Here we are only three games into the Hurricanes 2020-21 season and COVID has struck. With a few players officially in COVID protocol and Tuesday’s game canceled, the path forward is uncertain. Anything I have to say about whether the team will play Thursday and the chance that this becomes a longer layoff would just be guessing, so I will instead go a different direction for today’s Daily Cup of Joe.
Without preseason games and training camps, the start of the season was the first real read on where former Canes stood in their new organizations. Aside from checking in on the bigger name former Hurricanes, one thing that jumps out at me is how many recent prospects are filling depth roles, especially at the center position, for other teams. Here is a quick rundown.
Nicolas Roy
After being traded for Erik Haula before the start of the 2019-20, Roy has settled in nicely as a cap-friendly depth center. He split the 2019-20 season between the NHL and AHL but played well in the playoffs and has started the 2020-21 season at the NHL level in a regular role. His offensive production has been modest thus far potentially limiting his ceiling, but Roy seems to be establishing himself as a bottom 6 center.
Lucas Wallmark
After a short stint in Florida after being part of the Vincent Trocheck trade, Wallmark has moved on to Chicago. Reusing a page from the playbook that got him into the NHL when Victor Rask was injured, Wallmark has bumped up to third line center with Jonathan Toews out. With Chicago having some gaps in the lineup right now, Wallmark should receive a decent amount of NHL ice time to establish himself as a regular NHLer.
Eetu Luostarinen
Also part of the trade for Vincent Trocheck, Eetu Luostarinen is still with the Florida Panthers and has at least temporarily seized the third line center slot. He collected his first NHL in the Panthers season-opener with a big two-point night. He is early in the process but least so far has made a nice jump from being a fringe AHL/NHL player to centering a third line at the NHL level.
Janne Kuokkanen
After a couple short auditions at the NHL level with the Hurricanes Kuokkanen was dealt to New Jersey as part of the Sami Vatanen trade. He is currently playing wing for the Devils in the bottom half of their lineup.
Victor Rask
After playing primarily as a third line center with the Hurricanes, Rask landed in a similar role with the Minnesota Wild after being traded for Nino Niederreiter. Though with the departure of Mikko Koivu and Eric Staal, Rask actually started the 2020-21 season centering the Wild’s first line.
Derek Ryan
After taking a ciruitous route through Europe and a couple different minor leagues, Derek Ryan became a great story of determination when he made it to the NHL level with the Hurricanes where he was a third line center. Since joining the Calgary Flames, he has played in a third line center role and more recently as a fourth line center.
Riley Nash
He is from a much earlier prospect class and has been gone awhile now, but Riley Nash is another former Canes prospect who is filling a depth center slot at the NHL level. After leaving the Hurricanes, he initially had a productive couple years with the Boston Bruins before signing with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He is an established NHL depth center at this point in his career.
Brandon Sutter
Sutter is another who departed a long time ago, way back in the Jordan Staal trade with the Penguins. More recently he is playing wing, but he has spent much of his career as a third or fourth line depth center.
Eric Staal
Finally, long-time captain and Hurricanes hero Eric Staal spent the vast majority of his career as the Hurricanes first line center before winding up in Minnesota where he was primarily a second line center. He was traded to the Sabres where he is again a second line center, so not technically a bottom 6 center like the others, but still worth mentioning.
Elias Lindholm
Lindholm spent the vast majority of his time with the Hurricanes at right wing and then started there with the Calgary Flames on the team’s top line. But after two productive seasons at right wing, he is getting a look at center this season and is off to a good start through a couple games.
If one includes Sebastian Aho and Morgan Geekie, that makes 12 Carolina Hurricanes center prospects (only Riley Nash was drafted by another team) at the NHL level. With only 124 center slots NHL-wide, that 10 percent is much more than a fair share.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Did I miss any?
2) Of the younger group (Roy, Wallmark, Kuokkanen, Luostarinen), do you think any will grow to a level that the team regrets letting them go?
