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It appears that the Utica Comets have found their replacement for Michael Garteig. Ivan Kulbakov&#8217;s agent sent out a tweet to let people know that his client has signed a one-year AHL pact with the Comets.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Ivan Kulbakov signs 1 year AHL contract with Vancouver Canucks Organization
&mdash; Dan Milstein-Hockey (@HockeyAgent1) <a href="https://twitter.com/HockeyAgent1/status/1018984720154136576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Kulbakov is a 21-year-old undrafted goaltender out of Belarus who stands six-feet tall and weighs 183lbs. He spent the 2016/17 season in the USHL with the Youngstown Phantoms, getting into 52 games and posting a 1.92 goals-against average and a 0.902 save percentage.
He followed up that very good season by signing a one-year AHL deal with the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL where he only managed to get into eight games. During those eight games, he put up underwhelming numbers with a goals-against average of 3.99 and a save percentage of 0.861.
The rest of his season was spent with the Quad City Mallards of the ECHL where he got into 22 games and posted a slightly better 3.63 goals-against average and 0.902 save percentage.
The parent Vancouver Canucks have had a pretty solid track record when acquiring players out of the USHL. I am unclear at this point if they had any input on this move, but I am going to assume there would have been some communication on the player.
If that is indeed the case, it is possible that the club sees Kulbakov as more than a one-year stopgap player and possibly as somewhat of a project with untapped potential. At just 21-years-old, he is young enough to be worth putting a little time into.
I was expecting the team to add a third goaltender this offseason and now that they have that position under control, I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see another defenceman or two added to the fold as well.

<img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-41483" src="https://canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/10/ridin-the-bus-logo.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="300" />
It appears that the Utica Comets have found their replacement for Michael Garteig. Ivan Kulbakov's agent sent out a tweet to let people know that his client has signed a one-year AHL pact with the Comets.

https://twitter.com/HockeyAgent1/status/1018984720154136576

Kulbakov is a 21-year-old undrafted goaltender out of Belarus who stands six-feet tall and weighs 183lbs. He spent the 2016/17 season in the USHL with the Youngstown Phantoms, getting into 52 games and posting a 1.92 goals-against average and a 0.902 save percentage.

He followed up that very good season by signing a one-year AHL deal with the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL where he only managed to get into eight games. During those eight games, he put up underwhelming numbers with a goals-against average of 3.99 and a save percentage of 0.861.

The rest of his season was spent with the Quad City Mallards of the ECHL where he got into 22 games and posted a slightly better 3.63 goals-against average and 0.902 save percentage.

The parent Vancouver Canucks have had a pretty solid track record when acquiring players out of the USHL. I am unclear at this point if they had any input on this move, but I am going to assume there would have been some communication on the player.

If that is indeed the case, it is possible that the club sees Kulbakov as more than a one-year stopgap player and possibly as somewhat of a project with untapped potential. At just 21-years-old, he is young enough to be worth putting a little time into.

I was expecting the team to add a third goaltender this offseason and now that they have that position under control, I wouldn't be surprised to see another defenceman or two added to the fold as well.

The Utica Comets Sign Goaltender Ivan Kulbakov To One-Year AHL Deal

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