Welcome to this week’s edition of the Canucks Weekly Prospect Report where I cover as much as I can on the recent activities of Canuck Prospects in all leagues, including their farm team the Utica Comets. It has been a busy week for prospects, most notably Cole Cassels continuing to shine in Oshawa. The Comets still haven’t been able to win a game but they have been close many times.

As always, follow me @nuckprospects for the latest in prospect news and feed free to send me any feedback on anything prospect related you wish me to cover.

Utica

Games

Friday’s Game

On Friday the Comets played their second back to back game against the Abbotsford Heat at home. The game showcased goals going back and forth between these two teams and it looked like the game was going to be tied 3-3 and the teams would head into overtime. The Heat were able to get a goal with less than 5 minutes left in the third to steal a possible victory away from the Comets. Comet goals were scored by Tommernes, Hamill and Ferriero while Lain lead the team in SOG with 5 and Marshall was right behind with 4. The Comets were outshot 34-30, Canatta made 30 saves on 34 shots, the PP went 1 for 3 and the PK went 1 for 4.

– Utica’s Game Report

– AHLs Box Score

Tuesday’s Game

Tuesday night the Comets faced the Toronto Marlies at home, the farm team of the Maple Leafs. Similar to their parent club beating Toronto on the weekend, the Comets hoped to do the same. The game started great with a quick goal 1:10 into the first period by Grenier. Unfortunately the Marlies were able to return with four unanswered goals. The final score of the game was 5-2 as the Comets dropped another and are still looking for their first win. Ferriero had the second Comets goal. Grenier lead the team with 4 SOG while the Comets were outshot by the Marlies 29-21. Erikkson made 24 saves on 29 shots, the PP went 1 for 5 and the PK went 2 for 4.

– AHL’s Box score

– Utica Game Report

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:

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# Player Pos Age GP G A PTS PPG SOG Sh/G +/- PIM SH% 23 Pascal Pelletier C 30 7 2 7 9 1.29 9 1.29 1 8 22.2 78 Benn Ferriero R 26 9 4 3 7 0.78 29 3.22 -8 0 13.8 28 Alexandre Grenier R 21 9 2 5 7 0.78 15 1.67 4 17 13.3 9 Zach Hamill C 24 9 2 3 5 0.56 14 1.56 -6 4 14.3 26 Frank Corrado D 20 9 2 2 4 0.44 17 1.89 -2 2 11.8 4 Yann Sauve D 23 9 0 4 4 0.44 20 2.22 -7 10 0 7 Henrik Tommernes D 23 9 2 1 3 0.33 19 2.11 -6 0 10.5 20 Zac Dalpe (X) C 23 6 0 3 3 0.50 14 2.33 -6 2 0 10 Colin Stuart L 31 7 2 0 2 0.29 25 3.57 -5 4 8 25 Darren Archibald (X) L 23 4 1 1 2 0.50 10 2.50 0 22 10 14 Patrick Mullen D 27 8 1 1 2 0.25 15 1.88 -4 0 6.7 40 Peter Andersson D 22 9 1 1 2 0.22 6 0.67 -1 4 16.7 24 Brandon DeFazio F 24 9 1 1 2 0.22 11 1.22 1 17 9.1 17 Nicklas Jensen C 20 3 0 1 1 0.33 10 3.33 -3 0 0 3 Alex Biega D 25 9 0 1 1 0.11 7 0.78 -4 19 0 19 Kellan Lain C 24 9 0 1 1 0.11 8 0.89 0 41 0 2 Adam Polasek D 22 1 0 0 0 0.00 1 1.00 0 0 0 18 Mitch Wahl C 23 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -1 2 0 6 Sacha Guimond (X) D 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0 0 22 David Pacan (X) R 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -1 0 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 44 Brayden Irwin F 26 3 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -1 0 0 27 Alex Mallet C 21 4 0 0 0 0.00 3 0.75 -3 0 0 21 Ludwig Blomstrand (X) L 20 6 0 0 0 0.00 5 0.83 0 0 0 12 David Marshall R 28 6 0 0 0 0.00 8 1.33 -3 9 0 16 Kelsey Wilson L 27 7 0 0 0 0.00 2 0.29 -2 9 0

Goalies so far:

# Goalies GP Mins GA GAA W L SOL SO SVS SV% 30 Joacim Eriksson 6 365:26:00 22 3.61 0 5 1 0 158 0.878 35 Joe Cannata 3 178:06:00 11 3.71 0 3 0 0 67 0.859

Transactions:

Dalpe has been recalled by the Canucks after his conditioning stint is over so he can go back to playing 3 minutes a night. In 6 games he had 3 points, no goals, with 14 SOG and a 2.33 Sh/Game (6th on the team).

