It’s been another busy week for Canuck prospects; Utica has gone back to their old habits, OHL players have been busy on and off the ice, McNally returns to play for Harvard, and a few minor league players seem to have been benched. As always, follow me @nuckprospects on Twitter for the latest in prospect news and feed free to send me any feedback on anything prospect related you wish me to cover.

Without further ado..

Utica

Games

Friday’s game

The Comets started their week against their interstate rival, the Rochester Americans, with similar results; another loss. The Amerks got a quick goal and followed it up with a powerplay goal. The final score was 4-2 for the Amerks with shots 35-30 in favour of the Comets. Both goals were scored by Ferriero and assisted by Stuart, Mullen, Jensen and Pelletier. Ferriero lead the team with 6 SOG. Eriksson stopped 12 of 15 SOG and was pulled halfway through the game with Cannata taking over. The PP went 0 for 4 and the PK went 3 for 4.

Saturday’s Game

There’s no rest for the wicked as the Comets played back to back games in Utica this weekend, this time a tired Comets played against a rested, Texas Stars, who are currently the AHLs best possession team. Unfortunately they could not get away with the win despite a much closer game. The final score was 2-1 for the Stars with shots, 29-23, in favour of the Comets. The lone goal was scored by Grenier and assisted by DeFazio and Lain. Eriksson was in net and managed to stop 21 of 23 SOG. The PP went 0 for 2 and the PK went 0 for 1. Grenier has been playing great so far this year, and it is showing as the coaching staff is giving him more ice time.

Players Performance

Players stats who have played at least one game with the Comets, (X) indicates not currently on the active roster, so far are:

# Player Pos Age GP G A PTS PPG SOG Sh/G +/- PIM SH% 23 Pascal Pelletier C 30 10 2 9 11 1.10 13 1.30 3 12 15.4 78 Benn Ferriero R 26 14 6 4 10 0.71 45 3.21 -10 6 13.3 28 Alexandre Grenier R 21 14 4 6 10 0.71 28 2.00 3 17 14.3 9 Zach Hamill C 24 14 3 5 8 0.57 20 1.43 -5 6 15 10 Colin Stuart L 31 12 4 1 5 0.42 47 3.92 -3 12 8.5 24 Brandon DeFazio F 24 14 1 4 5 0.36 23 1.64 2 29 4.3 14 Patrick Mullen D 27 12 2 2 4 0.33 20 1.67 -3 0 10 26 Frank Corrado D 20 14 2 2 4 0.29 25 1.79 -1 6 8 4 Yann Sauve D 23 11 0 4 4 0.36 22 2.00 -9 12 0 7 Henrik Tommernes D 23 14 2 1 3 0.21 23 1.64 -7 0 8.7 40 Peter Andersson D 22 12 1 2 3 0.25 7 0.58 -1 4 14.3 20 Zac Dalpe (X) C 23 6 0 3 3 0.50 14 2.33 -6 2 0 19 Kellan Lain C 24 14 0 3 3 0.21 17 1.21 1 46 0 25 Darren Archibald L 23 6 1 1 2 0.33 14 2.33 -3 22 7.1 17 Nicklas Jensen C 20 8 0 2 2 0.25 25 3.13 -4 0 0 27 Alex Mallet C 21 9 1 0 1 0.11 9 1.00 -3 2 11.1 42 David Booth (X) L 28 3 0 1 1 0.33 6 2.00 -1 0 0 3 Alex Biega D 25 14 0 1 1 0.07 13 0.93 -6 19 0 43 Stefan Chaput C 25 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0 0 6 Sacha Guimond (X) R 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0 0 22 David Pacan (X) D 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -1 0 0 2 Adam Polasek (X) D 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 1 0.50 0 2 0 18 Mitch Wahl (X) C 23 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -1 2 0 15 Jeremy Welsh (X) F 25 2 0 0 0 0.00 5 2.50 -2 0 0 8 Alex Friesen F 22 3 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0 0 29 Kent Huskins L 34 5 0 0 0 0.00 6 1.20 1 0 0 44 Brayden Irwin (X) F 26 5 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -2 0 0 21 Ludwig Blomstrand (X) L 20 6 0 0 0 0.00 5 0.83 0 0 0 16 Kelsey Wilson (X) L 27 9 0 0 0 0.00 2 0.22 -3 9 0 12 David Marshall R 28 11 0 0 0 0.00 8 0.73 -4 9 0

Goalies so far:

# Goalies GP Mins W L SL SO GA GAA SVS SV% 30 Joacim Eriksson 11 635:06:00 2 8 1 0 34 3.21 280 0.892 35 Joe Cannata 4 205:37:00 0 3 0 0 12 3.5 81 0.871

Transactions:

Comets sign Stefan Chaput to a PTO. Chaput has 88 Pts and 76 PIMs in 212 AHL games.

