The Comets Roster Series Part 2: Returnees

7 years ago

^{Photo credit:}^{Lindsay A. Mogle / Utica Comets}

Hockey is back! While the NHL got underway last night, the AHL is just a few days ahead. We like to keep a close eye on our friends in Utica, and I’ll be handling the Comets weekly reports again. Before we get into the day-to-day and week-to-week activity, there was plenty of offseason activity that has affected the makeup of the team.

This is part two of a five part series that examines the changes in the Utica Comets roster between the 2015-16 season and the upcoming 2016-17 season. This article will cover returning players, those members of last year’s Comets that will return to Utica in the fall. We’ll look at how they fared last season and what they look to bring in the coming year.

Andrey Pedan (D)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
45	7	14	21	56.1%	20:19	1.38

It’s pretty surprising that Andrey Pedan is on this list, but here we are. Pedan is a 23-year old, 6-foot-5 Lithuanian defenceman who made his NHL debut last season and didn’t look out of place, except when he was literally out of place due to his coach forcing him to play out of position. Despite his impressive size, he skates very well. In fact, he won the fastest skater contest at the Canucks 2016 Skills Competition. He also won hardest shot. Yeah.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t buy enough ice time to make a strong impression in the 2016 preseason. He logged just over 38 minutes in ice time, partially stymied by the 17 minute penalty he took in his second game for instigating a fight with the Sharks’ Dan Kelly in retaliation for Kelly’s hit on Tanev (an act of retribution that Willie Desjardins praised after the game). He was paired with Jordan Subban in the first game and Alex Biega in the second game, while Troy Stecher played all of his games with Alex Edler (I don’t mean to rag on Stecher, because I really like Stecher, but that’s certainly not even opportunity). He did still manage a 52.5 percent Corsi-for percentage at even strength despite starting 44 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone, but that wasn’t enough to save him. And so, on waivers he went, and he ends up Utica.

Any way you slice it, that’s good news for the Comets, as he played very important roles in Utica during the time he spent there last season and the season before. We should expect to see Pedan log workhorse minutes in the AHL this year, and ideally he should be called up once the Canucks run into injury problems on the back end, particularly on the left side.

Alex Grenier (RW)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
69	16	32	48	50.6%	19:01	2.19

One year ago, I thought that Alex Grenier had an outside shot at cracking the Canucks roster out of training camp. I wasn’t only one either, as he gained plenty of notoriety down the stretch of the 2014-15 season and certainly for his play in the playoffs that year. Even Jim Benning had Grenier at the forefront of his mind when asked about potential training camp dark horses.

Unfortunately, Grenier fell a bit flat at training camp, and strong showings from a pair of teenagers who were in NHL-or-bust territory forced Grenier back to the minors. His year started off respectably and he hit a high point in November when he received his first NHL call up. He made his debut in Winnipeg and was one of the best forwards on the ice that night, putting up four shots and was robbed of a goal by a flukey save. He was unceremoniously sent back to the minors following the game, and suddenly seemed to hit a wall.

Grenier went stone cold, going accruing multiple lengthy goal and point droughts. At one point he went 17 games without a goal, and failed to collect a point in the entire month of January. He finally found his footing in February and went on to score 10 goals and 29 points in his final 28 games, finishing up as the team leader with 48 points. He earned himself another call up after the trade deadline, when the Canucks were decimated by injuries, but he failed to make much of an impression on a team that could accomplish little more than licking its wounds.

In the coming season, more roster moves should have Grenier on the outside looking in before training camp even starts. That’s an unfortunate place to be for a guy that turns 25 in the first week of September. Grenier is on the verge of being considered AHL depth rather than a prospect, a notion reinforced by the fact that he signed a two-way deal just recently and will require waivers in the fall. His issues will be further compacted by another lackluster preseason in 2016, after which he will have to be pretty impressive in the minors to earn another call up, particularly with the depth additions that Vancouver made in the offseason.

As for his role on the Comets, Grenier will be welcomed back with open arms. Even if he’s destined to spend more time in the minors than the majors, Grenier should see plenty of time in the top six in Utica with first unit power play time to go with it.

Mike Zalewski (C/LW)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
58	16	17	33	61.4%	14:44	2.32

Mike Zalewski had a roller coaster ride of a season. After signing an AHL contract prior to the start of the 2015-16 campaign, Zalewski went from depth forward in Utica in October to playing in the NHL in January. It wasn’t his NHL debut however – that had come nearly two years earlier, playing in the final two games of the 2013-14 NHL season after being signed to an Entry Level Contract as an NCAA free agent.

