Photo Credit: Sarah Hobday

Curtis Valk might be the Vancouver Canucks’ most popular prospect that isn’t actually a Vancouver Canucks Prospect. He’s appeared at his share of prospect camps, and, presumably through this Medicine Hat Tiger roots (four games with Willie!), has stayed connected with the team at the ECHL level. Today, he makes the next jump up, heading to the Utica Comets on a loan basis.

Valk, who has no relation to former Canucks forward Garry, played a single game with the Comets last year, picking up no points, shots, or any meaningful statistic in a 3-0 loss to Chicago on November 12th, 2014. 

Beyond that game, the then-21-year-old had a spectacular first year in the ECHL. In 31 games, Valk scored eleven goals and added 19 assists, which gave him the second highest points-per-game pace of any player on the Kalamazoo Wings. He was invited to the ECHL All-Star Game for his efforts, where he picked up two assists.

Unfortunately for Valk, his season came to a crashing halt in February, as he suffered a devastating knee injury that, in a lot of ways, put his chances at career advancement in jeopardy. The injury was bad enough that he missed all of training camp and the first few months of the season, making his 2015/16 debut on New Years Eve.

The early outlook shows that, despite all concepts of common sense, Valk has come out of this major injury as a better player than he was before. In his first five games, Valk has taken sixteen shots on goal, scored two goals and added six assists (two primary, four secondary). The Wings, who are near the bottom of their conference in points percentage and goal differential, are outscoring their opponents when he’s on the ice (57.9% GF), though his powerplay time has influenced that.

While it’s very unlikely that Valk will make it to the NHL, it’s not completely unprecedented. The Toronto Maple Leafs have an example on their roster in the form of Byron Froese; after a hot start to his ECHL season last year, he was brought in on a tryout basis to help Toronto’s AHL affiliate through injury struggles, became one of their top scorers, and ended up becoming an NHL regular less than a year later. Interestingly, Valk’s WHL numbers were better than Froese’s were in Everett and Red Deer, and his “second chance” opportunity comes a year ahead of schedule.

If nothing else, Valk should add a bit of an offensive spark to a Comets roster that has lost it’s last six games. With an average of 2.6 shots per game in the ECHL over the course of his career, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him pick up a few goals with the Comets if he sticks around for a while.