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

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.

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.

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!