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Markstrom's new mask & potential AHL call-ups if the Canucks return to play |
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There's something about seeing a brand new Jacob Markstrom mask that makes the idea that hockey's going to come back actually seem real to me.
This is a beauty, too. I love the sleekness of the design, and the tribute to Markstrom's late father on the back. That 50th season logo on the back also suggests to me that he has every intention of using it to finish out the 2019-20 season. Which, of course, is also as long as he's currently under contract; I keep forgetting that part.
We're now at the two-month mark since pro sports was paused and all around the world, leagues are slowly awakening from hibernation. Earlier this week, baseball floated a plan that would see games begin in Arizona at the beginning of July. On Tuesday, MLS teams began to allow players to take part in distanced, voluntary small-group workouts — and the Vancouver Whitecaps had a 100 percent turnout at their facility at UBC.
On Tuesday, The Athletic reported that MLS is aiming to gather all its teams in Orlando by June 1, with a goal of returning to play by June 22.
Here in B.C., of course, amidst our province's careful and cautious approach to starting to re-open, Premier John Horgan got on a call on Tuesday with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss the possibilities of setting up a hockey hub here.
The league continues to keep all its options open — cautioning against committing to dates, schedule formats, or even whether they'll go ahead with the hub city idea. But with new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. continuing to dwindle significantly, I do feel a sense of optimism that while we must proceed cautiously, there will eventually come a time when we can move out of this strange world we've been living in for the last 60 days.
Meanwhile, the NHL's production team continues to crank out new content. On Friday, they'll debut a new show called "Who Wore It Best?" where broadcast personalities from NBC Sports and Sportsnet will debate which player was the best to wear a given jersey number.
I wrote about that for Forbes:
The show is set to run for five weeks — which indicates to me that the NHL is comfortable taking its time on the re-start. My article also includes some thoughts from deputy commissioner Bill Daly, who told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic that the league is currently simply focusing on Phase 2 of its plan, which is getting players back to their NHL cities for small group workouts, and taking things one step at a time from there.
On Tuesday night, Bettman reportedly told a business group in San Jose that he has no intention of not awarding the Stanley Cup this year.
The next two weeks should be very interesting — seeing if B.C. is able to maintain its promising data and if the cautious overtures of the sports world gain more momentum.
As I'm sure you've heard by now, the AHL officially cancelled its 2019-20 season on Monday, leaving the Utica Comets third in the North Division with a record of 34-22-3-2 for 73 points in 61 games. They were on track for a return to the postseason after finishing sixth in the division in 2018-19 and at the time of the pause, they were third in the AHL in goals scored, tied for 16th in the middle of the pack in goals against, fourth overall on the power play and 22nd on the penalty kill.
Reid Boucher, now 26, finished second in league scoring with 67 points in just 53 games — surpassing his previous high of 62 points in 56 games from last season. Rookie Brogan Rafferty finished third in scoring by defensemen with 45 points in 57 games, and Michael DiPietro led all rookie goaltenders in wins as he amassed a 21-11-2 record with a .908 save percentage, 2.79 GAA, and one shutout in more than 2,000 minutes of game action — the ninth-busiest goaltender in the entire league.
Those numbers are in the same general ballpark as Thatcher Demko's first year in Utica. In 2016-17, Demko went 22-17-1 with a .907 save percentage and 2.68 GAA. But age-wise, DiPietro is a year ahead on the development curve. Coming out of college, Demko was 21 when he joined the Comets, turning 22 in December of his first pro season. DiPietro played this season as a 20-year-old. He'll turn 21 next month.
I remain optimistic that he's on track for an NHL career. And to bring up a point that we haven't discussed for many months — DiPietro's in the perfect spot to step into the Canucks' backup job in 2021-22 if Vancouver ends up losing a goalie in the Seattle expansion draft.
I imagine DiPietro would also be a part of the Canucks' taxi squad if/when NHL play resumes. Again, with no definites determined yet in the return-to-play plan, there seems to be a sense that teams would carry an extra 7-10 players into their bubble to make sure that they had enough men on deck to handle potential injuries.
DiPietro outplayed the more experienced Zane McIntyre by a pretty good margin in Utica this year, and of course the Canucks also still have Louis Domingue under contract after they brought him in at the trade deadline to help out while the now-healthy Markstrom was injured.
The Canucks' roster of skaters would also presumably be augmented by the returns of Chris Tanev, Micheal Ferland and Josh Leivo, who were all injured when the season was paused. I haven't heard any updates on Leivo's recovery from the broken kneecap he suffered in December, but I seem to recall that Jim Benning thought he might be ready for the playoffs in April. So I'll assume he's also good to go.
Obvious first-tier call-ups from Utica could include Boucher, Sven Baertschi, Justin Bailey and Tyler Graovac, who re-joined the Comets in late February after suffering a lower-body injury when he was up with the Canucks in early December. I wonder if Nikolay Goldobin would be willing to make the trip back to North America — or if the Canucks would prefer to go with a younger forward prospect who's still in the organization, like Kole Lind or Lukas Jasek?
On the back end, Rafferty's production has been impressive but questions were starting to bubble up about his defensive skills as the season wore on. I would think the more experienced Ashton Sautner, Guillaume Brisebois and perhaps even Jalen Chatfield might have the edge. Do you think they'd give Olli Juolevi a look?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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