Zalewski was never considered much of a prospect. At his age, his entry level deal was capped at two years, the first of which was burned by playing in those first two games. He spent the second year in Utica, having a quiet rookie campaign, putting up 12 points in 55 games. Zalewski’s NHL contract was not renewed following the season, but he did manage to finagle an AHL deal with Utica, and in his second year with the team he nearly tripled his point totals while playing just a few extra games, thus earning himself an NHL deal mid-season, as well as a subsequent contract this off-season.

Zalewski fared well in his brief time in the NHL this season, demonstrating that at the very least he could be a useless fourth line replacement centre in the event that injuries crop up again. In Utica, he’s been a bit of a swiss army knife, playing both centre and on the wing. He’s been a depth penalty killer in the past, but his sudden uptick in offence last season bought him some time on the power play.

It’s probably safe to say that Zalewski isn’t going to improve as much this year as he did last season, if he can at least repeat the year he had, he’ll be of great value to the Comets. The acquisitions of veteran free agents will push Zalewski down the lineup a little bit, where he can contribute offensively and be reliable defensive, while situated comfortably in the middle six.

Cole Cassels (C)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
67	2	5	7	33.3%	08:10	0.77

What a difference a year makes. I don’t know how many times that’s been said so far in regards to Cole Cassels, but it’s probably a lot.

Twelve months ago, Cole Cassels was the talk of the town. Coming off of a monstrous final season in the OHL in which he was a major part of the Oshawa General’s Memorial Cup winning side, there was speculation that Cassels could even break camp with the Canucks – or at least he’d be a call up down the road.

That wasn’t in the cards for Cassels though. An abdominal injury suffered part way through the 2014-15 season forced him to rest and rehab when he needed to be adding strength to play against men in the fall. Cassels didn’t have enough time to catch up and thus he started the year behind the eight ball – a position from which he never fully recovered.

It took Cassels 22 games to score his first AHL goal, and things had gotten so bad at that point that the fact that he scored was worthy of its own article. We had hoped that that it might open the floodgates for him, but that wasn’t the case. After 67 games, Cassels had just two goals and seven points to show for his rookie season. He also added another goal in four playoff games.

Much ink has been spilled regarding Cassels’ season, and the prevailing thought is that he wasn’t readily, physically or mentally, for the rigours of a professional hockey season. That’s on him, and now it’s time for him to recover a bit of the goodwill he lost during that abysmal season.

Travis Green still seems to have faith in Cassels and believes that with a good off-season, he can come in and be a main contributor in Utica next year. He certainly looked like a different player during the Young Stars tournament in Penticton, where he was one of the Canucks’ most composed an positionally solid players, adding a goal for good measure.

He didn’t manage to get into an NHL preseason game this year, but he should have a chance at centering one of Utica’s top two lines. A strong first half could go a long way in repairing the damage that his rookie season did to his reputation, and could even earn him a taste of NHL action towards the end of the campaign.

Joe LaBate (LW)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
66	10	10	20	43.9%	12:43	1.43

Joe LaBate was far from a household name when he was playing his rookie season last year in Utica, but he had a solid rookie season. His 10 goals and 10 assists (for a total of 20 points) dwarfed the numbers of fellow rookie Cole Cassels, though he does have age on his side – LaBate is 23 now, having played four years of college hockey at the University of Wisconsin.

LaBate became much better known in Vancouver during the 2016 preseason, in which he was one of the Canucks’ most noticeable players. He even had some wondering if the Canucks might make room for him on the opening roster. That never came to fruition, but it is certainly a possibility that LaBate earned himself enough good will to be a injury call up at some point this season.

Down in Utica, he’ll probably start with bottom six minutes, as the Comets have built themselves a fairly impressive AHL top six. It’s only a matter of time before injuries and call ups force Travis Green to alter his lineup though, and LaBate is a decent bet to take up some available ice time – he even spent some time of the Comets top line last season when the injury situation was particularly dire, and he handled it well. Look for LaBate to match or improve his point totals this year in his second professional season.

Curtis Valk (C)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
12	2	4	6	64.3%	12:00	2.50

Curtis Valk isn’t technically a Canucks prospect, but I like to consider him as such anyways. He’s signed to another American Hockey League deal going into this year, which gives the Comets the opportunity to shuffle him down to the ECHL if they need to make space (recall that players on NHL SPC’s need to give consent to be assigned to the ECHL).

Valk is heading into his third professional season. He was impressive in each of his first two, but a brutal knee injury derailed both of them. Valk started the 2014-15 season in the ECHL, scoring at a torrid pace. He was the ECHL player of the month in October and was elected to go to the ECHL all-star game. But his season lasted just 31 games before the injury shut him down for an astounding eleven months. He returned to the ECHL in the 2015-16 on New Year’s Eve, collecting three points. In mid-January, he made his season debut with the Comets. It took him until his third game to score his first AHL goal, and he finished the season with six points (two goals, four assists) in 12 games over several different call ups.