On Thursday it was reported on various media that Cal O’Riley had signed a PTO with the Comets but all those news posts have since been deleted. Tuesday it was (re-)announced Cal O’Riley has been signed to a standard players contract. He will hopefully help their offence.

Monday, Yannick Weber was placed on waivers to the Comets to make roster space for Weise. On Tuesday it was confirmed that Weber cleared waivers. He will hopefully provide some offense and bolster the blueline. There were some rumors on twitter, along with this agent saying he was unsure if he would report. Weber gave his opinion on twitter shortly after.

Other:

Currently the Comets are in 15th place with 6 points (2-10-1-1). They have been out-scored 29 to 47 (-18), and have been outshot 400 to 408 (-8). They are controlling 49.50% (acknowledging score effects) of the shots with an on ice shooting percentage of 7.3% and a save percentage of 88.3%. A simple version of PDO puts them at 95.6% which has gotten slightly worse with the two losses. Their PP is currently at 16.67% (20th place) and their PK is 76.47% (28th place). Puck possession rankings put them at 17th which is not as bad as they have been playing, their low PDO is not helping. Using the Pythagorean expectation win formula the Comets should have won 4 games now.

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I am surprised at Ferriero and how poorly has has been this year. Given he is labelled as a good two-way player, he has an on-ice Even Strength Goals For % of 0.29. That’s the second worst on the team of people with a similar sample size. The only player who has been worse is Sauve.

I am trying to find out what is happening to Wes Myron. He was released from the Utica camp but I haven’t seen him sign anywhere.

The Comets play three times in the next week, two back to back games against the Amerks on Friday and Saturday. They play in Rochester and then in Utica respectively. The Comets also play on Tuesday against Lake Erie at home. I will be at the Saturday night game doing some scouting of a play Comets players so I can give a better analysis next week.

OHL

A very active week in juniors for Canuck Prospects. McEneny has returned and it seems his concussion has helped him as he has produced a bunch this week. Looking into his underlying data, he has been on the ice this season for 5 goals for and 11 goals against, but it doesnt help when you’re playing against the other teams top lines. On Wednesday McEneny was traded to Kingston for a D prospect and a 2nd round pick. The Rangers are a selling team right now, and McEneny is one of their bigger chips while the Fronts are trying to be contenders and are lacking on the backend.

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While Cole Cassels has been cold this week, it is not much of a concern when he has produced as much as other Canucks junior prospects. His play has him in the talks as an outsider to make it for the U20 World Juniors next month.

Early in the week I had heard rumors that Liberati would likely be traded this season and it happened much sooner than I thought. With Buffalo sending Zadorov back to the OHL and with London wanting to win the Memorial Cup, they traded him for rights to overager Zach Bell and a conditional 4th round pick to North Bay. This will be better for Liberati who was only playing 17 / 60 ES minutes a game and with no time on the special teams. North Bay will be better for his development. He has not played terrible in London, being on the ice for 55.6% goals for, he was just getting little ice time for a stacked D corps.

Subban has a number of impressive goals this week including the one in the video.

Don’t forget to watch the OHL in the Subway Series tonight and Monday as a couple Canuck prospects are involved on that team. Gaunce was named as an alternative captain. In the mean time watch the second episode of Bo Horvat and the London Knight’s Quest for the Cup Episode 2.

