Notes

• The Comets have themselves a triple header this weekend. It’s not a routine situation, but it does happen from time to time in the American League. This might be a blessing in disguise for some Canucks prospects who are having trouble getting in Utica’s lineup so far – Kole Lind and Petrus Palmu have played one game a piece, while Jonah Gadjovich and Lukas Jasek haven’t gotten into any. A three-in-three should give them an opportunity to show what they can do at this level, which is great because the thinking is that Lind and Gadjovich are still on the bubble in terms of returning to their respective junior leagues, where they are eligible to play as overage players. This weekend could be do or die for them, just by virtue of the overabundance of options for Trent Cull at this point.
• The season starts this weekend for Tyler Madden, as he’ll be suiting up for regular season action with the Northeastern Huskies, Adam Gaudette’s old stomping grounds. If you want check him out with your own eyes, just poke around the GoNU website or that of their opponents, Sacred Heart University, and you should be able to find a free live stream.
• Monday to Thursday is going to be excessively boring in most weeks, unless there is a Canucks game going on. The NCAA is predominantly a weekend league, and while the AHL and CHL dabble with weekday games here and there, they mostly get their business done between Friday and Sunday. Most European leagues function like the NHL, with games every two or three games throughout the week. However, the Canucks don’t have nearly as many players there this season, so there isn’t really much to watch out for. You can more or less tune out prospect stuff until the weekend at this rate.
• Each and every year there is a prospect who is unreasonably hard to follow. Two years ago it was Lukas Jasek, who split time between three different Czech leagues as well as the national team. Last season it was Dmitri Zhukenov, who bounced between the KHL and the MHL. This season it is… also Dmitri Zhukenov, who is assuredly somewhere in Russia. Zhukenov is still a member of the Avangard Omsk organization (where new Canucks prospect Artyom Manukyan plays), but was loaned to Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk of the second tier VHL (Supreme Hockey League) to start the season, where he has played one game so far, despite Yugra having played 11 games already. I’m honestly not sure if he’s injured, or has been a healthy scratch, but I can tell you that I have a pathological need to find out, and I will relay the answer to you fine people when I get it.