Demko best of the bunch in Utica
Comets could be team to watch next season, Dobson would look good as a Canuck and more
After five fun-filled days in Utica, the Paris of central New York, we come crashing back to the real world with the musings and meditations on the world of sports:
■ I cut my teeth in this business in a slightly different era, when coaches didn’t speak from podiums, when a scrum was you, another guy and maybe a radio guy and you could have real conversations with real people.
Times have changed, but the 10 days I spent covering the Utica Comets was a reminder of how things were. That said, I was there largely to report on the progress of the Canucks’ prospects and that was its own kind of interesting.
A couple of broad impressions. Goalie Thatcher Demko is the best prospect on the team by a considerable margin. The way things now stand he’ll likely play the bulk of next season in Utica, but squeeze in 10 or 15 games with the Canucks at various points. That, of course, is subject to such variables as the health of the other goalies and Anders Nilsson’s save percentage, but Demko doesn’t turn 23 until December and has time on his side.
It will be something similar for Jonathan Dahlen and likely Lukas Jasek. Nikolay Goldobin is at the crossroads of his career and needs to establish himself as a full-time NHLer next season. If he does — and with his skill set that means in the neighbourhood of 20 goals and 40 points — it’s a massive win for the organization.
If he doesn’t, the Canucks have other options.
Reid Boucher is an all-star at the American Hockey League level, but turns 25 in September. You’d like to see him get a shot somewhere, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll work as a bottom-six forward in Vancouver.
Of the young defencemen in Utica, Jalen Chatfield is the most intriguing. He isn’t the slickest puckhandler, but he’s adequate in that department and plays a fast, hard game. In his first year of pro, he was also playing top-pairing minutes against the Toronto Marlies. We’ll likely see him for games in Vancouver next season.
Add it all up and the Comets’ lineup next year might, we stress might, feature Demko in goal; Chatfield, Ashton Sautner, Guillaume Brisebois and Olli Juolevi on defence; and Dahlen, Jasek, Kole Lind, Jonah Gadjovich, Zack MacEwen and maybe Adam Gaudette up front.
Don’t know where they’ll all end up, but you’ll want to stick around to watch.
■ Dahlen didn’t light up the series with the Marlies, but for a 20-yearold in his first pro playoff series in North America, he didn’t look out of place. Skill isn’t the issue with Dahlen. Maturing and adding some strength is, but he’ll play for the Canucks.
The only question is when.
“It was good to play on the small ice,” Dahlen said Sunday after the Comets were eliminated. “You’ve got to play fast. I didn’t think my first game was so good, but the rest of the time I thought I played well.”
■ I still don’t know what the Canucks did to anger the hockey gods, but did you think the draft lottery was going to be any different? The Canucks could have accelerated
the rebuild by a couple of years had the ping-pong balls popped their way and delivered Rasmus Dahlin
As it is, Jim Benning et al are looking at a group of defencemen in the seven spot and the sense here is they’ll take Quebec-leaguer Noah Dobson if they hold onto the pick and he’s available.
Dobson wasn’t rated in the top 10 at the start of the season. He wasn’t even rated in the first round on a lot of boards. But he took a massive step, recording 69 points in 67 games with Acadie-Bathurst, who are now in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final.
At 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, Dobson has an NHL body and projects as a top-pairing, all-situations blue-liner. One scout compared him with Washington’s John Carlson: “He isn’t outstanding in any one area, but he does everything really well.”
■ Does it frost anyone else that the Carolina Hurricanes and their doofus new owner Tom Dundon don’t seem to have a clue and still moved from 11th to second in the draft lottery.
The consensus second pick is Andrei Svechnikov, a potential franchise
forward who scored 40 goals with Barrie in the Ontario Hockey League this season and the Canes just stumbled into him. They’re already talking about moving the pick, which would be perfect, but still not sure if this lottery thing works the way it’s supposed to.
■ Idle question: Does Chuck Fletcher keep his job as the Minnesota Wild’s general manager if he doesn’t lose Alex Tuch and Erik Haula to Las Vegas in the expansion draft?
He’s not the only GM to face some hard questions after their teams were fleeced by the Knights. So far, he’s the only one who has paid with his job.
■ Speaking of GMs, I spent a fair bit of time in Toronto over the last 10 days and I understand the Leafs occupy a different place in the sporting universe than most teams. But even by their lofty standards the amount of angst being generated these days is impressive. Things were just starting to calm down on the Auston Matthews-Mike Babcock front and the mob had moved on from Jake Gardiner when the Leafs announced Lou Lamoriello won’t be back as GM.
This leads to all manner of intrigue
over the succession plan: Boy genius Kyle Dubas, veteran hockey man Mark Hunter, maybe an outsider?
Whatever happens, we say one thing without fear of contradiction: This story won’t be under-reported.
■ And, finally, one of my favourite assignments of the last five years was covering the women’s rugby sevens at the Rio Olympics and Canada’s bronze-medal turn there.
Jen Kish was the captain of that team, a ferocious presence with a non-stop motor who delivered the defining moment of her career in the Olympic tournament. She announced her retirement Monday, just shy of her 30th birthday, after investing more than a decade in the national team program. She’d hope to make it to the 2020 Games, but injuries ended that hope for this warrior.
But she’ll be remembered in her game. Sevens wasn’t an Olympic sport when she started her career, but she built something with her sisters on that team, a world-class program that will endure in her country and around the rugby world.
I can think of worse legacies to leave behind.