After another spin reminiscing about the magical 2018-19 season yesterday, today’s Daily Cup of Joe charts a course forward into training camp.
Below is a series of player quick hitter watch points for the upcoming training camp.
Trevor van Riemsdyk
Trevor van Riemsdyk’s schedule is still a bit of an unknown following shoulder surgery and rehab. But if he returns earlier rather than later, whom he plays with could be worth watching as it could offer insight into what Rod Brind’Amour is thinking and where his head is for building a third pairing for opening night. If he is healthy and ready to go, van Riemsdyk is nearly certain to be half of the third pairing, so ice time and even better chemistry with van Riemsdyk could suggest who the other half will be.
Haydn Fleury
After being a top 10 draft pick, Fleury has made only modest, step-wise progress in his development. Fleury has now logged a decent amount of NHL ice time and at least in terms of playing down it showed when he looked to be a notch above the competition in the AHL. My watch point for Fleury is a higher level of aggressiveness. With the puck, he errs so much on the side of safety and caution that he is prone to chipping pucks out and giving up possession at a high rate and is lacking in terms of any ability to generate offensive situations by pushing pace out from the defensive zone and through the neutral zone. Similarly on defense, his game errs too much on the side of not getting beat. The result is that he has a tendency to sit back, leave gaps and give forwards too much time and space. Fleury avoids big ‘oopses’ in the process but good NHL players are too good at exploiting any amount of time and space they are given.
Sebastian Aho
My first impression of Aho early in the 2018-19 season was that he looked a step or two faster especially in terms of acceleration and also just stronger as a skater. As he gets older, the potential gains for him physically will decrease, but having just turned 22 in July could he realize significant gains physically again for the 2019-20 season? As someone who was a point per game player in 2018-19 and has at least modest upside remaining anyway, hitting yet another gear physically could be a game changer.
Petr Mrazek
Mrazek started ‘meh’ in 2018-19 as a new Hurricanes player, but by the end of the season he was contributing with his play and grew to become a heart and soul player in terms of energy, emotion and vibe. I will be curious to see if he nets a carry over in terms of having the swagger of a true #1 goalie or if will instead need to sort of build a game like he did last season.
Dougie Hamilton
Like Mrazek, Hamilton started slow in 2018-19 as a new Hurricanes player but then caught fire in the second half of the season. For a team that needed a bit of help offensively, Hamilton’s ability to opportunistically be a fourth forward helped boost the offense. He has historically been a slow starter, but I will be watching for crispness in his game that suggests he will be able to find the higher gear in October for the 2019-20 season.
Martin Necas
If Necas starts at right wing at the NHL level as many now expect, I will be watching to see if he looks comfortable and effective in more of an F1 type role on the forecheck where he can mostly just pin his ears back and pursue the puck. He struggled mightily trying to play center at the NHL last fall with just not enough awareness of what to do and where to go when he was in a typical center role as an F3 sitting behind his two wings who were hounding the puck. His skating is a good fit for more of a puck pursuit role, so I will be watching to see if he is effective in this different role.
Andrei Svechnikov
My watch points for Svechnikov are threefold. At a fuzzy level, I will be watching to see if he looks more dynamic. In 2018-19, Svechnikov was productive and reasonably effective, but his fits of dynamic were infrequent. Now in his second year, I am hoping to see a higher gear in that regard. At a more specific level, I will be watching two things. First is to see if he can maintain late season improvements in defending with his feet rather than too much using his stick and picking up too many obstruction penalties. Second, I will be curious to see if he has an changes in approach or tactics on breakaways. For a skilled scorer, he did not seem to have working move for beating goalies when in alone. His best bet was to pick a spot and shoot early which is a strength of his, but ideally he will add some things in terms of being able to finish in close to stay reasonably unpredictable.
What say you Canes fans?
1) What are your thoughts on these players and watch points?
2) Who has other player watch points for training camp?
Go Canes!
One quick thought on Fleury. He seems to have “Ryan Murphy disease”, in that he was rushed to the NHL too quickly. When the game was a little quicker, mistakes are made, and the entire focus from there on is mistake avoidance – which drives more mistakes.
Having watched Fleury play in Charlotte in the Calder Cup playoffs I can tell you that his game was completely different there. He was confident and aggressive. If he can bring that A game at the NHL level he will be fine. He just needs to be himself, as he plays at the AHL level.
To extend ac’s and your comments on Fleury, I think a lot of it is confidence on NHL ice – he has shown flashes of what he is capable of; I remember some strong drives to the net a la Hamilton but I think he is afraid to make a mistake and get pulled as a result. Whereas in CLT he had the full confidence of the coaching staff and played accordingly. The coaching staff has to let him know he can make mistakes and not pay a price for it – that is the only way his potential gets realized. But like ac said – night and day difference between how he plays in CLT and here.
Aho may have ended up a ppg player but the played the last 20 games hurt and his offensive production suffered. The good news – if he stays healthy and simply plays like he did for the majority of last season you will see another 10+ points and everyone will comment on an improved season simply by factoring out the injury. If you had an incremental improvement you are looking at a 100-point season.
