The Utica Comets announced today that they have signed forward Cam Darcy to an AHL deal. Darcy had been with the Comets on a PTO, (professional try-out) since the start of the season. The 23-year-old, 6′, 190lbs right shot center had played 90 games in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch coming into this season after being drafted 185th overall in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2014 entry draft. Comets current head coach Trent Cull was one of the assistant coaches in Syracuse while Darcy was there. Darcy’s best season with the Crunch was his first when he played in 56 games, collecting four goals, and eight helpers for 12 points. In just 13 games this season, Darcy has collected half of his season-high point total already with his six assists.
Comets sign forward @cdarcy19 to an AHL contract.
Details: https://t.co/S1AIDcioJN pic.twitter.com/JqyyQUwbPe
— Utica Comets (@UticaComets) November 30, 2017
Darcy has earned his deal with Utica. He has been getting some penalty-killing time recently and creating some shorthanded opportunities. It was wise for the organization to use an AHL deal for Darcy rather than signing him to a two-way deal that would eat into their 50 allowable contracts. If Darcy has shown by the end of the season that he deserves a two-way deal, Vancouver can cross that bridge then. Alternatively, he could also prove to be a replacement for a guy like Wacey Hamilton, whose contract expires at the end of the season.
The Comets are back in action tomorrow at 4:00 pm Pacific when they take on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers for the first game of a weekend back to back series. CanucksArmy will have your post-game report following the game.
Firstly, it’s good to see the Comets increase their numbers and good to see Darcy earn himself a spot.
Secondly, though, is the incredible description of this move as wise because the organization didn’t sign Darcy to a 2-way NHL contract.
“It was wise for the organization to use an AHL deal for Darcy rather than signing him to a two-way deal that would eat into their 50 allowable contracts.”
In what alternative universe was there ever a chance of Darcy being offered an NHL contract at this time? He was on a PTO after he’d been playing in the ECHL on an ECHL contract. He hasn’t done nearly enough to show he should get an NHL contract, nor to be considered an NHL prospect. That may or may not come in the future, but it certainly is nowhere close to having happened so far.
Once the decision was made to sign him, using an AHL contract is just normal. In what way is not doing something ridiculous capable of being called “wise?”
At the risk of sounding salty, when that isn’t the case….Mackenze Stewart, Yan-Pavel Laplante, and Anton Cederholm….I give you exhibits A, B, and C as to why I mentioned the AHL deal vs a two-way. The team has given out two-way deals to questionable players in the past.
Thanks.
I’m now wondering if your use of “wise” was tongue in cheek, at least to some extent, and that I missed it the first time through. Certainly “wise” isn’t synonymous with “managed not to do something ridiculous.”
The other is that of course the three players you mentioned were all, for some reason or another, signed by the Canucks as prospects during the offseason. Two of them are on entry level contracts after being drafted by the Canucks and the third following his overage junior year after not being signed by the club which drafted him. That’s a big difference from a veteran pro who has already failed to command even an AHL contract in the offseason, who had been plucked from the ECHL because of injuries.
Two things. First, those signings, however unwise, were offseason signings of amateur or European players that the Canucks, for whatever reason, thought had some chance as prospects. Darcy was a veteran ECHL player on an ECHL contract and nobody could think him a prospect.
The other thing may be semantics, but how does refraining to continue to do ridiculous things qualify as “wise?” Or was that somewhat tongue in cheek?
When it comes to contracts, not many things would surprise me at this point. I am a fan of a lot of the things that the Benning management group has done, but contracts have not been the strong point. Neither of Stewart or Laplante warranted anything more than an AHL deal. This is an AHL depth signing by the team that I cover, and as such, I wrote a short post on it. As far as hockey news goes, this is pretty minor, so let’s not blow this out of proportion. ??
Thanks.
I’m now wondering if your use of “wise” was tongue in cheek, at least to some extent, and that flew over my head the first time I read it. Certainly “wise” isn’t synonymous with “managed not to do something ridiculous.” If you were joking about the horrid past signings and I missed it, then sorry.
The other is that of course the three players you mentioned were all, for some reason or another, signed by the Canucks as prospects during the early offseason. There are all on entry level contracts, two after being drafted as prospects by the Canucks and the third after being drafted but unsigned by the Coyotes followed by an overage junior season. It may have been unwise, but they were signed as prospects. That’s a big difference from a veteran pro whose elc was terminated after two years and who who none of the 31 organizations had seen fit to offer anything more than an ECHL contract to, who is plucked from the ECHL to fill in for injuries.
I think they’ve got 46 nhl contracts on the books. I guess you can add Pettersson and Guadette at some point within a year, plus prolly Kole Lind and maybe one or two others. Less trades at deadline (prolly Vanek and Burmistrov), so that’s close to 50. They’ll have to manage this carefully. Don’t be surprised to see a trade to accommodate a new signing a few weeks later …
Benning could allow expiring contracts for Molino, Sautner, Stewart, Cederholm, and Cassels to lapse without hurting the Canucks prospect pool. Pretty safe to say that replacing them with Pettersson, Gaudette, Lind, and Gadjovich is only an improvement.