David Booth is being sent to Utica for two weeks on a conditioning stint. This has been covered by Canucks Army and Pass it to Bulis. His first game will be Thursday and hopefully he can help the Comets get their first win. Pat Conachar came out saying this, not a punishment but rather the proper use of farm team, it wont be easy for him as the AHL is a hard league and he will be able to get 20 minutes a night of playing.

Stanley Cup winning defenseman Kent Huskins and Mitch Wahl were signed to PTOs.

Adam Polasek has been recalled from Kalamazoo to Utica, the first K-Wing to be recalled. In his one game back he has had 1 SOG, 0 PIM and 0+/- (not bad for a 5-2 loss). We will have to watch him to see how he handles the AHL as this is the final year of his contract.

Other:

Currently the Comets are in 15th place with 2 points (0-7-1-1). They have been out-scored 20 to 34 (-14), and have been outshot 255 to 259 (-4). They are controlling 49.61% (acknowledging score effects) of the shots with an on ice shooting percentage of 7.9% and a save percentage of 86.5. A simple version of PDO puts them at 94.4%. Their PP is currently at 19.44% (11th place) and their PK is 75.61% (26th place).

The Comets so far are honestly a terrible team. I love following Canuck prospects and watching the development of their farm team, but this currently team is not playing well. They have the worst record in the league, all of their stats keep dropping every week. The goal tending has been terrible, letting in a lot of shots and they don’t have much offence up front. It’s good to see there are some good prospects in the CHL right now. Grenier is looking good right now, he is tied for 2nd in PPG and he has nearly 2 SOG/G average. He is also a +4 (on a -14 team), one of two players with a positive +/-.

The Comets play three times in the next week. They play tonight and Friday night in Cleveland against Lake Erie and then they play Sunday in Hamilton.

Two of the Comets players are still up in the NHL, Archibald and Welsh. Archibald has played 5 games so far averaging almost 8 minutes a night. He has a 45.2% Corsi and a 51% Fenwick at evens playing in all three zones, slightly more on the defensive side. Welsh has played 8 games so far, with similar playing time. Welsh has a 45.7% Corsi and a 46.1% Fenwick at evens while mainly starting in the neutral zone. These two guys are currently looking better than some of the full time players for the Canucks. Data comes from ExtraSkater.com. These two players look better than the current 4th of the Canucks.

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OHL

Cole Cassels continues to produce at rates as high as some of the previous Canucks first round picks. While I doubt he will continue the product he had this week, he is continuing to look like an amazing pick. He had 4 goals on Tuesday night’s game against Ottawa. I am curious if this is the product of being on a team that looks like a Memorial Cup contender and if he is riding someone else’s coattails, or if he is the one driving play. I will be looking at calculating some WOWYs for Cassels and for Horvat. Corey Pronman on Twitter said that he is a good prospect and he is slightly more optimistic on Cassels as he was at the draft. The rest of the OHL prospects had a quiet week with most only playing 1 or 2 games. Subban was not playing in his only game this week. Oshawa is first in the East with 29 points, Belleville is 10th in East with 11 points. In the West London is 4th with 21 points and Kitchener is 10th with 8 points. The stats of the players in the last week:

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Bo Horvat C 2 1 3 4 2 3 2 Brendan Gaunce C 1 0 1 1 1 -1 0 Cole Cassels C 3 6 3 9 3 4 9 Jordan Subban D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Evan McEneny D 1 0 0 0 0 -2 0 Miles Liberati D 2 0 0 0 0 1 2

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

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Bo Horvat C 13 7 10 17 1.31 6 14 Brendan Gaunce C 15 8 10 18 1.2 -4 16 Cole Cassels C 18 12 15 27 1.5 6 35 Jordan Subban D 16 1 10 11 0.69 -2 16 Evan McEneny D 11 1 3 4 0.36 -9 17 Miles Liberati D 16 1 2 3 0.19 3 18

