“Why’s no one [talking] Cole Lind?
And Lockwood is already an NHL bottom six player. These are the guys, and Gadjovich, who need NHL minutes, so management can see what they have. Is Vessey part of our future?
What have I been telling you? How many 3rd year ELC players not impressing the Hell out of the hockey world has Benning kept around. The most impressive get traded in yr 2 or 3, the lesser but still did okay get an RFA year and are not retained after year 4, the rest don't get a QO after the ELC. Lind and Gadjovich fit that description to a tee. You cannot go by AHL numbers this year. The AHL is a poor facsimile of its normal self.
Go to the current Utica Comets thread, go to page 32, and read @THRILLHOAIF 's take on this year's AHL. He explains how some Comets prospects have moved into the top 6 and have much improved numbers in bigger roles. He also explains the rosy debuts of the rookies who would at best be depth players and some might be in the ECHL.
OR
Go to the Fantasy GM Thread/Part 8, pg 27, post #653 for a shortened, to the point version by
@tyhee.
The D would have been:
Chatfield/Juolevi (1 of the 2 would be in Utica)
Sautner,
Brisebois,
Rafferty
Rathbone
Teves
Eliot
Woo
+? (They would have picked up 1 veteran D-man to make a total of 9)
The first 5 would be definite top 6 at the start of the season based upon past performance and experience and Rathbone would be the highly prized rookie. #6 comes from the other 4. If the vet is a really good one it's him. Otherwise the war is on. I don't think Woo would have made it to #6 to start. Teves at $700k and Eliot would get hard looks.
The forwards would be: (Pettersson healthy and not counting Vessey)
Baertschi
Boucher?
Bailey/MacEwen/Eriksson (only room for one of them in Vancouver and I'm betting it would have been Loui)
Lind
Jasek
Camper
Graovac
Michaelis
Gadjovich
Lockwood
Focht
Arseneau
J. Stevens
? (quality center)
? ( They would have signed at least 2 forwards with AHL/NHL tweener experience as they have always done.)
That group is desperate for a quality CENTER to go along with Camper, Jasek, Graovac, Michaelis, J.Stevens, Focht.)
The Lind experiment would have been unlikely. The fact that they did it this year is more than likely due to the shortage of players. 32 games is no where near enough to try and make that kind of conversion for the next AHL season let alone to move him up to the NHL. They get another top center. Especially since none of those listed is a fit for a Vancouver call-up.
Boucher (or his replacement) gets RW with Baertschi on the LW and the new center goes between them.
Camper gets the second line with Bailey on LW and Lind on the RW. They were very good together last year.
Michaelis gets Graovac on LW and MacEwen on RW
Jasek gets Gadjovich on the LW and Lockwood on RW
That's 4 really good lines.
Arseneau, Stevens, Focht are depth forwards and there would probably be 2 more AHL/ECHL contract forwards.
That's a skeleton look.
The question would now be which of these guys would you want to see? I'm guessing they would all of a sudden be Bailey and MacEwen first thing. Then maybe Lind. I'd go with Jasek and Gadjovich only if they were performing in the normal AHL as they are now. Lockwood would be a next year promise after he developed a full game and it's down here where that would happen.
However, my bet is you would see Benning doing exactly as he is starting right now. The Vessey type easy pickups off waivers. Guys with experience and proof of NHL ability already. You might see Lind, Jasek, Bailey, MacEwen used as trade bait for a guy like Leivo or Motte like he has done so many times before to try and boost his lineup. Playing rookies when he is shooting for the playoffs is not in his nor his coach's playbook.