Notes

• Tomorrow sees the return of Champion’s League play, the multi-league tournament that takes some of the best teams from some of Europe’s best leagues, and pits them against each other. There are four Canucks prospects currently participating in the tournament.
• The Comets kick off their season with a pair of games in Toronto against the Marlies. The Comets could be a powerhouse this season (as I suggested back in July, but with a few changes following some surprises at training camp), and if you get a chance to watch them, I’d jump at the opportunity.AHL Live is one option. The price is exorbitant, but the product is pretty decent, save for some arenas that seem to be using potatoes as cameras. We’ll see if they’ve updated those with all the other renovations they did to the newly renamed Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium (I want that on a t-shirt).
  The other option is onhockey.tv, which streams all manner of games for free, but doesn’t have the benefit of archived games: it’s live, or nothing.
• Speaking of onhockey.tv, if you’ve been using that site to watch CHL games, you’ll be out of luck this year. Evidently they were pulling streams from Kodi’s Made in Canada add-on, which has gone private. Essentially, there’s no more free CHL. Buck up for WHL/OHL/QMJHL Live, or you’ll mostly be stuck with highlights.
• NCAA prospects Adam Gaudette and Will Lockwood kicked off their seasons last weekend with some exhibition games. You may have noticed Gaudette’s Gaudly two-goal, two-assist performance. I’m enormously excited for this kid this season and I think he could be one of the best players in the NCAA. Unfortunately, he won’t always be going up against goalies from Canadian Universities, so I’m not sure how long that 4.0 points per game average will last.
• Speaking of American players, I still don’t know what the deal is with Jack Rathbone. The young defenceman is expected to play in both the USHL and the US High School system next season. His USHL team, the Youngstown Phantoms, begin their season on October 7th, which is later this week. Dexter High School doesn’t start until November 29th, which is an awful long ways away. I envision a scenario in which Rathbone starts playing Youngstown, goes home for his high school season, and returns to Youngstown when the high school season is over. If that’s the case, Rathbone could get started later this week. He was not listed on the Phantoms’ pre-season roster. I see what I can get confirmed.
• Speaking of mysteries, I mentioned last week that Dmitry Zhukenov had become this year’s Lukas Jasek, so far as that I didn’t know which league he’d be playing in week to week. I published an update noting that he’d reappeared in the KHL and played a game with Avangard Omsk. He hasn’t played another game since, and he hasn’t played for their MHL affiliate either. Our best guess is that he’s been a healthy scratch, which is unfortunate.