Carolina Hurricanes Draft Nine

The Carolina Hurricanes made nine selections on draft day 2016 and added six forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie. It would be a surprise if any of those draft picks made the Carolina Hurricanes roster to open the 2016 season. Defenseman Jake Bean from the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League was the first selection in the first round, #13 overall, by the Carolina Hurricanes. He is added to the stable of young defenseman on the Hurricanes roster and in their system.

Right Wing Julien Gauthier from the Val-d'Or Foreurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League was the Carolina Hurricanes second pick of the first round at #21. He has the size at 6'4" and 225 pounds that the Carolina Hurricanes lack. Gauthier will make the Carolina Hurricanes roster sooner rather than later.

NHL Draft 2016

The Carolina Hurricanes stockpiled draft picks for the 2016 National Hockey League Draft to the tune of ten picks in the seven round draft with seven of those picks in the first three rounds, three picks in the first 43 and two of those being in the first round. The Hurricanes do not make their first selection until pick #13. An NHL ready player will not be available at that draft position. The Hurricanes could go in any direction.

The Carolina Hurricanes have a "draft the best player available" philosophy but I believe the Hurricanes need offense. The Hurricanes have ranked near the bottom of the league in goals scored for the past couple of seasons and after trading franchise player Eric Staal this season, the Hurricanes need offense. Most NHL experts agree as all of the mock drafts I have seen have the Hurricanes drafting forwards in the first round. The Hurricanes were on the cusp of making the Stanley Cup playoffs last season.

Derek Ryan

The flurry of trades by the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline necessitated some call ups from the Hurricanes American Hockey league affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. One of those call ups was 29 year old center Derek Ryan. Ryan made his National Hockey League debut against the New Jersey Devils. Ryan has toured the globe playing hockey from Spokane, Washington to Canada, Austria, and Sweden before getting into his first NHL game. He has been a scorer at every stop he has made and was the leading scorer (17 goals and 25 assists) with the Checkers when he was recalled.

You do not hear of too many professional athletes making their professional debuts in any sport at 29 years old. It is probably more common in baseball than in any other sport and even then, it is a rarity. Derek Ryan scored a power play goal in his first NHL game and is the oldest player to score a goal in his debut in Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes franchise history according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

I do not know if hockey has a fictional equivalent like the Natural in baseball but Derek Ryan would have to come very close. The Hurricanes could use a feel good story about now especially after trading long time Hurricane and captain Eric Staal and Ryan is off to an excellent start.

The Smoke Has Cleared

The smoke has cleared on the NHL trade deadline and the Carolina Hurricanes were one of the most active teams out there. Hopes for the playoffs this season began to slip away as the Hurricanes have lost four out of five and economic circumstances dictated that the Hurricanes trade a few of their high priced veterans including Captain Eric Staal. Staal, Kris Versteeg, and John-Michael Liles were all unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. Staal was traded to the New York Rangers for Finnish prospect Aleksi Saarela and two draft picks, Versteeg was traded to the Los Angeles Kings for prospect Valentin Zykov and two draft picks, and Liles was traded to the Boston Bruins for prospect Anthony Camara and two draft picks.

The down side to these trades is that the Hurricanes are on the outside looking in at the playoffs for one more season and their fans are waiting for next year one more season. It has been a long playoff drought for the Hurricanes and their fans. The Hurricanes have stockpiled draft picks and payroll so it should make for an interesting next several months.

Make Or Break February

The Hurricanes are in a familiar position as they regroup after the All-Star break. They are on the outside looking in at the playoffs, sitting in tenth position in the standings with 58 points in the Eastern Conference, two points out of a playoff berth. The Hurricanes are close enough to where they could leap frog a couple of teams into sixth place.

The month of February will decide whether the Hurricanes are contenders or pretenders in the race to the Stanley Cup playoffs. They have 13 games in the month of February, eight of those at home. The Hurricanes lost the first game in of the second half to the Calgary Flames 4-1 and rode a four goal first period to a 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets in the second game. The Hurricanes face the Montreal Canadiens this afternoon in the final game of a three game road trip.

If the Hurricanes fall out of the playoff picture, will they be willing to deal at the trade deadline? The most marketable players they have are Eric Staal, who is in a contract year, Jordan Staal, and Kris Versteeg. If it comes to that point, hopefully the Hurricanes would not be willing to deal Justin Faulk or any of their other young talent.

Coming Together

Things seem to be finally coming together for the Carolina Hurricanes under Coach Bill Peters. They finished a solid December with a 4-2 win over the team with the best record in the NHL, the Washington Capitals. The Hurricanes went 8-5-1 in December. The once floundering offense that was only averaging 1.8 goals per game has come to life and scored 41 goals in December bringing their average up to 2.4 goals per games, good for 24th in the league.

