The Utica Comets Sign Brendan Woods and Jesse Graham To One-Year AHL Deals

The Utica Comets’ ranks continue to swell as the club announced the signings of forward Brendan Woods and defenceman Jesse Graham to one-year AHL contracts today.

Woods joined the Utica Comets last season on a PTO, (professional tryout) deal before earning an AHL to stick with the club for the remainder of the season. Unfortunately for Woods, he only managed to get into 14 games with the team, picking up two goals and two helpers before suffering a season-ending injury.

The six-foot-four, 209lbs, left-shot, Left-wing/Centreman turned 26 years of age in June and is a veteran of 209 AHL games, split between the Charlotte Checkers and the Utica Comets. He has put up 32 goals and 68 points over that span to go along with 253 minutes spent in the penalty box.

Woods also has seven games of NHL experience with the Carolina Hurricanes, having been drafted by the club in the fifth round of the 2012 NHL draft. He went pointless while up with the big club.

In Jesse Graham, the Comets have added a six-foot, 185lbs, right-shot defender. The 24-year-old was selected by the New York Islanders in the sixth round of the 2012 draft.

Graham has bounced between the ECHL and AHL since the 2013/14 season, spending time with the Florida Everblades and Missouri Mavericks in the ECHL, picking up 41 points in 58 games, while also putting up 70 points in 163 AHL games split between the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and the San Antonio Rampage.

The rearguard spent all of last season with San Antonio, picking up four goals and 21 points in 46 games. That total would have seen him finish second in Comets scoring from the backend last season behind Patrick Wiercioch’s 37.

The Comets depth on the right side of their defence was pretty shallow and this signing will give Trent Cull and his coaching staff another option.

When I spoke with Comets GM, Ryan Johnson at the Canucks Development camp this summer, he stressed to me that he wanted to have depth waiting in Kalamazoo this season who will know their systems and their team culture when they get called up to play. Well, the team would seem to have a pretty solid foundation of depth players to call upon this season rather than having to continually work the phones for players who can be signed to PTO deals.

Stay tuned, as the Comets offseason news continues to trickle in, CanucksArmy will continue to keep you up to date.