Guillaume Brisebois is the youngest of this group, but he is currently the only CHL defensive prospect that is signed to an NHL entry level contract. While he hasn’t produced as much offensively as the other two, his game is more structured and contains less holes, which could make his transition to professional hockey a little easier to digest.

The Canucks currently have two prospects playing over in Europe (not including 26-year old Swedish star Anton Rödin), and both will see their seasons come to an end relatively soon. Nikita Tryamkin is already competing in the KHL playoffs, while Lukas Jasek’s regular season will end in a week or two, depending on where he’s playing (he’s very difficult to track).

In order for an NHL player to participate in the AHL playoffs, they must adhere to the AHL roster deadline, which is at the exact same time as the NHL’s trade deadline – 12:00pm local time on February 29th.

It’s a common tactic for NHL teams to assign players to their AHL affiliate immediately before the deadline, though never actually send them anywhere – it’s just a paper transaction. As such, these moves are often called “papering down” a player.

Typically you see this with waiver exempt players, but you can also do this with waiver eligible players provided that they have already cleared before the deadline – this is what the Canucks attempted to do with Adam Cracknell on the weekend, before he got claimed by the Oilers.

Last season, the Canucks papered down Adam Clendening, Ronalds Kenins, Alex Biega and Jacob Markstrom, only to immediately call them back up to the NHL. As an added wrinkle, teams are only allowed four non-emergency call ups from their AHL affiliate following the deadline, and these paper transactions will count against those recalls.

This season however, the Canucks neglected to paper any of their non players to the AHL for the deadline, essentially preventing any of them from joining the Comets for the rest of the season. They had the option of doing so with three players: Markus Granlund, Ben Hutton, Bo Horvat, all of whom are waiver exempt.

While Horvat is an established NHLer, a case could have been made for assigning the other two. Granlund went straight to the big club after being traded for AHLer Hunter Shinkaruk, leaving the Comets short handed in the meantime. He’s played in the AHL this season and would have been quite a useful weapon for a Comets team that is lacking a true number one centre. His AHL numbers are historically similar to Shinkaruk’s, and that goal scoring ability would have been welcome.

Ben Hutton has spent this entire season in the NHL, but that didn’t need to prevent him from playing in the AHL playoffs, similar to what the Toronto Maple Leafs did with Jake Gardiner in 2011-12. Also, like Granlund, Hutton’s position is one that the Comets are lacking skilled depth in. After filling in as a top pairing defender at the NHL level in the absence of Alex Edler, Hutton could certainly step in and log massive minutes on the farm.

Among the group of young players on the Canucks roster, Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann might have gained the greatest benefit from playing in the AHL in the spring. Both have had their schedules cut back by healthy scratches in the name of easing their development.

Unfortunately for them (and especially for the Comets), a trip to Utica was never a real possibility for them. Given their age, being assigned to the AHL was an impossibility (an agreement between the AHL and CHL prevents CHL drafted players from playing in the AHL before their age-20 season). In order to play in the AHL at the end of the year, they would have to have been assigned to their respective junior teams before the deadline, similar to what happened with Mikhail Grigorenko in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Grigorenko began the 2013-14 season in the NHL before joining his junior team, the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL in January, finishing the season there before heading to Rochester of the AHL.

Of course, if the Canucks had elected to send Virtanen and McCann back to junior prior to the deadline, they would not have been able to call them back up until their respective junior teams were out of playoff contention, which obviously wouldn’t be as valuable as staying in the NHL for the balance of the season.

Last season, the Canucks papered down four players, so we know that they are at least aware of their ability to do so. Jacob Markstrom was technically an emergency recall due to the injury to Ryan Miller, but the other three accounted for three of the four available post-deadline call ups.

The situation is a little bit different this year, and that could at least partially account for why Jim Benning neglected to make any paper assignments yesterday. Whereas the Canucks were pushing for a playoff spot last season and preferred to keep their prospects in the minors except in the case of injury, this season the Canucks are floundering and may want to take a look at prospects like Brendan Gaunce, Alex Grenier, Mike Zalewski or Andrey Pedan. With four call ups available to them, and the 23-man roster limit no longer in effect, the Canucks are free to call up these young players whenever they want, needing only to be compliant with the salary cap.

On defence, the amount of junior players that get assigned to Utica might depend on whether Tryamkin is there. Avtomobilist is tied 2-2 in a best of seven series against Metallurg, the second seed in the KHL’s East Conference. If Tryamkin’s team loses the series, his season will be done within a week or so. 

Meanwhile, both Carl Neill and Guillaume Brisebois play for bad teams in the QMJHL. In spite of this, 16 out of the Q’s 18 teams will make the playoffs, so it’s likely that both will be playing playoff hockey come the end of March (as will Dmitry Zhukenov). Each Canucks prospect’s QMJHL teams will be low seeds against strong teams, so their seasons will likely be over in early April. I think there’s a decent chance that Guillaume Brisebois joins the Comets at that point, and maybe Carl Neill as well.

Over in the WHL, Tate Olson’s Prince George Cougars are most likely heading to the playoffs as well, also as a low seed. When his season ends, his opportunity to head to Utica will probably be dependent on their injury situation and who has already been assigned there.

All of this leaves the Comets in a very precarious situation. There are a number of solid defencemen that will be available to them later in the year, as well as an elite goaltending prospect. But what you see is what you get when it comes to Utica’s forward group right now, aside from a crop of ECHL players who haven’t been able to stick for more than a game during call ups. At least the additions of Chris Higgins and Brandon Prust gives them a bit of a veteran presence, and the eventual return of Blair Jones should give them some extra goal scoring punch, as he’s been missing for a large chunk of the season.

The recall of Brendan Gaunce just yesterday adds yet another problem to the mix. Now having lost their two best forwards in a nine day span, who knows if the Comets will even have the strength to make it into the playoffs?

In any case, with the options that are available to the Comets, it seems pretty clear that they are going to be a far cry from the team that went on a run to the Calder Cup final last season. We’ll see how it works out, but at this point it seems that the Canucks’ actions at the deadline have left the Comets hanging – and the crop of reinforcements is looking pretty thin.