After a many-year run of sending prospects to the Traverse City tourney, the Hurricanes will switch to the Prospects Showcase which is in Nashville this year and also features teams from the Predators, Capitals and Lightning.
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe takes a look at that roster and what some of the players have to gain from that tourney.
Where are the Canes prospects?
The first thing that jumps out when perusing the roster is the fact that only 10 of the 20 players are actually Canes prospects. The other 12 are invitees. Important to note is that this is a function of who the Canes have drafted and not the size or quality of the their prospect pool. NCAA and players slated to play in Europe do not generally play in the fall rookie tourneys. The NCAA players are already at school, and the European players have also started their training camps far away in Europe. So the low number of players is because the Hurricanes have drafted so many European and NCAA players in the past two drafts.
Who is there?
The list of actual Canes prospects includes first game action for 2019 forward draftees Ryan Suzuki, Jamieson Rees and Blake Murray. The tourney also offers a first look at free agent signees defenseman Chase Priskie and forward Jacob Pritchard. Janne Kuokkanen, Jesper Sellgren, Luke Henman, Eetu Luostarinen and Jeremy Helvig round out the group.
A first look at the next wave of defense prospects
The tourney represents a chance to see two of the team’s promising blue line prospects possibly playing together on a pairing. Yesterday’s Daily Cup of Joe highlighted the group of four slightly older and more experienced defensemen who are most likely to compete for the last couple NHL roster spots in October. Jesper Sellgren played well at the AHL level after joining the Checkers late in the season and for the playoffs. Chase Priskie arrives on the scene as a highly-touted NCAA player who some think could be close to NHL ready. In a tourney heavy with 18 and 19 year olds, one would expect Priskie and Sellgren to stand out in this tourney if they are in fact on a fairly fast path to the NHL.
A chance to rise above
After missing the second half of the 2018-19 season, the tourney represents a chance to get back into the swing of things for Janne Kuokkanen. As a veteran rookie tourney player, he should rise above this group. Ryan Suzuki, Jamieson Rees and Eetu Luostarinen are more in the middle age range for this tourney but as players selected in the first half of the draft, one would hope they would rise above the competition and demonstrate that they are closer to the NHL level than this level.
Another look
Of the invitees, two are familiar names who joined the team for the prospect camp after the NHL draft. Returning are goalie Samuel Harvey and defenseman Noel Hoefenmayer. I wrote in some detail about the Hurrianes inviting three goalies to prospect camp despite having enough draftees available to fill the nets. I suggested that given how goalies are often late bloomers visibility and relationships beyond the drafted group could make a lot of sense to sort of build a bigger prospect pool even if non-contractually. So from that group Harvey will now see action in a Hurricanes uniform in September. At 6 foot 1 inch tall, Harvey is slightly undersized by goalie standards today, but does 2-3 inches really make that big of a difference? He is coming off consecutive strong seasons in the QMJHL. The Hurricanes goalie prospect pool is pretty deep, but might the team be at least considering adding one more to the mix? Noel Hoefenmayer is an OHL defenseman with good NHL size and some offensive ability. He is another who after receiving a call back has potentially made an impression.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Of the newcomers via draft and free agent signings, who are you most looking forward to watching?
2) Which players do you think have the most to gain from a strong tourney?
3) What, if anything, do you make of Samuel and Harvey and Noel Hoefenmayer making second appearances with the Canes prospects? Who has information on other invitees?
Go Canes!
1) While not technically a newcomer, I think Sellgren will excel. His success in professional leagues should make him much more advanced than most of the players in this tournament.
2)Luostarinen. He hasn’t played on NA ice. If his game can transfer, then I think he is in that tier after Necas for call-ups.
Helvig could force his way into the AHL with a good showing. As mentioned the goalie pool is deep. I actually think acquiring Reimer and Forsberg could have negative consequences if the youngsters are not handled correctly. It appears both Booth and Helvig will start in the ECHL (or possibly be loaned to other AHL teams). A search of NHL goalies indicates that 5% have played more than one year in the ECHL.
3) I wouldn’t make too much of Harvey being included. Due to the circumstances you mentioned about college and Europe, none of the other goalies were available (Makiniemi and Kochetkov in Europe; Kucharski and LaFontaine in college).
I am intrigued by Pelletier and Lang. Both were among the youngest players available for the draft—in fact Lang will still be 17 at the showcase.
Pelletier has good size and plays a disciplined game based on taking very few penalties.
Lang’s birthday put him one day away from the 2020 draft. He is a right shot, which the Canes still need in the prospect pool. Lang has been one of the Czech’s top scorers in international play.
The three players I am most interested in seeing are Kuokkanen (has he recovered from his injury and can he return to a high level?), and Priskie and Sellgren (they should really dominate.
To me, Kuokk is the player with the most to prove coming back from his injury. I think Suzuki can start to make a strong statement that he should be considered for NHL ice as early as this season if he can have a particularly strong tourney.
Those names are just names to me and I don’t really have an opinion – they must have made an impression in prospect camp, though.
I’m not knowledgeable enough for commenting about most of these guys, but I was wondering what kind of coverage we can expect from the tourney?
What is the latest scoop on Williams (guess), coming /going?
All the games will be streamed on NashvillePredators.com. I will be surprised if there is a Canes-based broadcast.
We’re getting to be in a very interesting situation. Next season, should things go as planned this year, we might only have 1 forward spot (plus a #13) to be filled. So guys like Luostarinen, Geekie, Gauthier, Kuokkanen, and Mattheos are all going to be battling it out next season as well. If Haula re-signs, then things look even more bleak for the prospects. Over-ripening will be the theme for the Checkers.
We’re a little more flexible on defense, assuming one of Faulk or TVR is likely gone after this season. But still, sooner or later these youngsters are going to have to get more NHL time so we can see what we’ve got.
I like that phrase “over-ripening” – it certainly applied to Brown and Poturalski, possibly Carrick as well.
I think this is will be only the second season for Geekie and Mattheos (correct me if I am wrong) and the first for Luostarinen. The pressure is on Gauthier and Kuokk this year, and Geekie and Mattheos next year. And I think it would be absolutely awesome for Gauthier to have a training camp and preseason that tells the team, “you cannot send me back down”. Given his trajectory the past two seasons I think there is a chance he could do just that.
I think the ideal situation is one in which the Hurricanes push far enough above the playoff cut line such that there is some breathing room/margin for error. That is more friendly to having a roster spot that can rotate in AHL call ups and give them meaningful ice time and favorable situations.
In 2018-19, the team was mostly climbing uphill until about the last week of the season. At least in that situation, Brind’Amour showed a strong preference for icing call ups who were ‘high floor’ in that he could trust them. What is not known yet is if this is just an any situation bias for Brind’Amour or if it was driven by having zero margin for error.
Over-ripening is fine, but a team must have some ice time evaluate players at the NHL level otherwise you just become a farm system for the other 30 teams when unknowns hit the waiver wire and someone else decides to gamble on NHL ice time when you could not or just chose not to.
But…having really good depth allows a team to use surpluses to fix a problem area!
A lot of this is also going to be informed by the Williams situation. If he comes back it is going to make the forward corps even more competitive. somebody from Necas, Foegele, McGinn, Martinook, and Wallmark wil have to rotate in/out of the line up. No professional likes to ride the pine.
Ultimately we’re in a pretty good position with our depthg right now and with 6 picks in the top 100 next season (a draft heralded as very deep), we probably have the opportunity to set the team up for several years of good depth. In the end, we can even move some of these guys in draft day deals, etc.