First chance to make impression
YOUNG STARS: Canucks brass will be keeping an eye on several intriguing prospects
PENTICTON — It’s a tournament that can set the tone for an entire season.
Ben Hutton used the Young Stars experience a year ago to springboard his way into the Vancouver Canucks top-four on defence.
This weekend, the youngest prospects in the Canucks organization will play three games, all of them will be closely scrutinized by Utica Comets head coach Travis Green, the Canucks’ scouting staff and general manager Jim Benning.
Here are some of the individuals to watch.
TROY STECHER
Internally, the Canucks are, well, downright giddy about Stecher’s potential. They love him. He’s the 22-year-old, right-shot defenceman who can take over a dressing room, oozing leadership characteristics that get old school scouts’ hearts fluttering.
Green has known Stecher for years now, having chosen him as a seventh-round bantam draft pick for his former team, the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks.
“His personality is infectious,” said Green, who is also coaching the Vancouver Young Stars team. "I’ve known him since he was 14. You can tell he has a passion for the game and that’s so important.”
Stecher is listed here at 5-foot-8 and 190 pounds, though at previous camps he’s been called 5-foot-10.
Either way, he’s going to have to overcome his lack of size to earn a role in the pros, and that starts this weekend.
“He can’t sit back, he needs to attack these games,” one insider said.
He’ll be on the Canucks’ top defensive pairing to start with Olli Juolevi.
JORDAN SUBBAN
This is Subban’s fourth Young Stars tournament in Penticton. He needs it to be his best one.
Last year he was dynamic at times. In the first period of the first game, he was paired with Ben Hutton and was the Canucks’ best player.
Believe it or not, his size — 5-foot9 — isn’t the reason the Canucks passed on calling him up last season, even though he led all Utica blue-liners in scoring.
The Canucks see that he’s got a stout build and is impressively strong. They are in love with his shot, too.
But if they aren’t soon convinced he’s better defensively, and more responsible in his own end, he’ll be passed over yet again this season when Vancouver is looking for injury replacements.
MICHAEL CARCONE
In the Canucks’ media package, the team boasts that he finished in the top three in QMJHL scoring last season, “ahead of accomplished and esteemed prospects such as PierreLuc Dubois, who was eventually drafted third overall.”
No pressure living up to that billing, right?
Carcone isn’t letting it get to his head.
“I know I’m kind of an underdog,” Carcone said. “I’ve never been drafted.”
It’s a total fluke Carcone even ended up in the QMJHL. Turns out, his prep school hockey coach knew the head coach in Drummondville and told him he should head over as a walk-on.
“Sure enough, I made the team in Drummondville,” Carcone said.
In his first season, he had two concussions and another injury that limited him to 50 games, in which he put up 41 points.
His second season he exploded offensively. Yes, more so than Dubois, with 89 points.
“Being able to play a full season helped, and so did playing with the same linemates for two years, as well as luck,” Carcone said. “It was about being comfortable, and healthy,”
ASHTON SAUTNER
Like Hutton, Sautner kind of came out of nowhere at this tournament a year ago.
Not really in the organization’s plans, he played well and earned a role with the Comets. He was used sparingly at first, but by the second half of the season he was playing regularly and was in the lineup for playoff games.
In December he was a shocking call-up by the Canucks, though he didn’t play.
He was measured with just nine per cent body fat, but the Canucks think he needs to be stronger to continue to progress.
“His season was a success for me,” Green said. “It took him some time to adjust but he played well.”
TRAVIS GREEN
He’s the coach-in-waiting, and the presumed heir apparent if the front office ever sours on Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins.
Green said Thursday’s practice impressed him. That’s a good thing, because the Canucks are considered one of the weaker teams at this tournament.
“It’s fun for me to see the guys I know, to see how they’ve improved, and then to see the draft picks and see them jump out for me,” Green said.
“It’s the first time some of them are going to get looked at, and for others it’s the first time they’re getting looked at after their first year of pro.
“They have a real good opportunity to make a first impression among your own age group where you’re not going against NHL players.
“It’s an important camp.”