I am looking forward to seeing Necas flying down the right wing – he is going to bring an element of speed that the team hasn’t see in anyone. Note – Necas merchandise back up at The Tye.
Speaking of night and day – Svech’s play in the beginning and end of last season. I don’t think he regresses on his ability to defend without relying on the stick. I think that was part of his rookie adjustment early on to the speed of the NHL game. He caught up to that speed. And remembering his goal location charts he shoots and scores from all over the ice, including right in front of the crease. I think he needs to figure out how to play NHL-level goalies close-in – I think that will be part of his progression this season.
To repeat something I said a little while ago, Mrazek’s career has been marked by inconsistent stretches of play. We saw the best of Mrazek and the meh side of Mrazek. We haven’t seen poor play from him – as others have suggested that may be because he has a better defense in front of him than he did with DET and NJ, but there is still the vacillation between good and meh.
My feeling on Fleury “is a work in progress”. His development was rushed his first season and was haphazard under RBA last season. He played only 20 NHL games, with very limited TOI and only 28 more in the AHL last season. He was the 7th dman and a healthy scratch in more games than he played in either league. He has had several conspicuous, ill timed turnovers that are easy to remember. They easily can be used inaccurately to characterize all of his play. With only 87 NHL games under his belt he is still learning the trade. His overall stats package is typical of a young NHL defenseman. He is well short of the 250 games often seen as the needed experience to play the position effectively. During his limited use last season his play steadily improved and blatant faux pas disappeared as the season progressed. Given the solid play in the Calder Cup he is far from being a lost cause.
Looking ahead at the Seattle entry draft, a couple mock drafts have picked Jake Bean as the player they will select. Hopefully Fleury will find his NHL legs, convince Ron Francis his 7th pick in the first round of the 2014 draft was brilliant, and re-draft him instead of Bean.
From what I have personally witnessed, I believe Fleury is a “work in progress” mentally. The physical skills are there.
Whoever steps and plays like a leader – vocal, aggressive, fearless, “balls out” hockey will take the #6 D slot. Wether that is Fleury, Priskie, or someone else, that is what we need.
Goals against sometimes happen so what.
Matt, I agree with many of your points. I believe that we have the best top 4 blue line corps in the NHL. TVR is a very good 1/2 of our third pairing.
I keep hearing the same things over and over about our Haydn. He lacks confidence in the NHL. He is a different player in the AHL. He isn’t horrible.
I will go so far as to say that we should let him compete for the job. But the AHL, the KHL, and the ECHL are chock full of players who fit that description. The step up to the NHL is not a baby step. It is a quantum leap.
I agree that our Haydn is well short of the benchmark 250 NHL games commonly held to be where a d-man should be judged as to whether he is ready for prime time. Many aren’t given that chance. Life isn’t fair. Neither is the NHL.
The proof will be in the pudding. Many of you will hope that our Haydn man’s up and wins the competition. I am beyond hope for our boy.
Looking pretty and skating well doesn’t cut it. Being not horrible doesn’t even come close.
There’s been a lot of focus on Fleury, and rightfully so. This is truly his “put up or shut up” season. I’ve given @pwrlss a hard time about some of his Fleury comments, but he’s not wrong about the NHL not being fair and that Fleury has to prove himself THIS training camp. The competition is just too stiff. Guys like Forsling, Bean, Priskie, Sellgren, and even Lintuniemi are all going to be gunning for the #6 spot. So young Haydn will have to be that guy who is clearly better. Guys like Bean and Priskie have the PPQB ability that he doesn’t….and that’s important going into this season.
Matt’s list is right on par with most of what I’m looking for as well. Svechnikov will have to take that next step so that we have a third, high-end scoring threat. However, there are a couple of other situations that I’ll be watching:
– Which Warren Foegele will we get, the 60 game, middle of the season guy who was an adequate 4th liner, but nothing special, or the guy who started out on fire and then burned again during the playoffs?
– Is Erik Haula full recovered from his knee injury? With a game built significantly on speed, it will have to be. Given some of the clips of his work over the Summer in one of the tournaments, he looks pretty good.
– Can we get end of the season Jordan Staal for a full season? That guy is impressive.
– Jaccob Slavin casually mentioned in one of his interviews that he’s going to look for his offense a bit more this season. If we get defensive wizard Slavin that can pot a few more goals, that would be impressive.
– We know that we cannot avoid the injury bug. Many thought the loss of Staal to injury would have sunk our season. We were fortunate that Wallmark stepped up and performed well. Who will be that next man up from Charlotte should a forward falter. My money’s on an even battle between Gauthier and Geekie. I don’t think we bring up a 4th liner unless it is a 4th liner that goes down.
– Finally, between Williams, McKeown, and Maenalanen, who comes back and when?
I’ll leave it at that.
Yes, but this not just Fleury’s “put up or shut up” season but also for the Canes. No one wants to admit that a 7th overall pick didn’t work out. The faster the club decides that it is time to move on the more return you can get for him. It may already be too late to get anything except for addition by subtraction. I trust that RBA will make that call if necessary before the season – let other guys earn the playing time.
Every pt will matter for the team to make the playoffs.