Winger Jeff Skinner has rediscovered his scoring touch with a team leading 15 goals, Defenseman Justin Faulk has scored 12 of his 14 goals as the quarterback of the Power Play and leads the team with 30 points, and Victor Rask, Kris Versteeg, and Captain Eric Staal have all been scoring consistently. Goalies Cam Ward and Eddie Lack have been consistent in the net and the Hurricanes have a 16-17-5 record and seventh place in the Metropolitan Division.

The season has not quite reached the halfway point and the playoffs are still a possibility for the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes need to continue their offensive improvement and consistency in their goal tending.

A Winning Streak

The Carolina Hurricanes returned to Raleigh, NC to face the Colorado Avalanche and came away with their third win in a row and they have a winning streak. The Hurricanes only put three goals on the board but I see hope for their offense. They are starting to crash the net and are getting several good scoring chances a game now. Jeff Skinner scored his second goal, Justin Faulk scored his fourth goal on the power play, and Kris Versteeg had two assists, one on a beauty to Victor Rask.

The End Of The Road

The Carolina Hurricanes just finished up a seven game road trip with back-to-back wins and a 4-3 record on the trip. The Hurricanes needed to start strong this season and a 6-6 record and eight points is not what the Hurricanes were looking for. The Hurricanes offense has had a hard time getting started, a problem that seems to have carried over from last season. They are only averaging two goals a game but a lack of offense seems to be malady suffered by many NHL teams. The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers are also only averaging two goals a game with as much offensive firepower as those teams have.

The Hurricanes showed signs of breaking out of this offensive slump against the Islanders in their 3-2 shootout win as Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner repeatedly crashed the net for scoring chances. It paid off on the game tying goal as Jordan Staal made a slick pass to Chris Terry to hit the wide open net and then Defenseman Ron Hainsey got the game winner in the three-on-three.

First Win

The Carolina Hurricanes got their first win of the season while handing the Detroit Red Wings their first loss with a score of 5-3. Rookie Brock McGinn got his first NHL goal in his first NHL shift as he scored the first goal of the game as Carolina jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Hurricanes once again took a 3-2 lead over the Red Wings into the third period but made it hold up this time around.

The Hurricanes set a season high for goals scored as Eric Staal and Kris Versteeg had a goal and two assists and Brock McGinn also added an assist. Justin Faulk had a goal, his second, and has scored a point in all four Hurricanes games this season. This was the start of a seven game road trip for the Hurricanes.

Third Period Unkind

The Third Period has been unkind to the Carolina Hurricanes in their 0-3 start. The Hurricanes gave up three third period goals to the Florida Panthers in a 4-1 loss. Eddie Lack was in goal for the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes offense is struggling to score goals (only five in three games) and they needed to get off to a fast start this season and avoid a repeat of last season's 0-6-2 start.

This is Bill Peters second season as the coach of the Hurricanes. I have to wonder how much leeway that General Manager Ron Francis is going to give him to turn the Hurricanes around. For that matter, I have to wonder how much leeway Francis is going to be given. The Hurricanes still have a good young nucleus of players. Eric Staal is in a contract year, Jeff Skinner has never been able to match his rookie success in large part due to injury, Justin Faulk is starting to come on strong and has a point in each game this season, and this season's top draft pick Noah Hanifin is off to a solid start. It will be interesting to see what kind of personnel moves the Hurricanes will make, front office and players, in the next few weeks.

New Season, Same Start

The Carolina Hurricanes offense is off to a better start this season. The Hurricanes peppered Detroit Red Wings Goalie Petr Mrazek with 47 shots, 12 on the Power Play, while only giving up 19. The problem with that is the Hurricanes only got three goals by Mrazek while the Red Wings slipped four by Hurricanes Goalie Cam Ward.

Hurricanes rookie Defenseman Noah Hanifin got his first professional point when he assisted on the first Hurricanes goal by Victor Rask in the second period. Nathan Gerbe and Justin Faulk scored the other two goals.

The Hurricanes took a 3-2 lead into the third period but could not make it hold up.

This is the beginning of Bill Peters second campaign as the head Coach of the Hurricanes and the Hurricanes can ill afford to get off to an 0-6-2 start like they did last season. Injuries played a major part in last season's start and James Wisniewski's injury in the first game dealt a blow to the Hurricanes experience on the blue line. The Hurricanes recalled Defenseman Danny Biega who has all of ten games of experience in the NHL to take Wisniewski's place on the roster.

A Loss Plus One

The Carolina Hurricanes lost their 2015-16 opener to the Nashville Predators 2-1 but may have suffered an even bigger loss when Defenseman James Wisniewski went down with a serious knee injury 47 seconds into his first season with the Carolina Hurricanes. His estimated recovery time is six months.

