First and foremost, gratitude today and every day for those who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our country and freedom across the globe.
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe offers a short collection of random Canes notes.
The Charlotte Checkers
With a goal in the second overtime on Sunday night, Morgan Geekie propelled the Charlotte Checkers into the Calder Cup Finals. What is most encouraging from a Hurricanes perspective is how much of the success is driven by true prospects. AHL rosters are always an interesting mix between young prospects and veteran AHLers. The Checkers do have some veterans to balance things out, but the number of players who are 20-22 years old bodes well for this group helping the Hurricanes in the future.
Micheal Ferland
His 2018-19 season was very much a tale of two halves. In roughly the first half of the season, Ferland looked like a very capable top 6 scoring forward who brought a power forward element to a skilled line. Then after a setback due to injury and a new landing place in the lineup, he was incredibly quiet during the second half of the season. After missing time with a recurring injury, he was never really the physical difference-maker in the playoffs either. Along the way, there was speculation about his asking price and fit long-term with the Hurricanes. Despite the fall off in his scoring, I would be interested in re-signing Ferland if term and price are right. His ability to disrupt games physically, be a new NHL policeman as much as is needed and most significantly skate and score on a top line are a rare combination. The burning question is what it takes to re-sign him. I think three years even at a fairly high price is less risky than even a lower price for five years. If he is not re-signed, it will be interesting to see if the Hurricanes add another physical player from outside the organization.
Jake Bean and the ailing power play
I have a half-written article that shares some thoughts for how to improve the power play. At the most basic level, I think the Hurricanes power play fails in that it does not have creative players in positions to distribute the puck and make things happen. The result is a power play full of step-wise, predictable and just a tiny bit slow puck movement instead of puck movement that breaks down the defense and creates grade A scoring chances in the process. I think that begins and ends with not having a true quarterback type who primarily fills the center spot in the umbrella type structure. Justin Faulk is a capable trigger man to receive and shoot the puck, but his strength has never been distributing the puck on the power play. Maybe to a slightly lesser degree, I think the same is true of Dougie Hamilton who is also a capable shooter. Jake Bean is interesting in this regard. He too has a knack for getting shots through and scoring goals from the blue line, but he also possesses more of the skill set of a true power play quarterback. If he takes the next step and is capable enough defensively to hold down a third pairing defense slot for the 2019-20 season, his greatest contribution short-term could be as a play maker on the power play.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Who is tracking the Charlotte Checkers closely and has comments on their success thus far?
2) Where do you stand on Micheal Ferland? If you would re-sign him, what is your maximum for salary and term?
3) Could Jake Bean be a difference-maker on the power play for the 2019-20 season adding a quarterback element that seemed to be missing for most of the 2018-19 season?
Go Canes!
1. Tracking the Checkers from the northeast is hard to do, less a few road games attended, but you can easily see this team has a similar vibe to its parent club. They play for each other with a “next man up” mentality. Having sat behind the bench a few games, you can tell they have fun. Their lines are built with a mix of grind and skill. While not all will be future Hurricanes, some are close to contributing at the NHL level. This organizational depth is special.
2. I think you have to look at Ferland’s ceiling when weighing next contract. Take injury out of the equation, and what is Ferland worth at his best? He just came off a $1.8mil AAV deal scoring 40-pts in back-to-back years. To me that spells 3rd line production, while possessing intangibles (physical/scoring) the team desires. He also wants to be in Raleigh, at least from his own comments. I think his fair market value is somewhere between $3-4mil, which the team may offer closer to $3mil. That said, another team will pony up more, so this may really come down to how badly does Ferland want to stay?
3. Bean has the toolset the big club needs. Question is does the team trust a rookie to save their powerplay? As good as the Canes defense is, much of our stock is cut from the same cloth. They can shoot, play the gaps and drive an up tempo style 5v5, but none of our current backend can quarterback a powerplay and draw a defense to create openings. Teravainen is the only Canes player with playmaking agility to quarterback the powerplay, but that is usually just to gain the zone and even he is best utilized on the half wall. While we need to add one more quality scorer, I don’t think this solves the powerplay. So does the team also deal one of our surplus defenseman to bring in a better powerplay quarterback? I think this may be the answer.
The most intriguing player development in CLT this year is Morgan Geekie’s ascension to 1C. Playing against the league’s best in the Calder Cup playoffs, Geekie is scoring a point per game and coming in close to +1 per game, trailing only his line mate Potsy for both stats. Saraala is playing in his left wing and hasn’t been quite as prolific.
Another surprise is the way Jesper Sellgren has come in on PTO and slotted into the crowded left side on D. With Carrick, Bean, and Fleury already there, Fleury slid over to the right side last night. Despite not playing a regular season game for the Checkers, the team is showing a great deal of confidence in him
Good mention on both names.
I have been a fan of Geekie since his offensive breakout to start the season. I also picked up a Geekie signed cap at the toy drive so I guess I am a true fanboy! 😀
And Sellgren is fun to watch – I think he is better than Bean was at this stage of the career. He is really quick, makes great decisions – had some nice tape-to-tape outlet passes and knows how to score.
