Raleigh, NC- After missing the playoffs in 2017 by six points, the Caroline Hurricanes took a long step back in their quest to make the NHL playoffs this season by 14 points this time around. The club has a new coach and the second pick overall in next month’s NHL Entry Draft after winning one of the top three picks in the lottery. For a team whose needs are many, the second overall pick is a darn good place to start. 
They have a talented roster seemed to finally live up to their potential down the stretch in 2017 and did the same thing this season, only sooner. They boast a solid core of young defensemen, who will no doubt continue to improve, as well as having one of the more exciting wingers in the Eastern Conference in Sebastian Aho.
The bad news is they are a few centers short of being truly competitive. They also will be relied on a former backup goalie in Scott Darling and things did not go well from the start. Teuvo Teravainen was solid as well as Jeff Skinner and Jordan Stall but Stall is not the player he once was.
Ron Francis was relieved of his duties as General Manager and the rumors are starting to swirl of a team blow up of its roster outside of Aho. The NHL Draft should help in a big way. This draft has quite of few quality scoring wingers and the debate for Carolina will be about three players: Andrei Svechnikov, Brady Tkachuk, and Filip Zadina.
Zadina and Svechnikov are pure goal scorers with a ton of skill, where Tkachuk is more like his father Keith who was a very good power forward. With the need to hit on their pick Carolina will definitely not do a ton of guess work. The Canes need centers but they can’ pass on so many quality wingers. PHN’s mock draft see’s this coming down to one of two players: Svechnikov and Zadina but at the end of the day we expect the Canes to make the following announcement in Dallas.
“With the second overall pick in the 201 NHL Entry Draft, the Carolina Hurricanes select, from the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League, Andrei Svechnikov”.
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