The Carolina Hurricanes came into this season looking to improve on last season's goal scoring average which was third worst in the league but were only able to score a goal late in the third period by Captain Eric Staal on an assist by Justin Faulk. The Hurricanes gave up both Nashville goals in the first period as they caught a bad break when Ron Hainsey had to discard his broken stick and the puck shot by Nashville Predator Craig Smith appeared to go off Hainsey's skate blade shortly thereafter. The Hurricanes were also shaky with the puck in their own zone and Cam Ward had to make several difficult saves.

Rookie Defenseman and top draft pick Noah Hanifin made his NHL debut and logged 18 minutes of playing time and zero on the Power Play and only five seconds of time on the short handed unit. The loss of Wisniewski may push Hanifin into more playing time especially on the Hurricanes special teams.

The Rookie Race

The National Hockey League season begins tonight and all eyes will be on the top two draft picks, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres. Their offensive potential has been opening eyes over the past couple of years and will be what fans are wanting to see.

The Carolina Hurricanes top draft pick, number five overall, Defenseman Noah Hanifin has made the team as one of seven Defensemen on the roster coming out of training camp and he is only 18 years old. Offensively, not much will be expected of him as he learns the game of professional hockey but he has a very high upside. He is not a big bruiser but he plays positional defense and is a solid passer from the blueline. He will be under the tutelage of veterans James Wisniewski, who was acquired over the summer, and Justin Faulk. I look for some good things from Hanifin this season.

Fourth Round Pick Nicolas Roy, Center

Nicolas Roy was projected to go anywhere from the end of the first round to the third round. The Hurricanes may have gotten another steal with Roy in the fourth round, #96 overall. Roy is a Center with some size, (6'4", 205 pounds) and he came into the draft as the 45th ranked North American skater. Roy played his last two seasons with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the QMJHL where he posted, solid but not spectacular, numbers.

Curtis Joe of Elite Prospects decribed Roy as being "a big-bodied, imposing presence on the ice."

Chris Lund of mapleleafs.nhl.com said of Roy "a tenacious forechecker" who "consistently wins puck battles with his size and stick." Lund went on to say that Roy "owns a good shot and can distribute the puck effectively." He positions himself well in front of the net.

The criticism of Roy's game is that he is not seen as a strong skater. Lund acknowledged that in his assessment of Roy and said that other player's have overcome not being strong skaters to make it to the NHL and his skating would need to become a priority for him to make it to the NHL.

Fourth Round, Callum Booth, Goalie

The Hurricanes drafted Goalie Callum Booth with their first pick in the fourth round, #93 overall. The Hurricanes may have gotten a steal here. He has nice size, 6'3" and 200 pounds, and he was the second ranked Goalie in North America by most scouting services. There were seven Goalies drafted ahead of him.

Booth played the last two season with the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and posted a 23-12-5 record last season with a 3.05 Goals Against Average.

Ben Kerr of the website thelastwordonsports.com described Booth as being "a bit of a project as he is likely several years away from the NHL." Kerr described his attributes as "he gets out well to cut down angles and gives shooters very little to look at" and that he had "very good rebound control." Al Jensen of NHL Central Scouting said that "he has excellent positional play and net coverage and is strong in all areas."

Among the negatives for Booth is that Kerr does not believe that he will make acrobatic, athletic saves when he is caught out of position and Jensen believes that he can be beat to the high side in spite of his size. It will also be several years before this draft can be evaluated as well.

Sebastian Aho, Second Round Pick

The Carolina Hurricanes selected Finnish Right Wing Sebastian Aho with their Second Round draft pick, #35 overall. I thought this pick was a little bit of a reach for Carolina. Most scouts doubt Aho's offensive upside and with higher ranked wingers Paul Bittner (taken 38th by the Columbus Blue Jackets) and Daniel Sprong (46th by the Pittsburgh Penguins) still on the board, I think the Hurricanes could probably have gotten Aho in a later round. The hockey draft experts had Aho ranked anywhere from the 28th overall prospect down to the 110th but most questioned whether his game could translate to the NHL and its bigger hockey rinks.

Aho played with Karpat and Asaat in Finland's Elite League Liiga last season where he scored four goals and had nine assists in 30 games as a 17 year old. Curtis Joe of Elite Prospects see Aho as being "strong on his skates" with "excellent puck handling ability and finesse." Hockey writer Cole Hamilton on bsndenver.com believed that Aho would go anywhere from the second to the fifth rounds.

Aho is still under contract for one more season to Karpat and so he is a project for the future for the Hurricanes organization. It may be three or four seasons before this pick can be completely evaluated.

Carolina Hurricanes Select Hanifin

Although I wanted the Carolina Hurricanes to go with an offensive player with their first pick, the Hurricanes could not go wrong with Defenseman Noah Hanifin of Boston College. He was considered by many to be the third best overall prospect in a very deep draft and the top defensive prospect. My top pick for the Hurricanes, Lawson Clouse, fell all the way to the eleventh selection to the Florida Panthers.

