CanucksArmy Utica Comets Mailbag: Rookie/Veteran Deployment, Waivers, and Olli Juolevi

We only had two questions for last week’s Mailbag and a couple for this week, so we are rolling them together into today’s post. Let’s get after it.

Believe it or not, this is actually quite a popular question, I get it often, (I know that’s not what you meant, Mike). It’s my answer that I don’t think will be all that popular. In my two seasons of watching Trent Cull at the helm of the Comets, I have seen him play the wheels off of some young players, while others have taken a little more time to earn his trust.

In his first season as head coach, I watched him play second-year-pro, Thatcher Demko more often than veteran netminder Richard Bachman. In that season, which was also Cull’s first as a head coach at the pro level, I also witnessed rookie blueliners Jalen Chatfield and Guillaume Brisebois getting a good deal of ice time in important situations under this coach. Up Front, second-year-pro, Michael Carcone was leaned on in a checking/energy role and saw a good share of ice time. Rookie Zack MacEwen saw himself bouncing around the lineup, but he got his minutes and made the most of them, finishing fourth in team scoring for his first campaign.

Last season, rookies @Adam Gaudette and @Olli Juolevi saw important minutes until Juolevi went down with his knee injury and Gaudette was summoned to the big club.

Lukas Jasek, who was also a rookie, saw time on the top line early and although he was used up and down the lineup, he had a pretty solid season under this coaching staff. Other rookies like Kole Lind, Petrus Palmu, Jonah Gadovich, and Jonathan Dahlen did not find it as easy to earn minutes in their first season. Lind and Gadjovich would eventually battle through injuries, healthy scratches, and inconsistent play to earn more trust by season’s end.

All of Cull’s rookies saw power play time last season, but penalty killing duties were limited to Adam Gaudette for the most part.

From what I have seen from this coaching staff, it will come down to a player-by-player basis. If a young player proves that they can handle more minutes, they tend to get them…but those minutes usually have to be earned first. Just like they do with the coach on the parent club.

This season, Cull will have some options available to him at the forward position. He will have Zack MacEwen heading into his third season and TheBigFella will need to continue developing and getting his minutes. Reid Boucher is also back and he will very likely play a prominent role for the club once more.

Things could get very interesting after that if the Canucks send down a player or two who are on one-way deals with the team. Second-year-pros like Lind, Gadjovich, and Jasek will be battling the likes of Justin Bailey and Francis Perron for minutes in Utica as well as for call-up duty as it is, but if a guy like Tim Schaller and/or someone else from up top is sent down, Cull will have some tough decisions to make.

On the backend, we could see a rookie or two struggle to get minutes early, especially if the Canucks end up running with 14 forwards and seven defenders. Not unlike the crowd on the wings last season, this year the Comets have a plethora of left-shot defencemen and that could lead to a player like Josh Teves having to wait a bit before seeing real minutes. On the right side, Mitch Eliot might be in tough to get a look ahead of the AHL contracted Dylan Blujus early on.

Tim Schaller last played in the AHL in the 2015/16 season for the Rochester Americans when he was still in the Buffalo Sabres system. Schaller spent 37 games with the Amerks that season, putting up 12 goals and adding 14 helpers to give himself 26 points and 48 minutes spent in the box.

The big winger/pivot has put up a total of 87 points in 174 AHL games spread over parts of three seasons, giving him a half-a-point/game at the AHL level. It’s hard to say what kind of production he would provide for the Comets this year if he were to be sent down.

That would have a lot to do with how the coaching staff uses him, and I feel like that would open up a whole new discussion. If the coaching staff plays him a bunch and he’s putting up points and contributing away from the puck, maybe he ends up having some modicum of trade value and can be moved. If the coaching staff plays him a bunch and he can’t provide value to the team, his stock will drop even further.

If the team decides to use him in the middle, he wouldn’t be taking ice time away from any of the young wingers and could potentially help them get off to a good start this season, earning them more minutes. One thing we do know is that Schaller carries veteran status at the AHL level and the Comets will already have the maximum of five allowable who can play in a game. As such, if Schaller goes in, one of Carter Bancks, Wacey Hamilton, Carter Camper, Tyler Graovac, or Reid Boucher will have to take a seat for the night. Schaller’s addition to the lineup will not come at the expense of a young player if the team is otherwise healthy. Tyler Motte on the other hand…

Zack MacEwen is entering the final year of his entry-level deal with the Canucks. That means that he will require waivers in order to get to Utica next season. The good news is that if TheBigFella continues to progress at the rate that he has, he will likely be forcing his way onto the big club roster out of camp next year if he hasn’t already done so by the end of this season.

This season, of the players who could potentially end up in Utica, Reid Boucher, Tyler Graovac, Justin Bailey, and Francis Perron will all require waivers at forward. You can add the bubble guys like Nikolay Goldobin, Tim Schaller, Tyler Motte, Loui Eriksson, etc as well.

On defence, it will be Ashton Sautner and bubble boys Alex Biega and Oscar Fantenberg, while both of Richard Bachman and Zane McIntyre will need to clear waiver before they can tend goal in Utica this year.

Before he lost his rookie season to injury after just 18 games, Juolevi was on the Comets top pairing on the backend. The bulk of that time was spent with Jalen Chatfield on his right until an injury to the speedy defender saw Jaime Sifers slide onto that pairing.

Juolevi was on the first power play unit and looked great on the offensive side, although he did cough up some pucks for shorthanded chances a little more often than is ideal. I expect that we will see more of the same this year in terms of him being on the first power play unit and I’d expect to see him taking on more work on the penalty kill as well. I expect that we will also see him step right back in as the team’s number-one defenceman.

My guess is that we could see the coaching staff go back to the Juolevi-Chatfield pairing to start the year until Brogan Rafferty is up to speed and has earned their trust. At that point, I think it’s possible that we could see the team pair Juolevi and Rafferty on the top unit while moving Chatfield to Ashton Sautner’s right side to form a tough to play against defensive pairing.

This is a good question, and it’s tougher to answer than one might think. All three play different games and they would likely end up slotting into different parts of the lineup. I will answer it this way…I think that all three could end up playing NHL minutes down the road.

I think that Lind has the higher ceiling of the three, but that right now, Lukas Jasek plays a more complete game and might have the edge on getting a look first. Gadjovich will have his skating issues to get past before we can really talk about him competing with the other two in this conversation, but I think that he can get there.

I feel that if all three hit their ceiling that we could see Lind in a second line role at the NHL level, while Jasek settles into a third line/middle six type of utility role, while Gadjovich brings the physical play in an energy role from the fourth line. As for who has the longer career…time will have to tell on that front.

Until next week.