With the completion of the Carolina Hurricanes 2016-17 season on Sunday, this week has the usual round of end of season interviews for players and staff. The players did their exit interviews and media availability on Tuesday, and General Manager Ron Francis and Coach Bill Peters did their end of season media availability on Wednesday.
Oftentimes, the formal media availability can be full of pat answers and generalities and light on substance and depth. That actually was not the case on Wednesday. Bill Peters especially was open and in-depth in his responses. His comments offered significant insight into how he sees the team right now and what he thinks needs to happen to push up into the playoffs in 2017-18. Francis was a bit more guarded with some of the usual “will explore all opportunities to improve” type of comments, but he too shared some insight into how he sees the current roster.
I have a set of hand-jotted notes from the press conference and will comment on those. My hope is to follow up with additional comments if I can get/find full video/audio from the press conference and listen again.
Here are a couple highlights that I gleaned and my interpretations/insight into what was said.
The Hurricanes goalie situation
Ron Francis on the goalie situation: The press conference started with Francis being asked a fairly open-ended question on room for improvement. Francis started by stating the team’s rank in goals against and save percentage and followed up by saying that the team “needed to look at and do something about that” and also said something about “the need to dig deeper into our situation.” Later in the press conference Francis said that goalie coach David Marcoux had been told that his contract would not be renewed.
Matt’s comments: Francis acknowledging the goaltending problem is encouraging. Step 1 is recognizing that there is a problem there, and it also shows that he does not have his head in the sand. I was early on the David Marcoux thing last summer. After seeing Anton Khudobin and Eddie Lack both take big steps down in terms of level of play in pre and post-Marcoux seasons, I was ready to just try something different last summer. Nevertheless, moving forward is a step in the right direction. On the day that Peters blasted Eddie Lack, I said that the path to an Eddie Lack buyout had been paved. Unless Francis can include him in part of a package deal for another goalie, I think that is still the case.
Elias Lindholm and Sebastian Aho at the wing position at least for now
Bill Peters on Lindholm and Aho: Peters pretty definitely said that he likes Lindholm’s game better at right wing and that he had him pegged as a top 6 right wing for the 2017-18 season. He went on to say that he thought Sebastian Aho could one-day be a good NHL center but also that he thought it was unfair to push him into that role now. He did not say it as directly as he did for Lindholm, but Peters pretty strongly suggested that he prefers Aho at wing at least to start the 2017-18 season.
Matt’s comments: I agree completely on Lindholm. Lindholm is good enough positionally and responsibility-wise to be an adequate NHL center, but now in multiple short trials, he has never excelled in that role or looked like he had a higher gear moving back to his original position. In addition, the Hurricanes are light at right wing at the NHL level, so he helps balance out the roster. With Peters offering direct answers about what he expected for players roles, I am surprised that none of the media in attendance followed up by asking about Teravainen. He is the the last of the 3 players who mostly played wing last season who could theoretically play center. I view him as better off in the wing position. If Peters agrees that would leave 2 center positions open behind Jordan Staal and Victor Rask. I figure 1 slot gets filled internally with Derek Ryan and Lucas Wallmark as the front-runners and the other slot is a candidate for an external upgrade.
Bill Peters lobbying for more NHL help
Bill Peters on the need for “specific” roles: For me, the most interesting part of the media session was Peters’ straight shooter comments basically asking for a bit more help. He made a comment that the Canes had 7 picks in the first 3 rounds and that he hoped that the team used 3 of those basically implying that he wanted Francis to spend some of those futures to add to the 2017-18 NHL roster. He went on to say that the team needed help with specific roles and that he would make specific name recommendations. A little while later he made a comment to the effect of not wanting to put young players in roles “hoping” they were ready but instead “knowing” they were ready. Francis also noted the 5/6 slots on the blue line as an issue.
Matt’s comments: I am sure that the 2 have had a similar conversation in private, but it was still striking how assertive Peters was in saying that he needed more help at the NHL level. The comment about hoping vs. knowing in terms of young players was made generally, but I interpret that to be commentary about both filling another roster slot or 2 at the forward position with proven players but maybe more significantly, I think it could suggest that Peters does not want to gamble with youth on the third pairing on defense.
The expansion draft
Ron Francis on the potential for the expansion draft to make players available: Francis talked about this in some depth and suggested it could be an avenue to add a player or 2 with teams not wanting to lose a player for nothing.
Matt comments: On March 29, I wrote an article on the expansion draft and suggested that this could be the best avenue to upgrade the goalie position. I continue to think that the Hurricanes could exploit the expansion draft to add a 1A/1B type goalie who is young but with some NHL experience.
Go Canes!
The N&O has the full video, Matt.
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/
Thanks for the heads up. I found audio today too, so I’m actually going to do a part 2 for DCoJ for Friday.
I see 3 objectives this offseason for GMRF. I guess the last one can be broken out into a 4th.
