The Comets Are Loaded… And it’s Going to Cause Some Problems

When Jim Benning went on a spending spree in NHL free agency during the summer, one clear side effect was that the Utica Comets were going to get a lot of overflow. That in turn, meant that the Canucks’ minor league affiliate had the potential to be a very powerful team.

I wrote about this possibility back in July, pondering whether the Comets could be a powerhouse offensive team this season (for the first time in their existence, really), with the Vancouver additions pushing high end prospects and productive professional veterans into Utica’s top six.

That is certainly still the case, and even though I got a couple of the assignments wrong (I had Brock Boeser and Jake Virtanen going to the AHL instead of Anton Rodin and Reid Boucher), the Comets still look like a formidable squad, perhaps even a Calder Cup contender. As you can see in the final depth chart below, there are plenty of players capable of putting up points in the minors.

However, all that depth in what is supposed to be a development league can cause problems. I wrote on the subject of veteran limits after the Comets signed defenceman Jaime Sifers. The rule prohibits the use of too many skaters that have perhaps specific thresholds of professional games played.

Professional games here can mean the NHL or the AHL (but not the ECHL), as well as the European elite leagues.

At the time that I wrote the Sifers article, the possibility of going over the veteran limit seemed legitimate, though it could have been avoided simply by using rotating scratches on depth AHL journeymen. Now, with Rodin and Boucher, a pair of veterans, heading to the Comets instead of Boeser and Virtanen, who do not have that designation, the Comets are going to be in some serious trouble when they go to fill out their lineup card.

Below is a chart of Canucks prospects and bubble players, as well as AHL vets, with their total number of professional games played as well as a veteran designation, if applicable (names of players that made the NHL team are crossed out to make it easier to count the players quickly).

Among the players on this chart with the veteran designation, only Alex Biega and Alex Burmistrov made the Canucks’ opening roster. That leaves eight players with the veteran designation, and one more with the veteran exempt designation.

This is a major problem. What this means is that only five of Patrick Wiercioch, Anton Rodin, Darren Archibald, Michael Chaput, Jayson Megna, Carter Bancks, Wacey Hamilton, and Jaime Sifers will be able to play on any given night.

The likely result of this is that there will be a whole lot of veterans getting scratched on a nightly basis, probably starting with AHL contracted players like Archibald, Bancks, Hamilton and Sifers. Sitting three of those players would bring them down to the limit, and would probably appease most Canucks fans, but I’m not sure how the Comets coaching staff will feel about essentially eliminating those players from their roster until injuries occur. Not to mention, Darren Archibald led the team in goals and points last season and very nearly made the NHL club, likely making him a legitimate candidate for an NHL call up this season. Meanwhile, Carter Bancks was the team captain last season, and led the Comets in points the season before.

Honestly, I have no clue how the Canucks and Comets are going to solve this problem. It could be that some trades are on the horizon, more likely of the AHL vets so as not to disrupt the crop of potential NHL call ups. Hopefully it won’t come to something like returning a younger player to the minors so they can send a veteran to the NHL.

What we do know is that the team is aware of the situation. Comets beat writer Ben Birnell reported that head coach Trent Cull will be in contact with the Canucks regarding a potential solution.

(Note that the number in the above tweet does not include Wiercioch or the Veteran Exempt player.

I expect that we’ll see some moves shortly in order to resolve the issue. The Comets season starts on Saturday in Toronto, with a 1:00pm puck drop.