Valk once again appeared at the Canucks development camp in Shawnigan Lake this year, likely so the team could assess how far he’s come in his rehab and conditioning. Evidently they were satisfied (to an extent), as the Comets gave him a minor league deal shortly after that. Valk spent the developmental scrimmage as the white team’s first line centre between Jakob Stukel and top prospect Brock Boeser, while also playing top line minutes at the Young Stars tournament in Penticton.

It’s hard to say exactly where Valk will fit in Utica this season. They are pretty loaded with contracts up front, and given that Valk can be shuttled back and forth to the ECHL, there’s no guarantee that he spends the whole season in Utica, though it appears he will start there. Personally, I hope they give him every opportunity. Despite his tiny stature (he’s listed at 5-foot-9), he seemed to be able to handle the AHL, and demonstrated that he could produce at that level. The knee injury that kept him out for nearly a full calendar year may have robbed him of opportunities for career advancement, and even now it’s hard to consider him a prospect. But watching what this kid has been through and seeing him still come back for more, it’s impossible not to root for him.

Carter Bancks (LW) & Wacey Hamilton (C)

2015-16 Stats

Player	GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
C. Bancks	76	14	25	39	48.6%	15:41	1.96
W. Hamilton	53	8	7	15	45.7%	14:48	1.15

It would seem silly to write two separate entries for these players, given that they basically come as a packaged deal. The two were enemies when they played for opposing clubs in the WHL, but since arriving in Utica in 2014, they’ve been a consistent tandem. Rare is the occasion that head coach Travis Green creates a linemate that doesn’t involve Bancks and Hamilton on the same line. They, along with a revolving door of wingers, are the go to shut down line for the Comets, with Hamilton being fed a massive diet of defensive zone faceoffs. They’re also the Comets routine number one penalty kill unit, and they’re damn good at it. They’re among the main reasons that Utica boasted one of the league’s best penalty kills last season.

Hamilton’s offensive game is still pretty quiet, but Carter Bancks showed a huge uptick in production last season. After tallying 14 points in 57 games in 2014-15, Bancks finished second on the team in 2015-16 with 39 points in 76 games. Bancks was the only player on the Comets to play all 76 games with the Comets last season, and would be a solid candidate for the captaincy, depending on how things shake out for current captain Alex Biega.

I made the mistake last summer of pushing Hamilton and Bancks out of the top 12 on the Utica depth chart – I won’t be so bold as to do that again. Even with a wealth of forwards available to him this season, I can certainly see Travis Green dressing Bancks and Hamilton for nearly every game this season as an energy boosting shut down line. The reckless abandon and relentless forecheck that they display every time they’re on the team is the style of play that Green is trying to instill in his players, so Uticans should expect to see plenty more of these two this year.

Darren Archibald (RW)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
51	10	9	19	49.1%	11:31	1.94

Affectionately known as Archie, Darren Archibald is a fan favourite in Utica. He was signed by Mike Gillis as a CHL free agent in 2010, and made his NHL debut in 2013 with John Tortorella’s Canucks, scoring a goal and adding two assists in 16 games. Following the expiration of his entry level contract, the Comets let Archibald go. He signed a deal with the ECHL Kalamazoo Wings prior to the 2015-16 season, but after a few weeks, the Comets gave him an AHL contract instead, and there he stayed for the remainder of the 2015-16 campaign.

Archibald brings a lot of different things to the bottom six of a lineup. He doesn’t have great puck skills, but he has both size and speed, and he uses them to create havoc and land massive checks. He’s also the usually the first Comet to drop his gloves.

I mentioned recently that Archibald has reached veteran exempt status this year. I also mentioned that in the event that there are too many veterans to fit in the lineup, he’s likely going to be the first to head to the press box. He did have his share of healthy scratches last year, but he’s the type of player that’s just happy to be around – and you know that whenever he gets in the lineup, he’s going to put on a show for the crowd. He’s also reached double digit goals for the fourth AHL consecutive season, showing that he can provide offensive depth as well.

Jordan Subban (D)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
67	11	25	36	52.6%	19:44	1.63

Moving onto the defencemen, we arrive at one of the Comets’ most electrifying players. In his rookie campaign, Jordan Subban was right up with the team leaders, scoring 11 goals and 36 points in 67 games. While offensive numbers have always come easy to him, Subban has spent plenty of time working on the defensive side of the game. An undersized rearguard, Subban’s strength and conditioning has made certain that his size has never been an issue in his own zone. However, his reads and positioning have been troublesome, though the youngest of the Subban brothers is well aware of his limitations and has been working to fix them for some time.