1. Goalie: I think in a perfect scenario that GMRF would like to trade Lack and not have to retain any salary and cap and bring back either another bad contract to make it work or a goalie. Lack has a year left at 2.75M cap hit, which in one situation (buyout) gets paid out 2/3 over two years, or if GMRF has to retain some to move him could be anywhere up to 50% retained this year. To retain at 50% you hold on to 1.375M vs buying out is 1.815 spread over two years or 907,500 a year. Ideally I think if GMRF has to retain this season to move Lack he doesn’t go over 40%. Retaining some salary and cap is slightly better for the organization vs buying him out.
As for options, I would like to see Scott Darling. I kind of have a hunch that LVK will go after Grubauer in Washington as there goalie choice. McPhee drafted Grubauer while he was in Washington… he is also the same GM who traded Filip Forsberg to Nashville for Martin Erat… sooooo, just gonna leave that there. Darling is 28 or 29 and if we can get him signed to a 3-4 year window I think that buys us the right amount of time. Is Ned the guy? He needs at least 2 more years to figure it out, Booth could be but probably needs 2-3 years. I just can’t see the organization parting with Ward at all.
2. Third pair D. I would like to see us resign Dahlbeck and expose him. I would assume he doesn’t get picked and he can fill in as our 7th next season. I would love to see us use 1 spot for the young kids to fight over (Fleury, McKeon, Bean, Carrick, etc, assuming we still have all of them and they don’t get traded out for forward help). And then use the last spot to bring in an experienced Cup winner on D. Think in the lines of a Johnny Oduya, or a Willie Mitchell (he’s retired now) but someone like that who has the ring and is a proven winner on and off the ice, in the locker room, in the community, etc. I realize this can be a difficult task to do because it’s usually hard enough to get players to sign in Carolina let alone a player who is 35, 36, 37, 38, etc years old who knows they only have a few more seasons left in the league and want to sign with a contender for a shot at the cup.
3. Impact Forward: Obviously we know that Colorado is going to blow it up, and they’ve been dangling Duchene and Landeskog for several months now. I think the Canes would prefer to land a center over a winger. I actually think it would be a better fit to go after someone like Tyler Johnson in Tampa. They have a few key RFA’s (Johnson, Palat, Drouin) that will all be tough to resign and fit under the cap, but Johnson is a center. We could get him and sign him to a deal that works for us, vs giving up a lot more to get Duchene and possibly only having him for 2 years before he signs elsewhere. To go after Duchene we would really need to become a true contender in the next two years that he has left on his contract so that we could then extend him.
4. Depth forward(s) I think we have some guys that can very well push for a spot next year and fill some open holes in our bottom 6. I would think GMRF will resign Derek Ryan (maybe to replace McClement) with the possibility of playing some 3rd line. I would think we expose Stemps and he gets taken. That leaves Nordy, possibly Ryan, and blank as a start for the 4th line. Could one of Roy, Gauthier, Kuokannen, grab a spot in the bottom 6? Ideally, I think we would be better also picking up a proven veteran forward, preferably a cup winner to help with the young kids, etc.
I will be shocked if GMRF can pull off all 4 of these things. Ideally I see him grabbing a goalie, a vet on D and some vet depth forward(s) for the bottom 6. I’m not sure if he will be able to swing for the fences and grab a top 6 forward (center) without blowing a hole in the top 4 D. I do expect to see him shop a ton of picks and a few players to hopefully sweeten a deal or two (Murphy is gone, but so could be a McGinn, Di Guiseppe, Fleury, Carrick, Bean, or McKeown etc) to make the right deal.
This team needs a relatively young, legitimate first line player. Not easy to come by, and more likely to wait and see what Aho, Kuokkanen, Saarela, Roy, etc. become before pulling the trigger and throwing a way a bunch of prospects to get one. The goalie situation is the most pressing, obviously. The bottom pairing on defense is not far behind. But the depth on this team is still not good enough. Derek Ryan isn’t. Nordstrom was not this year. Stalberg was one of the few that were and obviously is gone. Look at the teams that are going places in the playoffs. Their depth compared to the Hurricanes.. Not even close. In a few years when those aforementioned prospects are in the NHL that’ll be different, but we could use a couple veteran middle/bottom six forwards as stopgaps while the youngsters get some seasoning. I really like our GM/HC tandem, but Bill knows if he can’t get this team into the playoffs this year his seat is going to be awfully hot. The sad part is, I don’t think it’ll really be his fault considering how much overachieving this team with a severe lack of talent has done the past two seasons.
Actually, trading a few prospects (which the Canes have several of, and few of them will achieve even 3rd line status) for a 1st or 2nd line forward is smart if you can pull it off!!!
RF has tried (what he thought was) the cheap route…it didn’t work AND IT WAS NOT REMOTELY CHEAP… EMPTY SEATS AND PARKING LOTS…ARE EXPENSIVE!!
Another year w/o playoffs…AND Ronnie may not have a job…either ?!!