Yesterday the expansion draft roster freeze deadline came and went pretty quietly for the Carolina Hurricanes but also for the broader NHL. Only a handful of deals happened and really only one (Drouin to Montreal) that I would consider significant both in the big NHL picture and in terms of Francis’ options to build his 2017-18 roster.

But have no fear, we have multiple more rounds of NHL roster movement events and a bunch of calendar time before the puck drops for the 2017-18 season. As I said in my short, post-expansion draft deadline day article with Canes’ upshots, there is no bonus for finishing early, we are still nearly four months from opening day and nearly all of the potential targets for Ron Francis are still in play.

And the Hurricanes did make a significant announcement shortly after the expansion draft roster freeze at 3pm when the team announced that it had signed Penguins’ goalie coach Mike Bales. The move is an interesting one. Bales is coming off a four-year run with increasing responsibility in Pittsburgh. He had a direct role in scouting, drafting and developing Matt Murray who is easily the best young goalie story in the entire NHL right now. And he also helped Marc-Andre Fleury get his career back on track over the past couple years. See below for insight as to why a coach with his track record was suddenly available.

Today’s Sunday Canes Chronicle created specially to pair with an afternoon beer for dads on Father’s Day has a big reading list of external articles that covers all those bases and more as we push deeper into busy season for the off-season.

Hurricanes hire Mike Bales as goalie coach

Jason Mackey at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offered some insight into Mike Bales’ approach in this article from May about his work with Marc-Andre Fleury.

Jason Mackey followed up today with an article that has significant insight into why Mike Bales was suddenly available to the Hurricanes.

Cam Tucker from NBC Sports wrote up the signing of Bales by the Hurricanes.

The 2017 NHL Draft

Mentioned already elsewhere but included again for thoroughness now that the draft is a week away, Steve Kournianos at The Draft Analyst offers draft prospect rankings and profiles that go a big seven rounds deep.

There is a ton of great free reading out there, but if you are a dad with someone who still owes you a Father’s Day present come dinner time and you want to let them off easy price-wise, I am recommending Grant McCagg’s Draft Guide at Recrutes. For $11 (US), you get more than enough 2017 draft prospect coverage to geek out on hockey for the rest of the week. You can order the draft guide HERE. You can also get a free sample with Recrutes’ top 31 rated prospects HERE and Grant McCagg’s write up specifically on the Hurricanes’ draft situation HERE.

Peter Harling from Dobber Prospects posted his final 2017 NHL draft rankings on June 7.

Ryan Kennedy at The Hockey News just put out a fresh (June 16) ranking of the top 120 2017 NHL draft prospects.

Mike G. Morreale at NHL.com goes by position and ranks the top 10 right wings, the top 10 goalies, the top 10 centers, the top 10 left wings and the top 10 defensemen.

Please also bookmark our “Carolina Hurricanes 2017 NHL Draft Central.” This will be home base for draft coverage this week and have a clickable menu of all 2017 NHL Draft coverage articles as they are released. The first batch of articles is up today. Check out our two ‘scouting the QMJHL’ articles featuring ’email interviews with Scott Wheeler from the Toronto Star and Mike Barrett from Dobber Prospects and Future Considerations. Thes articles kick off what will be a busy week of draft coverage at Canes and Coffee.

Carolina Hurricanes news beat

If you missed it earlier this week, Scott Darling created a must-read when he opened up about his personal challenges and journey in The Players’ Tribune.

Tom Gulitti at NHL.com penned an update on retired Hurricanes player Bryan Bickell.

Michael Smith at CarolinaHurricanes.com wrote a cool and very timely article on the scouting and drafting of Sebastian Aho.

If you missed it, the big Hurricanes’ move earlier this week was the re-signing of Teuvo Teravainen. I wrote that up with a couple levels of detail on Teravainen and his new contract at Canes and Coffee.

Go Canes!