The Utica Comets made some more roster additions and schedule changes
For the Utica Comets and the rest of the American Hockey League, Covid has turned rosters and the schedule upside down. On Monday, the Comets announced roster additions and the makeup dates for games of theirs that were postponed due to the pandemic.
With defenseman Kevin Bahl along with forwards, Nolan Foote and Alexander Holtz recalled to the New Jersey Devils Taxi Squad, and dealing with protocol issues of their own, the Comets recalled four players from the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL. Per https://uticacomets.com those four players are:
- Forward Samuel Laberge
- Forward Tyler Irvine
- Forward Patrick Grasso
- Forward Jordan Kaplan
Laberge and Irvine were recalled to the Comets for the New Year’s Eve game against Lehigh Valley and then returned to Adirondack the next day. Grasso and Kaplan were in the Comets training camp in September and then assigned to Adirondack – neither has played a regular-season game for Utica this season. In twenty-three games played for the Thunder this season, Grasso has ten goals and eight assists. Kaplan has played nineteen games for Adirondack so far this season totaling two goals and eight assists.
The Comets begin a stretch of three games in four days on Wednesday, January 5th in Toronto against the Marlies, so having a full roster is crucial.
Speaking of the Toronto Marlies, the Comets game against them on Wednesday is now starting at 1:00 pm EST instead of 7:00. Other schedule changes announced by the team and the AHL are as follows:
- The December 5th game in Providence against the Bruins that was originally rescheduled to January 10th will now take place on April 30th.
- The game that was supposed to take place in Rochester on December 27th will now happen on April 29th at the Blue Cross Arena.
- The matchup against the Springfield Thunderbirds on December 29th that was postponed will now be made up on February 9th in Springfield.