman got the start last night. Tuesday Demko will go and Friday Bachman will get Toronto and so on. A real outstanding game may net either guy an extra start and if he keeps going he will be ridden. That's the way it's been done forever especially with a rookie goalie.
As to his not giving prospects the proper development tell me who that might be.
2013/14:
Grenier - 68GP, PP time, 17G/22A
Darren Archibald - considered a prospect then, but showed he was not top 6 quality and mustered 10G/12A as a grinding winger with DeFazio who put up 17G/17A
Frank Corrado - 59 GP with time out for trips to Vancouver. Played in all situations.
Nick Jensen - Pouted for a month because Vancouver demoted him. Then became a one man team every time he went on the ice. Passed to no one and griped when no one passed to him and then decided defense was not a necessary task intended for his indulgence. Face it he had a serious attitude problem in his first year.
Alex Friesen had trouble looking like he even belonged in the league.
Kellan Lain was no prospect. All you had to do was watch him for a couple shifts. He was big, could hit, and that was it. He couldn't skate at this level and his future years here and elsewhere would bear me out.
Tell me who else might have been abused in that season. The prospects were not exactly blue chippers.
2014-15:
Grenier in yr 2 puts up 43 points and proves he has little idea of what to do when he doesn't have the puck and defense is something he is still trying to figure out. Green fixes that with him and with Jensen and as Stevie Y learned a ways into his career, in order to be a complete hockey player you have to play both ends of the rink and it sometimes means you sacrifice a little offense in order for that to happen.
When Baertschi arrives O'Reilly gets Jensen and Grenier.
Friesen gets to center Baertschi and Conacher.
Corrado gets big ice time all season when he's not sitting in the Vancouver press box. In the playoffs, he gets hurt and comes back to play injured and does a great job playing hurt all the way to the final game. Except for those who need to know the rest of us aren't aware of the severity of his injury.
Who else was a serious prospect? Shinkaruk and Gaunce are rookies.
Shink plays the first half of the season conditioning on the fly while recovering from a serious injury and surgery. Yet he plays 74 of the team's 76 games, scores 16 goals and 31 points most accrued in the second half of the season. Gaunce also played 74 games and put up 11G/29Pts. He is being used as a LW because that's what Vancouver wants. His skating is not the best and he takes shifts off.
The Comets play 23 playoff games. Grenier puts up 15 points, Friesen 10 while centering Conacher and Baertschi, Shink plays every playoff game and musters 4G/6Pts and Gaunce plays 21 and puts up 4G/9Pts.
Just exactly how are these prospects being deprived of top opportunities to develop? Feel free to point out any I left out.
2015-16:
The kids are supposed to take over and shoulder the heavy loads.
Shinkaruk does what he was expected to do when healthy, lights up the league and leads his team offensively with 21G/39 Pts in 45 GP and is traded.
After the trade Grenier leads the team in points in his 3rd season as a Vancouver prospect in Utica.
Gaunce puts up 38 Pts in only 46 GP due to up and down stints with Vancouver.
At one point Gaunce ends up centering Shink and Grenier.
With Shink gone Gaunce picked up Higgins.
Jensen skates in some combination with Vey, Gaunce, Grenier, Shinkaruk, Friesen, and Archibald.
By mid season Vey is gone, and Gaunce spends a lot of time in Vancouver, Shink and Jensen are traded, the team is loaded up with PTOs and Friesen is centering a line with Kenins on his left and Bancks on his right. An AHL trade at the AHL deadline brings in TJ Hensick to center Grenier and Labate.
Cassels is a major disappointment since he comes to camp with no off season work, out of shape, and rehabbing an injury yet Green plays him in 67 games and he totals 7 points. His newcomer partner is Joe LaBate, big boy, heavy hitter, not the fastest afoot and far from a slick puck handler. He plays 66 games and gets 10G/10A/20Pts.
Mike Zalewski, unsigned by the Canucks after one season, gets enough prime opportunities and plays so well that Vancouver has to reconsider and give him a new contract.
Subban plays 67 games and puts up 11G/36Pts in a rookie season where he is also trying to learn how to play D on the fly.
Pedan has been given every opportunity to shine when he's here. He may be the most brain dead defender I've seen since Sauve. He's a much better D-man, but makes the same kind of head scratching passes, puck muffs, and turnovers trying to run with the puck. The only thing keeping Andrey from the next level is Andrey and his hockey IQ.
Sautner was not good and still isn't. He wasn't drafted and his play has shown why. In spite of this fact he got 50 games last season due the manpower debacle. He got more of a chance than he would have in a regular situation and could have made some real hay, but that didn't happen.
2016-17:
Grenier is still here and once again is #1 in points with 14G/35Pts.
An ECHL grad on his third AHL contract and a journeyman third line, energy, hitter, fighter let go by Vancouver after his ELC and signed twice now to AHL contracts by the Comets are 2nd and third in team scoring. Valk has 12G/30Pts and Archibald has 14G/29Pts.
These three comprise the first line and none are really prospects, though by definition Grenier is and Valk could be.
Subban playing in every offensive situation is an AHL All-Star and 4th in team scoring with 10G/24Pts.
Evan McEneny in his 3rd pro season, but first in the AHL has been given more and more responsibility. He is getting PK and PP duty and handling it well and putting up points.
Cassels gets all kinds of ice time and has managed 7 points in 37 GP. He has been given the added responsibility of killing penalties.
Carcone is the same issue as Cassels. Lots of ice time and little production, 6 points in 35 GP.
Sautner was injured for a big spell and has played 22 games has 2 assists and is the weakest defender in any combination of 6 Green dresses for any game, but he keeps getting game time.
Zalewski began the season coming off a serious concussion at the end of last season and 10 games in it's likely he suffered another. He has played 15 games since returning and has 7 points in that time. His game looks like the old Z right now, so we'll see where that takes him.
Demko has played 22 games to Bachman's 20. Pretty much what I would expect in a season as a rookie paired with a vet being paid $575,000 and under contract for the 2017-18 season. They are going to be a tandem this season and when it's over will be close to having played the same # of games as long as neither is injured or goes into the tank.
So, as far as I can see, the prospects who have been assigned to Utica over a 4-yr period have been small in number and many short on talent. Green has given all who made the roster adequate ice time and increased their responsibilities with time. I don't see any way that any of these guys would have been excelling at a higher level under another coach. There have been very few, if any, top of the experts' "NHL players to be" list assigned to the Utica Comets. Subban was close, but Demko is the actual first one and now the epitome of underachieving top draft picks is in town. Gaudette may be the next with high hopes as Boeser likely makes the Canucks out of camp based on Benning's past history.The rest were all hopefuls, but only some of the fan base really had them pegged as anything really special. Those who were labeled are already there and spent very little if any time here.
As to wanting to win, there is not one coach in this league who isn't putting a team on the ice for any other purpose. Their job is to win with what they are handed while playing the prospects accordingly. They are measured by what they can do with said rosters.
I have been round and round with every one of these guys in past posts so I am not going to start up again with any of them. I simply stand by my opinion that Green has given every one of them ample ice and a long enough leash to have become what they could be. Most of the results do finally come down to their efforts, not the coach's.
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