We are now inside of a month until training camp kicks off and the Traverse City prospects tourney and preseason action offers something reasonably close to real Hurricanes hockey.
With the dog days of the offseason officially upon us, here are a couple things that I will be watching over the coming weeks.
1) Justin Faulk trade watch
I still believe that the preference is to trade Faulk for more offensive fire power. With two years remaining on his contract, the team does have some leeway in terms of timing, so if a fair deal is not there, patience could be in order. But I am on record and stand by my from shortly after the Dougie Hamilton trade as saying the writing was on the wall for Faulk. We have reached the point where there is no logical time, so this trade, if it happens, could suddenly fall out of the sky without warning at any time.
2) Who arrives early
The group for the informal skates at RCI should begin to swell in the weeks ahead. Who arrives early especially from the fringe group of AHL or NHL players says something. Acting like you have the job is a good starting point for actually winning a job. The early group is often the veterans who have school age children returning to school, so I am watching to see which younger players arrive early.
3) The vibe and leadership of the informal skates
If Justin Williams is going to be the captain (or to some degree even an alternate captain), I expect he will be making an impression starting with the informal skates. The tricky part is rising up into more of a formal leadership role without trampling current captains Justin Faulk and Jordan Staal in the process. I will be watching to see how Williams acts at the informal skates.
4) Sebastian Aho’s next contract
All has been quiet with regard to Aho signing a contract extension. I still put the odds as reasonably high that he is re-signed before the regular season starts. As such, we are getting into crunch time for doing a deal during the offseason.
5) The marketing message and vibe
Social media seemingly was revamped in a very big and good way with a key hire. The team has a new slogan (“Take Warning”) and a new goal song (Petey Pablo’s “Raise Up”), so the transition is already underway. But as the start of the new season nears, I would expect the volume to pick up as the team seeks to boost attendance. I will be watching to see what else is in store in terms of new/fresh marketing.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Which of these watch items will you be tracking most closely in the weeks ahead?
2) Do you have any watch items that you would add to my mid-August list?
Go Canes!
Number one absolutely has to be the potential Faulk trade. It has the possibility to disrupt any other theories on the coming season and as of yesterday there’s talk of a Karlsson trade getting closer. Once the #1 offensive RHD is off the market offers for Faulk (and possibly one of those folks who are looking for a roster spot/recently aquired picks) could start to look like a trade that would completely change this lineup.
The Aho signing isn’t a forgone conclusion, but I’ve yet to see anything from him that doesn’t indicate to me that he just loves the game and wants to win. I doubt there’d be legitimate contract issues from him unless he’s just very good at letting his agent be the bad guy.
It won’t happen until season begins, but I’m always slightly curious to see what sponsorred ads pop up during the TV broadcast.
Lacko Taco and Bill Peter’s water commercials are gone.
Will Papa John’s still be there?
Will Moe’s deals be back (they weren’t last season)?
1. Faulk Watch. Once teams are eliminated from the Karlsson sweepstakes, we should see some offers.
2. I’m interested to see if the Necas/Svechnikov duo is as good at Traverse City as they were in Prospect Camp.
The Faulk trade will happen at some point, and that is a good thing. No need to be desperate. Get the best deal and after the Karlsson deal and maybe an injury or two Faulk’s value may go up quite a bit.
A few of the younger guys, Zykov & Fleury, have been here for a couple weeks. Love to hear who else has wondered in. I doubt the minor league guys (Wallmark, Foegele, etc.) would take part in skates intended for the NHL players.
The prospects tournament starts Sept 7! That will be my first watch point (literally!).
I am not sure if I am “tracking closely” but I have certainly been interested in a number of them.
Faulk – O/M has greatly reduced expectations of a trade but I think it will still happen and the return from that trade will be an excellent tell.
A number of local players – Slavin and Ward – joined Darling early on in his informal skates (as well as at some of his workouts with Burriston). I was surprised and glad to see Zykov’s name mentioned as doing the same early on. I know Ferland and Mrazek came in a couple of weeks ago – not sure who else yet. That shows a commitment to the area/team and a desire to fit in.
My questions is whether Williams – who I understand lives local – has yet been at the informal skates. I haven’t been to one nor have I see a reference on Twitter to him yet being present.
