The first thing that jumped out when I started digging through some of my game notes to find areas for improvement for the Hurricanes under 25 players is how many players fit into this category. The Hurricanes have 11 players under 25 years of age and also 2 more (Justin Faulk and Joakim Nordstrom) who are right at 25. That youth is obviously a good thing.
With the 2016-17 winding down, my thoughts are increasingly turning to the 2017-18 season. My hope is that general manager Ron Francis will make a deal or 2 to boost the roster. But with such a young lineup, there is also significant potential to improve simply from players making strides individually. I will probably do more in-depth player evaluations over the summer, but here are some quick hitters of areas that I see for potential improvement by some of the Hurricanes young players.
Sebastian Aho
For being 19 years old and in his first year in the NHL, he has demonstrated a decent amount of quickness and shiftiness with the puck on his stick. But at his young age, he still lacks the quick acceleration and burst to take 2-4 quick strides in from the blue line with a tiny head start to convert it quickly to a scoring chance. Right now, Aho is still forced often to button hook to buy time instead of making a quick burst to the net. Some improvement will come naturally as he gets older, but he may be able to accelerate the process this summer too.
Phil Di Giuseppe
I have harped on this previously but will also include it here for thoroughness. I really like how Di Giuseppe’s game has evolved to become that of a hard-skating, physical, defensively sound forward. But to be more than a depth forward, Di Giuseppe needs to score more. He has enough skill. I think it is a matter of having a bit more composure with chances to shoot such that he can slow things down just a tiny bit, pick spots instead of just getting the puck on net and start to finish more.
Noah Hanifin
Important to note is that Hanifin has made significant strides in the last quarter of the 2016-17 after being challenged in a top 4 role after Ron Hainsey’s departure. But he still has room to grow in terms of every shift consistency in terms of staying engaged and sorting things out positionally. He can wander a bit in the neutral zone/defensive zone defending the rush and also lose track of things in his own end on occasion. Hanifin like Pesce is also still a work in process in terms of receiving, handling and shooting from the point.
Elias Lindholm
Lindholm’s game has seen strides in multiple areas in the second half or little more of the 2016-17 season. That is incredibly encouraging. And though he has emerged as a strong passer/playmaker, I think there is still room for improvement as a finisher. I think the key is improved shot accuracy. Lindholm seems to miss on a good number of decent scoring chances and could probably boost his goal scoring modestly by simply hitting the net more often.
Brock McGinn
I think he is a bit similar to Di Giuseppe. McGinn brings every shift intensity and consistency in that part of the game. But to be more than a fourth-liner or fringe AHL/NHL player, McGinn needs to score more. He seems to find himself with the puck on his stick at a reasonable rate, but maybe just needs to find a higher gear in terms of finishing.
Ryan Murphy
Murphy’s biggest challenge is sorting things out defensively under duress both in his own end and even more so defending against the rush. He still looks like a deer in the headlights too often when defending a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2.
Brett Pesce
In my opinion, Pesce is the best Hurricanes defenseman in terms of of being sound defensively, but the offensive part of his game is still a work in progress. Even if it never develops, he is still a valuable defenseman as a solid stay-home type. But at only 22 years of age, the part of Pesce’s game with arguably the most upside is his ability to receive, handle and shoot the puck from up top in the offensive zone. His shot could be more accurate, but the other element is the ability to handle the puck and find/create shooting lanes with improved ability to slow things down and assess the options when receiving passes and with improved ability to open shooting lanes with lateral mobility.
Victor Rask
He is never going to be speedy. And he is sound enough in terms of anticipation, positioning and decision-making that he has proven he can be a good NHL player even with his below average wheels. But what if he could find even a slightly higher gear in terms of mobility? What might it do for his game? Rask just turned 24, and I wonder if a summer working the right combination of strength and/or agility type coaches might be able to coax just a bit more acceleration and speed out of him.
Jeff Skinner
How cool is it that he is still in this group and a wily veteran at the same time? Jeff Skinner is always going to be a bit of streaky goal scorer. His streakiness is not uncommon for goal scorers, and I do not think it is such a bad thing. That said, I think there is still 1 notch higher for Skinner in terms of goal scoring if he can make a minor upgrade to his consistency in terms of going to the dirty areas. He has made strides in this area but does still see short stretches where he is quiet for a few games oftentimes because he becomes content playing on the perimeter before he self-corrects back to going where goals happen. And therein lies upside that could see him push up against 40 goals scored.