But…and this is a good thing…Sellgren is not on a PTO. He was our 6th round draft pick last season. He plays on a Swedish professional league and his season ended. He has one more year left with his Swedish team so if he doesn’t make the Canes in the Fall, unlikely, he will be back in Sweden again next year. But he is an excellent prospect.
tj. Great insights in all you comments. Totally agree that Vellucci is developing both a winning atmosphere and individual skills. The one thing I would point out is that Bean is two days older than Sellgren. So in most senses they are at the same point in their careers. I think Sellgren has the skill to be a solid NHL player. Based on what I have seen this season related to improvement, I think Bean can be a 3/4 d-man who puts up 45 or so points and is the power play QB the team hasn’t had in years.
1. I watch a lot of Checkers hockey on TV and last night was my 7th game at Bojangles (the place was rocking, by the way – as loud as PNC in a smaller space, with Canes fans making the drive down like I did – plan on at least one of the coming weekend games).
It is really a good mix of veterans (particularly on the blue line), players on the cusp (Patrick Brown is the heart and soul of the team, and Vellucci relies on him and cannot say enough good about Brown on and off the ice), and the prospects. We have grit-and-grind and high-end skills with excellent team leadership.
The big difference is Vellucci. As a Canes AGM he has a lot of say who is in Charlotte. There is always a conflict in the minors whether winning is important or player development – Vellucci recognizes that as a false dichotomy. He preaches winning – a couple of games back then they were down two or three after two he was in the locker room telling the team how good it was going to feel to win – which they did.
He is also all about player development – in his interviews he talks about trajectory of the players.
He enforces accountability – he benched Sake early in the season for not playing hard and Sake hasn’t played a soft game since.
He rewards players – in early December Saku(again) was thinking of returning to the KHL; an opening developed on the Canes roster and Saku was moved up on Vellucci’s recommendation, in large part.
He teaches skills – for the 1-1/2 plus seasons Gauthier resembled a statue on ice who occasionally glided. Vellucci pushed the need to skate – he has been a different player this year than last, skates hard to the net, scores big time goals, and has a lot more responsibility.
He lets players develop – Geekie was mentioned by asheville. Bean’s first month was slow and tentative. Vellucci kept him and kept his confidence up until a breakout game sometime in November. Vellucci recognized the Necas was overwhelmed as a center and turned him into a highly productive RW.
Charlotte Checker Hockey = “Vellucci gets it” + “The players respond.”
It has been a real pleasure being a Checkers fan the past two seasons.
2. $3.5-4.0M for 3-4 years. He and his wife loved the area right from the beginning and wanted to extend very quickly after arriving. But I think the ship sailed based on his end-of-season tweet.
3. Bean is very effective in that role with CLT. And we probably need it. I think we also need what Necas now brings to the PP> He sets up in Ovechkin’s office during the PP and has a one-timer that has been deadly this season. I don’t see us setting up shots like that in our PP, so I don’t know if we play the PP different than WSH and CLT – i wouldn’t mind a little Hockey 101 education there.
One note on Ferland – Sara Civian (Canes beat reported for The Athletic) tweeted that Ferland played the second half of the season with a “nagging injury”.
A note on Necas – this playoff run is going to be invaluable in his development; he is not behind the rest of the Canes.
TJ, excellent framing of the “false dichotomy”. That is precisely what it is.
Thanks!
There were rumors that Ferland could have played more in the post season. If not true than I would resign him. He was scoring at a much higher rate than 40 pts per season before the injuries. He is listed at 6 on TSN’s ufa list(2 s our old friend). Ferland is probably the top physical forward available.
He suffered a lung contusion when he hit Wilson in the second game of the first round. Lung contusions are painful and you cannot take deep breaths. I would ignore all rumors that he could have played more. He was still in therapy at the start of round 3.
Didn’t think much of them but they were out there.
Wow, Lung contusion can be pretty serious and life threatening. I’ve heard of Bruised Ribs but not that injury in sports.
I hope one of Poturolski, or Geikie are ready for the jump, maybe Potsy could be that higher end center we’re looking for (granted, AHL is a very different beast from the NHL, especially at center).
I also hope Necas will be ready for the next NHL audition, he might fit the mold of a playmaking winger until he’s ready to assume a role as a center. At least he could make the powerplay look a tad bit more dangerous.
It sounds like Bean deserves an audition, maybe a role next season, he could make a difference on the powerplay.
Gauthier is a questionmark but his transition from a likely bust to a pretty good AHL guy with grit and on the rise is pretty impressive.
I get the feeling that Saarella is not going to be an NHL guy.
I also think the team has more or less given up on Fleury (even if he is playing really well in the AHL playoffs, even scored a hort-handed goal last night).
If so, I’d say package him, the first round pick this year (it’s #28 anyway, but first round always sounds like a big deal) and maybe one of Mcginn or another role player for someone like Nylander (after his July 1st bonus), or for a temporary center with some upside.
package Hamilton
Whatever is aling Ferland, at the end of the day the question is whether Ferland can recover and maintain his pre injury level of play for the majority of 2 or 3 seasons. If so, he’s a valuable player worth resigning, if not he’s an expensive veteran signing.
It’s obviously not his fault, he plays hard and puts his body on the line. He deserves one big contract with some money, but in terms of him helping the Canes go further, he has to play like he did the first half of the year, he was downright a liability in the playoffs, though against Boston everybody was a liability, especially Hamilton.