The big news in Canuckville today is the Utica Comets' opportunity to put away the Grand Rapids Griffins and advance to the Calder Cup Final on home ice before a sold-out crowd in Game 6.
TSN1410 will have the game on the radio in the lower mainland this afternoon starting at 3:45 p.m PT. Puck drop's at 4:00.
Thomas Drance has a summary of the five Comets players that he believes have enhanced their reputations the most during Utica's strong playoff run. Click here to take a look—it's one of the more in-depth pieces I've seen on the players' bodies of work through three rounds.
Another interesting bit of news: if Utica makes it through to the final, there's a chance that Cole Cassels could extend his season even farther to see if he can add another championship to his 2015 resume.
If Utica wins AHL semi (up 3-2), VAN will consider adding Cole Cassels. For now, they want him to enjoy Memorial Cup celebration in Oshawa
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 2, 2015That being said, apparently Cassels is a bit banged up after his long junior postseason.
Hearing #Canucks draft pick Cole Cassels has plenty of aches & pains after winning Memorial Cup. Health would play role on if goes to Utica.
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) June 2, 2015Understandable, given the style of game that he plays. If I was him, though, I'd certainly jump at the chance to join the Comets if I was asked. What a great opportunity for him to get his real chance to be exposed to the professional game!
A couple of other player personnel notes from the News1130 desk this morning:
J.P. Barry, who's the agent for Yannick Weber (and also the Sedins, for what it's worth), says he has had preliminary conversations with the Canucks about a new contract for Weber.
Barry says he will resume talks with the #Canucks about contract for Weber post combine/pro meetings.
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) June 2, 2015Barry also represents Mike Santorelli, who's an unrestricted free agent once again this summer.
Barry on if ua Mike Santorelli would resign in VAN :"I'm sure he would - he loved playing for his hometown team." #Canucks
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) June 2, 2015Santorelli was a pretty divisive figure last summer—I remember lots of folks wanting to see him re-signed, though the Canucks didn't seem especially interested in bringing him back.
After a decent first half of the season in Toronto, where he put up 29 points in 57 games, he didn't get much traction in Nashville after his early trade-deadline move with Cody Franson. Santorelli had just 4 points in 22 regular-season games and one goal in the playoffs for the Preds, though his plus-two postseason tally against the Chicago Blackhawks doesn't look too bad.
Santorelli will be turning 30 in December—not a player who would help the Canucks get younger. But he is versatile and he was good on draws when he played with the Canucks, with a 51.3 percent success rate—which dropped to 46.2 percent last season.
I'm not sure that a player who shone under the Tortorella regime is someone we'd want to bring back into our lineup, but he would be relatively inexpensive and he would also bring some speed.
That's a good place to jump to my next tidbit of the day. War on Ice is one of the most widely-used advanced-stats sites on the internet, and they announced yesterday that they're building up their salary and contract database—just in time for free-agent season!
Here's the story of how it came about, and what they're trying to do.
The search function is lightning fast, and the contract info I found when I looked up Santorelli is impressively thorough. Click here to take a look.
I'd like to see the most recent information at the top of the page, rather than the bottom, but I could probably get used to that.
The page does remind me that Santorelli signed for $1.5 million last year—more than the $1.15 cap hit of Brad Richardson. Of course, he only made $550,000 when he played for the Canucks in 2013-14. I wonder what his market value will be this summer, and whether the Canucks would be able to lowball him a bit in order to sign him to a contact they could afford?