I find this one most interesting – it will say a lot about how O/M goes about business with the designated best player on the team. Aho mentioned last week in Finland that negotiations for a long-term contract are underway. And I have to expect he wants something in the 6-8 year range, which will open up another big contract for him when he is in his late 20s. TD has talked about the team “controlling” (interesting choice of words even though it is accurate – I wouldn’t have expected a player-friendly owner to use that expression) Aho for the next 5 years at the same time as speaking about long-term for him. Hopefully these negotiations don’t get in Aho’s head – he only mentioned them and then said he wasn’t going to talk about them. That is why he has an agent.
So far a lot of the preseason hype has been the expected and usual. The alternate jersey, new slogan, new goal song have been catchy. But wait! – there’s more! The free preseason game is a huge success – tickets are completely sold out. So a huge crowd will also be at the Caniac Carnival which I expect will have more Canes promotions than previous years. Tonight is the Durham Bulls’ hockey/Hurricanes-themed baseball game – that is something new (and big – the game is practically sold out). I expect we will one or two additional promotional events to keep the hype train going before preseason starts.
The latest Canes video shows Willams, Fleury, and Pu all on RCI ice for informals. Looks like RBA was out today as well.
Contract negotiations should provide insight into management’s commitment to building a winner.
Aho should be signed for 8 years if he (his agent) is willing.
There is a fairly intense debate over at HFBoards about whether Teravainen should be signed long-term as well. I was arguing at this time last year that TT should have received 6+ years at $4.2-4.5M per yer. That would have been a good contract. I still support 6 years at a minimum, but now my guess is that costs $5.4M per yer. If the organization wants to “see if he can do it again,” then my guess is the price approaches $6M because I think TT will score at least 60 points again and could challenge 70 if the power play clicks.
I checked CapFriendly today. The Canes are in their usual place. Which makes me wonder if one of the things holding up the Faulk trade is that approximately $3M of salary must come back to Carolina. So Faulk cannot be part of a Skinner-type picks and prospects trade. I hope that means the team ends up with an established winger. My concern is that management would like to reduce salaries to the floor. We shall see.
Glad to hear there are multiple players already skating/working out. I heard Zykov was one of the first to join. He is taking his opportunity seriously, which is great as I think he could be a key to the season.
Some Buffalo fans believe Faulk is headed to Buffalo as the second stage of a deal that sent Skinner there. This deal would be a little lopsided our way. Wouldn’t that be nice?
That would be nice. Any names mentioned on the Buffalo side?
Great points about Zykov’s showing up early and the possible effect of the cap on a Faulk trade.
I wouldn’t worry about our cap hit this year. I think the are smartly preparing for next season when we’ll be paying Aho-TT much more – and then have decisions on raises for Ferland (UFA) and for RFA’s McGinn and Fleury. They’ll also likely need to sign a goalie to replace Mrazek or if he plays well, give him a raise. Martinook and Williams are 2 salaries that could come off books. Not much else.
And in 3 years we are likely paying Necas and Svechnikov much more. If you look at the next 3-4 years, it makes a lot of sense that this year is one in which Canes have a ton of cap space.
It only makes sense when a team is in full rebuild mode.
For teams that are gunning for the cup I believe, and so does TD, that management should always look for the best players available.
I don’t think anybody around the leak will take the Canes cup aspirations seriously if the team is having trouble staying above the salary floor.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing to go full rebuild, it’s just frustrating to see that cycle repeat itself yet again after a decade of playoff misses.
A Faulk trade is number 1. I hope my concern about how much his recent play hurt his trade value is off-base.
Two other preseason items to watch:
1. How Corey Pronman classifies Necas in his next ratings – Elite, High-End or Very Good NHL Prospect. Zadina and Borgman just got the elite tag, Tkachuk high-end.
2. Necas’ height and weight upon arrival. Will he look like a legit NHL center or a lanky, physically overmatched kid?
In October, we’ll learn where Necas fits for real. Some positive early indications would be welcome.
Necas was 6’2″ and 190 at Prospect Camp. He spent 4-6 weeks with his weight trainer in the Czech Republic this summer. He should be physically NHL ready.
Had to take more than 4-6 weeks to put on that weight. Either he grew naturally, or he worked really hard to eat and train correctly. Good on him either way. The Canes need him badly.
Not sure what you are saying. His training regimen and results over the past 2 years were well documented in an article earlier this summer. He should add another 5 pounds this summer in training and come into camp around 195. That is up about 20 pounds since last summer.