Vancouver Canucks' AHL team: Utica Comets roster, lineup, projections

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Dive deep into the Vancouver Canucks farm system with this projection of the 2019-20 Utica Comets opening-night lineup, season point totals, and emerging opportunities, plus breakdowns for the top-20 candidates to make the team.

With NHL preseason behind us, and the AHL season opener just ahead, here’s a look at who’s available to lace ’em up for the Vancouver Canucks‘ farm team, the Utica Comets and head coach Trent Cull in their opening night, October-5th road game against the Binghamton Devils.

Countless last-minute question marks made this process challenging, to say the least. Vancouver Canucks‘ preseason-breakout prospect, Adam Gaudette, did enough in the to earn an NHL spot. This sent veteran left-winger Sven Baertschi onto the waiver wire, who looked good himself in the Canucks preseason with four points in five games. Baertschi was joined on the wire by Nikolay Goldobin, though this was more of Goldobin’s own doing, having also played in five games but only managing one assist.

The Canucks broke form and went with a roster made up of 14 forwards and seven defencemen, rather than head coach Travis Green’s typical 13 forwards and eight defencemen, which meant Alex Biega was sent packing. According to Canucks GM Jim Benning, there was some interest in Biega. Ultimately, the Bulldog made it through waivers and joins the Canucks’ collection of NHL-worthy depth accumulating in Utica.

If all of the young guys take at least a little step forward this season, and things go well for the farm team – i.e. the Canucks stay healthy and keep player movement to a minimum – then the following lineup and point projections seem reasonable for the coming season.

The Comets could load all of their most dangerous offensive talents onto the top line, and the solid two-way players onto a second line to take the toughest defensive assignments and respond with their own offence. The next-best talents could be put onto a third line to hopefully benefit from the projected space to overachieve offensively, while dad and the kids go onto the fourth line to add some energy, complement special teams and grow their pro game.

The story on defence could be a top pairing that transitions the puck out of the zone and threatens offence on every rush, alongside a second pairing that plays hard, veteran, shutdown hockey, logging all the big minutes against opposing AHL stars. Ideally, the third pairing benefits from that created space, enabling the all-important secondary scoring that every real contender needs.

For the Canucks faithful this season, the goaltending is taking shape and could be the most interesting storyline in Utica, where two vets and a prized prospect jockey for position. Expect that Benning will want to eventually balance out his minor league rosters (AHL Comets/ECHL Kalamazoo Wings) with each one mentor and one prospect, as it goes with the Canucks.

With that in mind, Richard Bachman seems to have put in the best NHL-preseason performance of all the Canucks’ farm-system goaltenders.

To lay it all out for you, line by line, here’s one possible 2019-20, opening-night lineup for Baertschi and the boys:

UTICA :
* = pro-veteran status

FORWARD:
Baertschi*–Graovac*–Goldobin
Boucher*–MacEwen–Bailey
Perron–Malone–Jasek
Gadjovich–Hamilton*–Lind
> scratch/ECHL: Camper* (C); Arseneau (LW), Bancks (LW/V), Sadowy (W), Sorenson (C), Stevenson (W/C)

DEFENCE:
Juolevi–Rafferty
Sautner–Biega*
Teves–Brisebois
> scratch/ECHL: Chatfield, Eliot, Blujus, Frye, LeBlanc, Petgrave, Thow

GOAL:
Bachman
DiPietro
> scratch/ECHL: McIntyre; Kielly

PP:
1 Baertschi–Graovac–Goldobin
Juolevi–Boucher
2 Jasek–MacEwen–Perron
Rafferty–Teves

PK:
1 Hamilton–Bailey
Sautner–Biega
2 Gadjovich–MacEwen
Brisebois–Rafferty

There’s a potential story unfolding here from all the improved organizational depth, how the Comets could achieve something special this season, but just like all of our lives, everything depends on the good fortunes of the Canucks.

Presently, the Comets are stacked up front.

This season the forward ranks in Utica will be emboldened with four key veterans who’ve already played a few hundred pro games.

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These are important mentors to help professionalize the impressionable youth landing on the farm, solid NHL-depth players who’ll count towards the AHL veteran cap: Baertschi, Reid Boucher, Tyler Graovac, and Wacey Hamilton.

They’ll occupy four of the five veteran spots allotted to an AHL lineup, and could be key components for a Comets Calder Cup contender. Biega on defence counts as the fifth veteran. Conversely, the other 13 players in the lineup must have each dressed for less than a few hundred pro games, so goes the AHL developmental rule.

Let’s take a closer look at Utica’s projected depth.

Graovac looked okay playing down in the Canucks lineup with limited ice time during his five preseason games. He scored a goal, was a minus-three, and only won 42.9 percent of his faceoffs. Despite the stats, he looked pretty good at times, especially when he was able to unload his hard and accurate shot.

On a team with a small horde of skilled wingers yet few skilled centres, it seems obvious that Graovac will centre the top line with a chance to lead the Comets to the promised land. Most likely he’d be lining up with wingers Baertschi and Goldobin, who’ll make a formidable offensive trio that could even find success at the NHL level.

