Yesterday’s Daily Cup of Joe took an early look at the Carolina Hurricanes salary situation for the 2018-19 season.
One side thing that jumps out from looking at the salary situation is how many slots are open for AHLers as of right now. No doubt, some of those slots will be filled by re-signing free agents or adding a few proven NHLers, but there should be room for a couple rookies to play their way onto the roster.
That segues into today’s Daily Cup of Joe which takes a quick look at organizational depth below the NHL level by position.
If you missed it during the winter or just want to reread them for more Canes content on a slow offseason day, you can find a clickable menu of 15 check ins on Canes prospects who were below the AHL level in 2017-18 in our ‘Midterms’ series HERE.
Goalie
Under Ron Francis, the Carolina Hurricanes stocked a decent goalie prospect pool with draft picks and patience. For 2018-19, the Hurricanes figure to have three prospect goalies who moved up from the Canadian Hockey League manning the nets in the minor leagues. Alex Nedeljkovic, Callum Booth and Jeremy Helvig will enter the season with two, one and zero years of professional experience. Nedeljkovic rebounded and made positive strides in 2017-18 after a tough transition year to the professional ranks in 2016-17. Booth and Helvig are tracking behind Nedeljkovic, but both excelled closing out their Canadian juniors play. Below them are Jack LaFontaine and Eetu Makiniemi who are both a couple paces back development-wise.
At the goalie position, it is more often than not a matter of throwing goalies with AHL experience into the NHL and seeing if they sink or swim. In that regard, the Hurricanes have strength in numbers and a good number of ‘maybes’ right now, but I would not say that NHL help is imminent for 2018-19 or necessarily any time frame on a guaranteed basis.
Prospect Volume=Good; Potential for High-End Help=Who knows; Roster Depth Potential=Good Because of Volume.
Defensemen
Because the Hurricanes hockey community has been raving about the emerging young blue line for a few years now, the assumption sometimes is that the pipeline is chock full of more NHL help. That actually is not true. The majority of the NHL-capable prospects have already matriculated to the NHL level. That combined with a couple defenseman-light drafts has the team’s defense prospect pool a bit depleted currently.
Right side
Roland McKeown is the only somewhat higher-end/near-ready right shot defenseman in the prospect pool right now. A bit farther down the line is 2017 draftee Luke Martin who just finished a strong freshman season at the University of Michigan. Worth noting is that Jaccob Slavin at the NHL level and Jake Bean in the prospect pool have both played a decent amount on the right side despite being left shots and could possibly move across if it became necessary to balance the pairings.
Left side
Jake Bean will take the next step forward when he moves up to the AHL for the 2018-19 season. He maintains every bit of the offensive upside that made him a first-round draft pick, but I think many significantly overrate his NHL-readiness and time table that will not be dictated by his offensive ability but rather by his ability to be at least adequate defensively. Regardless, Bean definitely qualifies as an NHL-capable prospect and is the flag bearer on the left side.
Past the three higher-end blue line prospects highlighted above, the Hurricanes organization includes a number of experienced, veteran AHL defensemen, and a group of later-round draft picks who are mostly early in their development. The true prospect part of the group includes Brendan De Jong (6th round, 2017), Ville Rasanen (7th round, 2017), Noah Carroll (6th round, 2016) and Josh Wesley (4th round, 2014).
Prospect Volume=Low; Potential for High-End Help=Jake Bean is likely all right now; Roster Depth Potential=Decent despite lack of volume with McKeown ready or near-ready and Bean next in line.
Up soon will be part two that takes a similar look at the Carolina Hurricanes’ forward prospect pool that is suddenly high on quantity and with decent potential to yield top half of the roster players too.
What say you Canes fans?
1) On the defensive side of the puck, which prospect(s) are you highest on?
2) Of Alex Nedeljkovic, Callum Booth and Jeremy Helvig, who do you think has the best chance to be an organic difference-maker at the goalie position?
Go Canes!