This year, even more will be expected of Subban. Travis Green gave him plenty of offensive opportunities last season, as he spent nearly the entire year running the second power play unit. But the Utica coach is difficult to please when it comes to defensive play, and Subban’s even strength time has been limited and shorthanded opportunities are non existent. If Subban is to improve his game to the point where he is a consideration for an NHL call up, we’ll be able to see it in the way that Green deploys him. If he starts getting more opportunities in other manpower situations, we’ll know that Subban has taken the next step. After that, it’s only a matter of time before they decide to see what he can do at the next level.

Ashton Sautner (D)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
50	4	7	11	48.3%	14:04	0.94

As a free agent signing at the end of the 2014-15 season, Sautner came into last season with considerably less notoriety than Subban. While Subban’s offensive numbers exploded, Sautner was putting together a very impressive rookie season of his own. While his four goals and 11 points in 50 games won’t blow anyone away, they’re still more than Cole Cassels managed to accrue in more games last season.

Sautner’s strengths lay more at the other of the the ice anyways. Despite the fact that he was a rookie, his defensive stability convinced Travis Green to give him plenty of ice time at even strength, and even on the penalty kill. He spent a lot of time in Utica’s top four, paired with high minute defenders like Taylor Fedun and Andrey Pedan. We’ll be looking for more of that this season, as Sautner strives to establish himself as a reliable shutdown defender at the professional levle.

Evan McEneny (D)

2015-16 Stats

GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
2	0	0	0	0.0%	15:00	0.00

Evan McEneny was signed by the Canucks as a CHL free agent in 2012 as an 18-year old. He had gone undrafted after missing all but two games that year with an injury, but at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, along his an intriguing skill set, that previous Canucks regime was impressed enough to give him an NHL contract as an 18-year old.

McEneny played just two games with the Comets last season before being sent down to Kalamazoo of the ECHL, where he suffered a long term injury. Following his recovery, he remained there for the rest of the season, scoring one goal and 25 points in 35 games – modest production for a rookie professional season even in the East Coast League.

Heading in to his second professional season, McEneny will no doubt be looking to stick in the AHL instead. He showed some offensive promise in junior, scoring 87 points in 129 games in his final two seasons in the OHL. With Tom Nilsson still on the shelf, it doesn’t seem like the Comets will be in a rush to cut any more defencemen, so McEneny will just have to fight for a spot in the opening lineup for now.

John Negrin (D) & David Shields (D)

2015-16 Stats

Player	GP	G	A	P	GF% (5v5)	eTOI	eP60
J. Negrin	58	1	10	11	41.3%	17:12	0.66
D. Shields	32	3	7	10	58.8%	15:26	1.22

John Negrin and David Shields are a pair of defencemen used mostly in depth roles in Utica, though both had to occasionally take on extra minutes in higher pairings last season when both the Canucks and Comets were decimated by injury.

Negrin has spent the last three seasons with the Comets, and a has seen time in the ECHL as recently as 2014-15. The Comets struggled in terms of possession when he was on the ice last season. Part of that could be because he was playing above his abilities – he spent a lot of time partnered with Taylor Fedun later in the season, who was more heavily deployed than Negrin was likely used to. This season, the depth on defence in Utica should keep Negrin further down the lineup, which should be best for everyone.

David Shields was brought in as a free agent midway though last season when the Comets were struggling to ice a lineup, after starting the season in Adirondack on the ECHL. A former sixth round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues (2009, 168th overall), Shields has spent more time the AHL than the ECHL during his professional career.

Despite being deployed as a depth blueliner last year, Shields had decent number in terms of both production and possession. As a right shot defenceman, he has a good chance at sticking on the bottom pairing (behind Stecher and Subban) to start the year, the only other right hander, Tom Nilsson, remains out with an injury.

Richard Bachman (G)

2015-16 Stats

GP	Record	GAA	Sv %
35	17-12-3	2.75	.900

Richard Bachman split starts with Joe Cannata for the majority of last season, and while he certainly had worse numbers (and a greater penchant for cringe-worthy goals), Bachman was the choice to stay with the Canucks organization due more to contractual factors than anything else. Granted, the fact that he has NHL experience is also a valuable asset, since his main duty this season, aside from stopping pucks, will be to mentor top prospect Thatcher Demko, who is set to start his rookie season in the American League.

Bachman is also tabbed as the third string goaltender in the Canucks organization, and will be the first to receive a call up if either Ryan Miller or Jacob Markstrom go down with injury. Bachman has an 18-14-2 record in 31 starts and 42 appearances in the NHL, with 2.93 goals against average, and a .904 save percentage.

That concludes the list of returnees for the 2016-17 Utica Comets season. Next up is the new faces in the organization. I’ll cover who’s new in Utica, and what we can expect from them.