RALEIGH, NC – The Carolina Hurricanes teased their fans by make a run at the playoffs by having a late season surge despite the Canes being the worst team in the league in the first half of the season. Carolina has several needs come draft day and look to rebuild a team that could surprise people and get back to the playoffs like they did last in 2009. The Hurricanes were 13th in offense, 26th on defense, 22nd on the power play, 19th on the penalty kill, and 25th on face-offs. Most of the team’s offense came from the left wing and center positions. The Canes had one player with 30 goals (Jussi Jokinen) three players with more than 20, and five players with over 10. Most of the team’s free agents are on the blueline (four), next season most of the teams free agents will come from the forward positions (six). The team has a ton of needs heading into the draft so no one position is out of the question except for goaltending which Cam Ward holds the fort.
The two biggest needs are on right wing and defense. Despite the Canes poor defensive play getting RW’s through the draft and free agency should be how the team will go in the off-season.
Jamie McBain is the club’s top hope on the blueline, and Brett Carson could be on the blueline starting next season with so many openings up for grabs. Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, and Zac Dalpe will have the upper hand of making the team up front.
Cam Ward is the past, present and future in the Hurricanes. There is no doubt the Hurricanes would like for Justin Peters push Ward but that’s not likely to happen, but you never know. The team could use more depth in goal but they do have Mike Murphy in the system and could make a name for himself in camp.
The Canes are known for taking North American players. They could go to Long Beach, Ca for a right wing prospect in Emerson Etem , who scored 37 goals for Medicine Hat (WHL) this year, or Nino Niederreiter who scored 36 for Portland (WHL). Director of NHL Central Scouting, E.J. McGuire, had this to say about Niederreiter and Etem, first on Niederreiter.
“Plays in Portland but showed the world how good he could be in the (World Junior Championship) playing for the Swiss National Team. And after that tournament he kept getting better. He’s shifty, he’s skilled, he has a good stride and he loves battling in the corner.”
On Etem.
“A 37-goal scorer with a good Medicine Hat team. He handles the puck so well at full speed. His crouch style belies his 6-foot stature. He looks smaller out there on the ice, but he’s not small in productiveness. How about this — he moved from Long Beach to Minnesota’s Shattuck-St. Mary’s to Medicine Hat, Alberta, all in the space of three developmental junior years.”
Carolina won’t get a bad player either way they go but if the team had its druthers you can bet that they’d love to have Brett Connelly (Prince George) fall to them should teams be scared away by his injury issues that kept him out of hockey almost all of last season. In our mock draft we think Connelly is too good to fall all the way to the seventh spot so expect to hear the following announcement come draft day.
“With the seventh pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Carolina Hurricanes select, from the Medicine Hat Tigers, Nino Niederreiter .” To learn more about Nino Niederreiter click on his name.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
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