Go Canes!
1) The legend McGreg McKegg comes to mind. He wasn’t drafted by the canes, but established himself in the system.
2) Luostarinen has the size/reach and high hockey IQ that could see him break his ceiling. He hasn’t filled out yet though – 180 lbs at 6’3” isn’t enough. If he builds a bit more muscle we may one day regret playing against him.
As with all fringe prospects, most anything can happen or not happen in their development. Sometimes I think the whole “ceiling” concept creates self fulfilling prophecies.
Luostarinen I wouldn’t call a fringe player. Looked good in the few games he had with us, just no room for him with Wallmark on the roster. He lit things up in Finland before the season started, so I think we missed out on him here, gave up too soon.
Lindholm is looking real good, too, in Calgary. I understand a bit why we off-loaded as at the time he didn’t look like a $5M guy here, but certainly looking worth every penny up there. Imagine him centering Aho and TT, or centering Svech. An Aho/TT line and a Lindholm/Svech line would be very tough to play against. Add in Staal for shutdown…….
Of all the players that we have traded or did not re-sign, Lindholm is the only one I regret. The only one. He has produced far more in CGY than he did here but the writing was on the wall his final ceiling when he did everything well, including taking faceoffs. I think this was a culture-thing and he wanted out and/or we needed him to be gone. Too bad.
Not missing the rest of them all that much though Staal found new life in MIN and I’m happy for him.
Lindholm wanted away from Peters, like everyone else, and a new start. He would have been great here. His agent messed up royally by making a big ask and refusing to negotiate. I’m sure he’s happy now that Peters is gone from Calgary, but that trade was not what he had in mind.
Lindholm seemed to take a leap immediately upon getting a fresh start surrounded by scoring talent in Calgary. The Canes did get Dougie Hamilton for him (Hanifin by himself would not have done that), so at least they did not lose him for nothing. But as a right shot center who plays 2-way hockey but can also score, he would have fit really nicely in the 2nd center slot behind Aho. But part of me thinks that he truly needed the change of scenery to emerge such that he might have tracked to being a ‘meh’ 3rd line forward in Raleigh had he stayed.
1. I think you hit them all, but I don’t remember Lindholm playing very much center here with the Canes. I always wondered how he would look centering a line with Skinner on one of his wings – I think that would have been a duo that would have worked well. But lindholm needed to play his natural position with good scorers on his wing.
2. “Eetu, we hardly knew you!”. With a doubt Luostarinen has the highest ceiling of the 4. That said, other than Wallmark when Staal was out, none of these players really had a chance to get much ice time on the Canes, particularly with RBA as coach. So I am glad they are getting that opportunity – from their success in CLT winning the Calder they all showed great promise – but, of course, we had Kuokkanen on the wing here in Raleigh and, as we are currently doing with Geekie, we had placed these centers as 4C (the “curse” of having Staal as a 3C). I am glad to see them all getting the opportunity to show what they can do on NHL ice.
I would’ve tried to retain Roy as a shut down center and trade Jordan Staal to a contending team to create flexibility/cap room (risky move and it could’ve been disastrous, but I think we could’ve sold high on Staal a year or two ago).
Lindholm was a sore loss but Hamilton has been great, so it falls into the “give up something to get something” category.
The Trocheck trade (giving up Walmark and Lusti) looked pretty bad last year. It feels like this season he may figure it out.
Rask and Nino were equally ineffective last season, but it sounds like they’ve both been good so far. Call that trade about even.
1) Bishop if he ever secures an NHL job.
2) I think both Roy and Luostarinen will continue to develop. Though, I thought Wallmark would have a few 45-point seasons, so I am pretty fallible. The thing about both Roy and Luostarinen is that they combine size with being able to think well on the ice. Additionally, Luostarinen is a solid skater (Roy uses his size to compensate for average NHL skating).
At some point, the Canes need to develop a 2C. There are still some good prospects, but consistently moving them for veterans will eventually lead to regret.