Jaccob Slavin
Fairly recently, I would have put Slavin in a category with Pesce and Hanifin in terms of having significantly more upside offensively. But in the past 4 weeks or so, Slavin has found a higher gear offensively. He could benefit from having a bigger slap shot to trot out once in awhile when presented with a chance to beat a goalie, but his newfound ability to receive pucks and find or create shooting lanes to get a wrist shot through to the front of the net has been very effective at generating offense collecting assists on rebound, deflection or screened goals. In addition to a more proficient slap shot for occasional use, think Slavin could benefit from a slightly more nasty element defending in front of his own net to move bodies and clear sight lines for his goalie. This is not so much about raw strength but rather an attitude and style of play.
Teuvo Teravainen
Teravainen’s potential improvement is more of the low hanging fruit variety. A bit like the Jeff Skinner of yesteryear, Teravainen has a propensity to try to do too much with the puck on his stick in high risk/low reward situations. Most notably, he too often tries to do much to make an individual play to beat a forechecker or even 2 trying to exit the defensive zone with the puck on his stick. On too many occasions he has coughed the puck over in places where it automatically leads to an odd man rush or uncontested breakaway. He needs to do a better job of assessing risk/reward in these situations. Even if he beats the forechecker with a nifty skating or puck handling move, the reward is simply advancing to the neutral zone which is not enough to justify the risk sometimes.
What say you Canes fans?
Which of these observations do you agree with? Which do you disagree with? Do you see any other areas for improvement as the Hurricanes young roster continues to develop as players?
Go Canes!
Matt. Generally right on with your analysis of the youngsters. I do disagree some on Aho. While he is not McDavid, he showed several times this year the ability to accelerate by a single defender. What I think you are noting is more a stylistic issue–probably from developing in Europe. He seems to think the game in terms of attacking with position rather than attacking with simple speed. I noticed something similar early in the season when he was not scoring goals. It was almost as if he was shooting based on angles and not “ripping it.” When his shot became harder, he started to score. I think his skating style will continue to evolve into a more aggressive offensive weapon.
For both DiGuseppe and McGinn, they need to find scoring. I like both their games, but the talent pool for depth forwards is quickly building. Commenters have already had some good discussion this season about how many new faces will be in the lineup next year. If one or both of DiG andMcGinn can add some offense, then maybe only one or two rookies will play significant games next year. But it isn’t outrageous to believe that Wallmark, Zykov, Saarela, and/or Foegele will win a spot on the first-game roster. I believe it will be at least two with a third up during the first half of the year. And that is presuming that Gauthier, Roy, and Kuokannen are all a year away.
Peace seemed to be more confident during the past month taking shots and even getting around the opposing net. I think both he and Slavin are 35+ point scorers next year.
I think what Teräväinen really needs to improve is his compete level. He could play one-on-one with Aho all summer to learn how to fight for the puck. If TT could get/keep the puck more often in the offensive zone he would have more chances to use his playmaking ability.
Almost every pass TT makes in the D-zone and in the neutral zone is in perfect rythm and leaves the receiving player in the best possible situation to continue the game. Only really good players like Aho can make the most of the extra time and space TT creates with his passing. If the Canes can sign some good forwards, they will automatically get more out of TT too.
Aho should still improve his shooting. He could score so much more if he had a better shot. I wouldn’t expect any huge improvement for Aho during summer because his game is already so complete. Of course he will get better as he gets physically stronger but I’m not expecting him to really change anything in his game.
Your, ctcainiac’s, and finishcold’s comments are all valid and well stated. I would just add that DiGuiseppe and McGinn need to add more “attack the net” into their game. They need to do more than just ‘hustle” and “hit”. I think the coaching staff needs to work with these two, not on mechanics, but on their need to add scoring to their game.
I’m not totally disagreeing with any of the comments above, but RF has to realize that some of the problems/ gaps in the teams skill level need to be addressed, and fixed with new, talented forwards.
The reluctance to use picks, prospects, and players to upgrade this team…hoping all his draft picks will be the answer to his problems, is short-sighted! We need a better forward, or two, and almost everyone (but Ronnie) knows the goalie situation is untenable……