1) Matt. I am a little surprised you don’t talk more about De Jong. You have stated repeatedly in the past that you look for skating above all else. In your interview with Brandon Rivers he stated: “De Jong’s skating is elite for the WHL level and his stride allows him to activate into the opponent’s zone without dreading that he is giving up an odd-man rush the other way.” He also indicated that De Jong had spent considerable time playing both left and right sides. A 6’5″ d-man who can skate and play either side should be quite a prospect. I realize that elite skating in the WHL is probably only slightly above-average skating in the NHL. Also De Jong has not shown any offensive upside. Still, the size and skill makes him intriguing.
My expectations are high for Luke Martin–who by the way just finished his second year with Michigan. He is big and from everything I hear a solid player who could be NHL ready by 19-20.
2) Helvig seems to thrive on challenges. At one point this season he was in goal for 3 games in less than a 72-hour period (Thursday night, Friday night, and Sunday afternoon). I don’t remember the exact stats, but he saved something like 91 of 96 shots in those 3 games. Plus he had the shutout in last year’s prospect tournament.
Booth also stood out in a short stint with the Checkers. Both are 6’4″ and scouts have used the term “athletic.” Sounds promising.
On defense it appears McKeown is the prospect most likely ready for NHL service. He appeared to be OK from what I saw last year. Doesn’t impress me as a top 4 guy any time soon, but could be useful 5-6 defender. I think Jake Bean has a long way to go to be a NHL player. I was unimpressed with his play at the rookie tournaments and training camp. He has the talent, but reminds me of Ryan Murphy as a guy that gets away with a lot of things in juniors that he will not be able to do in the NHL. Hope he can make the transition to the pro game and this year in the AHL. We will know a lot more next year a this time. Luke Martin is promising. DeJong seems like a project.
Booth and Ned are goalies that have the physical tools, but can they put it together with the technique and mental toughness required to be a goalie in the NHL? Both are a ways away from that level. If a top notch goalie prospect came available the Canes would be wise to pounce. I don’t know much about Helvig.
One thing about Bean is how he improves his team. This was evident two seasons when he was out early with a broken thumb – his team’s results. They turned around immediately and dramatically upon his return to the ice. This suggests to me an intangible – an intangible lacking in Murphy (who he gets compared to a lot) and, indeed, most D-men.
That said, I agree we have limited high-end prospects on the blue line on either side and, dare I say, we may need to again improve that.
As for Ned, he remains wildy inconsistent from game to game. He will pitch shutouts or near-shutouts for a few games and then let in 5 or 6. He completely folded in Game 4 against the Phantoms. He is also small in stature and looks it within the net (but he is very athletic and quick). He improved significantly from his first season. I think it was Chip Alexander who wrote a great post-season article about Ned. Ned has really been working on the mental side of the game and I think that really played a big factor in his improvement. He is starting to make me a believer that he can make it in the NHL.
I was in Charlotte for Booth’s sole AHL start. He was definitely impressive – I think he was pitching a shutout. And then the dam broke in the third and he started getting flustered, and understandably so. He and Ned should have a great competition for top goalie in Charlotte next season – unless we decide to bring in an AHL veteran as teams tend to do.
Very good point about Bean. On a purely talent level there are reasons to draw comparisons to Ryan Murphy perhaps – but the one thing that I’ve read numerous times described about Bean that I NEVER heard about Murphy was that the kid is a leader. He wants to be in the position to help his team and his mindset gives me confidence that he will do whatever it takes to work on the weaknesses in his future pro-game.
Secondly don’t forget he actually played on the WJC team on a ‘shutdown’ pairing. He has proven he is not just an offensive dman at the Junior level but a capable two-way defender. Maybe because of his size his defense wont translate as well into the NHL but I have a lot of faith that Bean will turn into an everyday NHL defender.
I think it is interesting there were only 4 comments on this post, as interesting and significant as it is. Maybe just Memorial Day weekend??
It’s partly that, partly that we haven’t seen hse guys play so it is hard to comment on them (speaking for myself at least).
You are right, these posts that keep us in touch with the pipeline are one of my favorite reads on this site, the mid-terms, the check ins and all that.
It is much easier to play armchair GMs around known quantities (high level draft picks included).