New Jersey Prospect Update: New Coach, Same Results for Hapless Comets

After a 2-0 shutout loss on Saturday, the Comets fell to 0-10-1-2 on the season. In the immortal words of John Lovitz’s character the Critic, “It stinks.” When will the bleeding stop?

Apparently, it wasn’t the coach.

The Utica Comets have scored a league-worst 21 goals in its 13 games so far this season and their 53 goals against is by far the worst in the North Division. Seamus Casey is tied for the team lead in points with nine and he missed a quarter of the team’s games when he was recalled with the big club.

So, what’s wrong?

For one, many of the veterans are under performing. Max Willman, by example, has dropped from 22 points in 33 games last season to 3 in 13. Most of the prospects other than Seamus Casey have been struggling to produce. Most notably, after eight pointless games Josh Filmon has been demoted to the Adirondack Thunder, where he finally picked up a point, an assist, in three ECHL games.

What is there to say about the goaltending? Neither Daws nor Poulter seem able to take the reins and have combined for a 3.87 GAA and .863 SV%. That simply will not do.

There have been few bright spots other than the aforementioned Casey. Nolan Foote is having a strong season sharing the team lead in points with Casey. Brian Halonen leads the team in goals with five. Adam Beckman has also been solid in his eight games this season.

None of that has amounted to the team’s first win. Hopefully, that changes soon.

Around the Pool

• Russian winger Arseni Gritsyuk has hit a bit of a cold spell and now sits at 22 points in 28 games. During this dry period, Gritsyuk has fallen five points behind KHL leader and ex-Devil Nikita Gusev, but is still projected to set personal career highs in goals and points.
• Power forward Herman Traff continues to produce and has now recorded six points in ten games for HV71 of the SHL. Taking into account Traff’s age and the toughness of his league, Dobber’s model puts Traff at a PNHLe of 70, which is that of a potential future first line forward. This is not to say Traff will reach that potential and ten games is a minuscule sample size, but the trend is encouraging.
• Daniel Amola wrote this article for the Hockey Writers of his Top 10 Devils prospects for this season. It’s an interesting take. Though he’s leading the Comets in goals, I’m not so sure I’d include 25 year-old Brian Halonen on it. As an aside, Halonen and Foote have combined for approximately 43% of all of Utica’s goals in the first ten games.
• Goaltender and 2024 draft pick Veeti Louhivaara still has not played this season.
• Center and Kelowna Rockets captain Max Graham has been quietly putting together a strong season. Known for his fisticuffs and physical play, Graham has been on a near point-per-game pace all season and, as of Saturday, had twelve points in thirteen games. While the point totals are not explosive for a double-overager in the WHL, they are still better than Chase Stillman’s double overager season and demonstrate Graham’s offensive growth for a player whose pathway to the NHL would be primarily through his toughness. As with fellow double-overager Matyas Melovsky, I would expect Graham to earn an ELC this summer. Here’s Graham outskating a defender to crash the net for a goal earlier this season.

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