RALEIGH, NC- After missing the NHL playoffs the past nine seasons, the Caroline Hurricanes made a triumphant return to them by going all the way to the Eastern Conference Final. Carolina had a 46-win, 99-point season, and one point better than the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Hurricanes were good enough to make the playoffs as the first wild card team in the Eastern Conference. It was the franchises second best win and point total ever, second only to their Stanley Cup Championship season in
2005-06 was better when they had franchise best 52 wins and 112 points.
Rookie Head Coach and former captain of their championship team, Rod Brind’Amour, who took over for Bill Peters, brought some fun and excitement back to the team. Now that Carolina has found the formula for making the playoffs, it’s up to Brind’Amour and General Manager Don Waddell to do whatever it takes to keep them there and not just be a one hit wonder.
Last year, the Hurricanes had the second overall pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and selected Andrei Svechnikov who went on to have a 20-goal season. Carolina had the league’s 16th ranked offense led by Sebastian Aho with 30 goals. Besides Svechnikov, only Justin Williams, Teuvo Teravainen had 20+ goal seasons. Overall the Hurricanes had 13 players with 10 or more goals.
The news keeps getting better for the Carolina offense. As early as next season the Hurricanes could see top prospect and former first round pick (2017) Martin Necas. This season Necas had 16 goals for the AHL Calder Cup Champion Charlotte Checkers. Janne Kuokanen, a left winger and 2nd round pick in 2016, had 12 goals for the Checkers and could push for a spot in the lineup as well. That same year Carolina selected Julien Gauthier 21st overall in the first round, the second of two first round picks for the Canes.
The first of those two picks was defenseman Jake Bean. He was taken 13th overall and was also a huge part of the Checkers success with 13 goals in 70 games. He is considered the Hurricanes third best prospect. Adam Fox was considered the Canes second best prospect before being traded away to the New York Rangers. That leaves Bean as the only Hurricanes defensive prospect in their list of top 10 prospects.
Carolina has all of their defensemen signed through next season but Justin Faulk and Trevor Van Reimsdyk. Rumors are that Faulk, whose name has come up in trade talks for some time now, could finally be on the move before free agency begins July 1.
With only one defenseman and one left wing prospect who crack Carolina’s top 10 list of prospects, the Canes will most likely look to one or the other position in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. The GM doesn’t have the luxury he once had in previous years where he could draft a top prospect the way he use too, but this is a very deep draft and at the end of the day we see Don Waddell making the following announcement later this week in Vancouver.
“With the 28th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft the Carolina Hurricanes are proud to select, from the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League, Egor Afanasyev.”
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