I look for Hanifin to stay at Boston College for at least one more season and get more playing time under his belt and to get some international experience as well on the United States team at the World junior Championships. I would look for him to be in Carolina's system by the end of next season.

ESPN.com listed Noah Hanifin as one of the players to watch (not named McDavid or Eichel) in the 2015 season because of his size and his advance skill set. They labeled Hanifin as already possibly the best Defenseman in the Hurricanes system (I believe Justin Faulk would have something to say about that) and a really good selection for the Hurricanes.

Mock Draft

My mock NHL Draft
1. Connor McDavid C Edmonton Oilers
2. Jack Eichel C Buffalo Sabres
3. Dylan Strome C Arizona Coyotes
4. Mitch Marner RW Toronto Maple Leafs
5. Lawson Crouse LW Carolina Hurricanes
6. Pavel Zacha C New Jersey Devils
7. Noah Hanifin D Philadelphia Flyers
8. Zach Werenski D Columbus Blue Jackets
9. Kyle Connor C San Jose Sharks
10.Ivan Provorov D Colorado Avalanche

I would like to see more offense in the NHL so my mock draft was heavy on the offense. I do not believe there will be any more Paul Coffey type Defenseman racking up 100 point seasons any more and I would like to see the Hurricanes take Crouse if he's available, then Marner if Crouse is gone, and possibly Hanifin but I want the Hurricanes to think offense first.

Word in the Hockey world is that the Hurricanes might be willing to deal Skinner and Eric Staal and Cam Ward are in the final seasons of their contract. If anyone is dealt tonight I believe Skinner will be the most likely to go. His production has gone down since his Rookie season but he is still a very young player and put into the right system, he could easily regain his scoring touch.

Draft Prospect Mitch Marner

Most of the Hockey World has Dylan Strome and Mitch Marner as interchangeable parts in the upcoming Hockey draft and many have him as the third best overall player behind Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. The X factor is Marner's playmaking ability. He has spent the last two seasons with the London Knight's of the Ontario Hockey league where he posted video game like numbers of 126 points in 63 games including a few five point games.

The biggest knock on Mitch Marner is his size. He only weighs in at 5-10 and 160 pounds. Dan Marr, the Chief Scout of NHL Central Scouting believes Marner "plays bigger than his size and is not afraid to get involved in traffic or battle for pucks." Marner is seen as being strong in all three zones and an underrated defensive player.

Marner's strength is his playmaking ability. Marr describes Marner as having a "high end skill set with puck handling and playmaking ability." Dominic Tiano of the OHL Writers believes that Marner has the "ability to step up his game." He went on to say that Marner "carried the Knights in the absence of Max Domi" when Domi went down during the season with an injury. Curtis Joe of Elite Prospects believes that Marner "makes the players around him better."

The Toronto Maple Leafs own the number four pick in the draft ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes and Marner was born and raised in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill. It will be interesting to see of new Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock will take a chance on a local player of Marner's playmaking abilities or if he will go with Strome or Hanifin to build his foundation on. The Hurricanes could use someone of Marner's playmaking ability but he may not be around by pick number five.

Draft Prospect Noah Hanifin

The chances are that 6-3, 205 pound draft prospect Defenseman Noah Hanifin of Boston College will have already been taken by the time the Hurricanes step to the podium to announce their pick. He is the top rated Defenseman in the draft and he is widely seen as the overall number three prospect behind Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. The Hurricanes could definitely use some help on Defense but they need help now. Hanifin, who recently turned 18, just completed his Freshman year at Boston College and at 17, was the youngest player to ever suit up for BC. He does have the option to return to college for another season or he could finish out his amateur career there.

In an interview with nhl.com Hanifin describes his game as being more "of an offensive defenseman; I like to rely on my skating a lot and rush the puck up the ice." He likes to model his game after Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings and Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks.

His Head Coach at Boston College Jerry York said in an interview with the Boston Herald that he really believed Hanifin's "offense is going to blossom, with his ability to walk the blue line and find open guys. I think his shot will get better." He is seen as a strong skater.

At 6-3 and 205 pounds, Hanifin is not seen as a bruising defender who is going to go out on the ice and lay the opposition to waste. In the same interview with the Boston Herald Colorado Avalanche amateur scout Neil Shea, who coached Hanifin at an early age and is credited by Hanifin with teaching him a lot of how to play defense, believes that Hanifin "defends by angling guys off the puck, using his stick and he's positionally very sound." Hanifin is seen as a player who will make the smart play on defense versus taking unnecessary risks in his own zone.

Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will be the first two players to go in the draft and Hanifin will more than likely go at number three or four but if he does fall to number five, the Hurricanes would not be taking a risk by drafting Hanifin. I do believe it would be a draft pick that would pay more dividends three or four years down the road much like Justin Faulk.