Looking to the second line, MacEwen probably hasn’t played much centre since junior, but with all the depth now pouring over onto the wings someone’s needs to run with the opportunity. MacEwen is listed as a winger/centre.

He also scores goals and drives the play with his hard, gritty, two-way game. If he can shift back to centre for the Comets this season — having him in the lineup on the second line with Boucher and big Justin Bailey on his wings for all the key defensive matchups — could help create some valuable offensive space for the other lines in Utica.

If the hardest matchups are absorbed by the top two lines in a quest to unlock secondary scoring, then centering the third line could be relatively easy. This structure creates a space for undersized and offensive forwards like centre Seamus Malone, left winger Francis Perron, and right winger Lukas Jasek, who are each an offensive threat in their own right.

Wacey Hamilton is a solid AHL vet who wins faceoffs and defensive battles, and in a pinch can provide NHL-injury depth in a fourth-line, defensive role, but he’s not gonna win any hearts and minds for a Canucks call-up.

Hamilton will make a good fit as the fourth-line centre mentor who brings stability to the penalty kill, and to the bottom six where twenty-year-old wingers Jonah Gadjovich and Kole Lind will be working hard to develop their pro games. Fortunately, both of these kids have some grit and project as bottom six NHL forwards, making the fourth-line opportunity a suitable development slot to grow their pro games a little while longer.

Despite what recent Canuck fortunes might have us believe, highly touted prospects do not all land on the scene showing so much offensive upside as did Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. Kids like Lind and Gadjovich, those who seem to project more towards the defensive side of the roster, will need some patience to develop that more mature game. Don’t be surprised if it takes them a couple of years to climb much further up the line in Utica.

The kids being fourth liners again this season is a reflection of how Benning took a giant step forward by adding depth throughout the organization. Baertschi, Goldobin, Bailey, Graovac and Perron are all great additions to the Comets’ forward ranks, and provide solid injury depth for the Canucks.

On defence, where prospects often emerge a little later in their careers, the Comets boast less pro experience than in their forward ranks but make up for it in skill and depth.

With Olli Juolevi hoping to play his first full North American pro season after a storied injury history and highly anticipated return to the ice, and perhaps to pair with preseason standout Brogan Rafferty — who’s given the Canucks much to think about — Utica may have the ingredients to a formidable, top pairing that can lead the way.

If Juolevi can stay healthy this season and continue his pace of 0.72 points per game, and Biega can produce on a second pairing, then the Comets should have a much deeper and more talented defence than last year.

Cull may decide on a proper shutdown unit for his second pairing, where Biega and Ashton Sautner look like the most worthy candidates. Biega brings an NHL game with big hits that wear down opposing forwards, and even adds some offence. On the other side, Sautner also brings a fair amount of experience to a shutdown role, having appeared in over 200 pro games.

Unfortunately, he does not provide offence, but is a vocal vet who plays sound defensive hockey within a mobile, gritty game and keeps the puck out of the net. Having two hard-to-play-against blueliners logging the big defensive minutes will, of course, create offensive space for the next guys.

The next guys are Josh Teves and Guillaume Brisebois, two more mobile defencemen who are better offensive options than Sautner, though not quite as rugged. Giving Teves and Brisebois the easier matchups could help to exploit their offensive talents and vision, thereby engaging the bottom end of the roster in some offence for an even wider-ranging, secondary attack.

Not to put too fine a point on it, there are several skaters in the Canucks farm system who honestly deserve an NHL look. The depth in Utica is encouraging.

In net, Bachman had the best preseason for the Canucks playing just over 40 minutes and earning .891 saves percentage, followed by Michael DiPietro (40 mins, .879 SV%) and Zane McIntyre (30 mins, .857 SV%). Jake Kielly did not play in the Canucks preseason, and was an early assignment to Kalamazoo.

It would be great for the fandom to have their star prospect, DiPietro, win a job in Utica where he’d have more exposure and be easier to follow, not to mention there’s better quality coaching to surround him with.

The alternative is to have the valuable prospect sent down to play with the lesser-talented ECHL affiliate. While no one wants that, Mikey will still have to win that AHL spot if he wants it. Right no,w he’s got some pro competition lined up with both Bachman and McIntyre primed to do whatever it takes to win their own AHL jobs.

Regardless of how it might look to start the season, don’t be surprised if DiPietro is the one riding a hot wave of confidence next spring, standing on his head, backstopping a deep, playoff-bound Comets roster.

Well, folks, hopefully you enjoyed another deep dig into the lore here at The Canuck Way. That about does it for the state of affairs down on the farm. The grass is green and the fields are ripe. Continue the story in the comments section. Share your own ideas about the Canucks prospects and upcoming season for Utica.

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For the more clinically addicted Canucks fans, please take a gander at some of my research for this article, including 22 Utica Comets player breakdowns and point projections for the 2019-20 opening-night lineup. Go Comets Go!

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