In the OHL east, Oshawa is first with 37 points, Kingston is 4th with 25 points, North Bay is 6th with 23 points and Belleville is 10th with 14 points. In the West, London is 4th with 32 points. Oshawa is ranked 9th in the BMO CHL standings while London is an honourable mention. The stats of the players in the last week are as follows:

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Bo Horvat C 3 1 4 5 1.67 3 2 Brendan Gaunce C 2 0 1 1 0.50 -1 4 Cole Cassels C 3 0 0 0 0.00 -1 6 Jordan Subban D 3 3 2 5 1.67 1 2 Evan McEneny D 4 1 2 3 0.75 -2 6 Miles Liberati D 2 0 1 1 0.50 2 0

And so far this year the stats of these players are:

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Bo Horvat C 19 9 19 28 1.47 13 18 Brendan Gaunce C 20 10 13 23 1.15 -5 27 Cole Cassels C 24 12 16 28 1.17 2 43 Jordan Subban D 22 4 14 18 0.82 1 24 Evan McEneny D 15 2 5 7 0.47 -11 23 Miles Liberati D 22 1 3 4 0.18 5 18

WHL

Shinkaruk came to Vancouver last week and had an interesting game that was well covered by a number of blogs including this one. He scored a goal, had a fight and it is quite evident that his hip is still bugging him and he is playing through it. Hopefully that isn’t a long term injury. Listen ot him on the Pucks on net podcast.

Medicine Hat is ranked first in the East with 35 points while Portland is 3rd in the West with 36 points. Portland is 5th in the CHL rankings while Medicine Hat is an honourable mention.

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Hunter Shinkaruk L 4 0 4 4 1.00 0 7 Anton Cederholm D 2 0 0 0 0.00 1 30

And so far this season the players stats in the WHL are:

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Hunter Shinkaruk L 14 5 11 16 1.14 0 25 Anton Cederholm D 23 1 7 8 0.35 16 30

NCAA

McNally is back!!! Returning from his suspension for academic dishonesty almost a year ago, McNally is back to play for Harvard. He played in two games this weekend, had 4 SOG and was a -2. Harvard plays once this upcoming week so he will be an NCAA prospect to watch and see how his time off affected him.

Hutton and Labate scored goals in their games this week. Maine plays on Friday, and no games for Penn State or Wisconsin this week. Yale played one game this last week, but Beattie was not playing. They have two games this upcoming week.

Statistics of NCAA players:

Name Position School GP G A P PPG +/- S S/G PIM Ben Hutton D Umaine 10 4 3 7 0.70 -3 30 3.00 0 Joseph LaBate F Uwisconsin 8 4 3 7 0.88 -3 23 2.88 0 Mike Williamson D Penn State 5 1 1 2 0.40 1 6 1.20 9 Matthew Beattie F Yale 5 2 0 2 0.40 1 11 2.20 0 Patrick McNally D Harvard 2 0 0 0 0.00 -2 4 2.00 2

ECHL/CHL

Not too much to say about the players that are on the ice in the ECHL right now, what is more interesting is the players who are not on the ice. Corbeil is no longer even backing up the St Charles Chill. He has posted terrible numbers in 6 outings this year, much worse than last year so I think the Chill have opted to not play him right now. Steve Anthony is a Canuck prospect who was assigned to St Charles but has not played a single game all year and I can’t find any evidence if he is injured or not. Also, Pacan did not play a game this week for the K-Wings. None of the players this week played well enough for any mentioning. Kalamazoo plays four times this week and Gwinnette plays twice.

ECHL Position Team GP G A P PPG +/- SOG S/G PIM Blain D K-Wings 9 1 2 3 0.33 3 17 1.89 32 Pacan RW K-Wings 7 1 2 3 0.43 4 13 1.86 2 Polasek D K-Wings 5 1 0 1 0.20 2 4 0.80 2 Blomstrand F K-Wings 7 2 1 3 0.43 -4 17 2.43 2 Anthony F CHL St Charles 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 Guimond D Gwinnett 8 1 1 2 0.25 -8 25 3.13 4

And Corbeil’s stats are:

Goalies Position Team GP Min GA GAA W L OTL SV SV% Corbeil G CHL St Charles 6 236 21 5.35 0 2 1 103 0.831

Europe

Not much for the European players.

Name Position Team Age GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Anton Rodin W SHL Brynas 22 22 5 14 19 0.86 -1 18 Ronald Kenins LW Swiss ZSC 22 22 5 10 15 0.68 9 12

Other:

Some extra reading for you.

It’s been an extremely busy week for Canucks in the OHL, with plenty of activity everywhere else. I will be off to Utica this weekend, so hopefully they get their first home win on Saturday. Make sure to follow me at @nuckprospects for all the latest in Canuck Prospect news. Until next week!