WHL

It has been a bit quieter in the WHL this week as Hunter is still injured (hip) and Anton has played in two games but not much else to say on his last week. The CDC has some good scouting of Cederholm so far this year that I linked to at the bottom of the article. Shinkaruk was named ot the WHL Subway Series team against the Russians later this month. The WHL prospects this week:

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Hunter Shinkaruk L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Anton Cederholm D 3 0 0 0 0 1 2

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

Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Hunter Shinkaruk L 7 4 6 10 1.42 3 12 Anton Cederholm D 18 1 7 8 0.47 13 28

NCAA

McNally is still serving his suspension from the team and he should be back in play soon. Ben Hutton scored another goal this week and is currently 2.71 SOG/G. The Badgers had a better week, as did LaBate who score a goal and got two assists in one game. He is currently producing at a rate of 1 PPG while contributing over 3 SOG/G. Williamson scored his first goal for Penn State in their only game this week as Penn State beat Robert Morris 5-4. Matthew Beattie also got his 2nd goal of the year as Yale played twice in the last week as has surpassed his production last year of 0 points in 15 games. The stats of the college prospects are:

Name Position School GP G A P PPG +/- S S/G PIM Ben Hutton D Umaine 7 2 2 4 0.571428571 -5 19 2.71 0 Joseph LaBate F Uwisconsin 6 3 3 6 1 -3 19 3.17 0 Mike Williamson D Penn State 4 1 1 2 0.5 2 6 1.5 9 Matthew Beattie F Yale 4 2 0 2 0.5 1 10 2.5 0 Patrick McNally D Harvard 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

ECHL/CHL

In the ECHL the K-Wings have won two and lost two this week. On Saturday the Force was not with them as Toledo, hosting Star Wars night, beat the K-Wings 3-1. Many players got their first points, Blain got his first point (1A), Pacan got his first goal and assist, and so has Blomstrand. The K-Wings play again on Friday. Gwinnett played three games this last week and lost all three. They will be playing three more games this week on Friday, Saturday and Monday. Guimond shows why he is known as an offensive defenceman, he currently leads all Canuck ECHL prospects in SOG/G currently at 3.5. Despite that he only has one assist to show for it. If he keeps it up those points will come. Steve Anthony in the CHL has yet to play a game and Corbeil has had a few bad games so far. Stats of the ECHL prospects are:

ECHL Position Team GP G A P PPG +/- SOG S/G PIM Blain D K-Wings 6 0 1 1 0.1.67 -1 10 1.67 11 Pacan RW K-Wings 6 1 1 2 0.33 -5 10 1.67 2 Polasek (X) D K-Wings 3 1 0 1 0.333 1 2 0.67 2 Anthony F CHL St Charles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Blomstrand F K-Wings 4 2 1 3 0.75 -2 13 3.25 2 Guimond D Gwinnett 4 0 1 1 0.25 -2 14 3.5 0

And Corbeil’s stats are:

Goalies Position Team GP Min GA GAA W L OTL SV SV% Corbeil G CHL St Charles 5 209 17 4.89 0 2 1 89 0.84

Europe

Again not much happening in Europe. Anton Rodin is playing for Sweden in the Euro Hockey Tour and Kenins hasn’t played a game this week. An update of the Canuck players in Europe:

Name Position Team Age GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Anton Rodin W SHL Brynas 22 19 4 12 16 0.84 -2 10 Ronald Kenins LW Swiss ZSC 22 17 5 8 13 0.76 8 8

Other:

Some links to keep you reading:

CDC Rewind

Reddit discuses Canuck Prospects.

Know Your Utica Comets Captain

Canucks.com disccusses their prospects

HockeysFuture analyzes the depth of Canucks prospects and forgets Cassels

HockeysFuture briefly discusses the Canucks prospects and forgets Blomstrand

Not a bad week for prospects in the ECHL. The WHL and OHL have been a bit slow, same as in Europe. Hopefully we will see the Comets win their first game shortly and with the arrival of David Booth. It’s always great to see Canuck prospects working hard and producing points. If you have any feedback on what you’d like to see covered more (or less) in these reports send me a message. And make sure to follow @nuckprospects for the latest in Canuck Prospect News.





