With a series of articles focused on building the 2017-18 Carolina Hurricanes roster well underway, most of the discussion at Canes and Coffee has focused on making a handful of additions to the roster from outside of the organization.
As Coach Bill Peters said pretty forcefully in the end of season press conference, there is a need for a handful of difference-makers. One cannot just boost AHL-level players to the NHL and chuck them straight into top half of the roster roles (though it seemed to work pretty well for Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Sebastian Aho who skipped the AHL altogether).
But Francis’ mantra from the beginning was to build a better and deeper system that was capable supporting a return to the playoffs that was more regular. And the Hurricanes are making progress in that regard and could see help again emerge from below in 2017-18.
Timed well with the start of Jordan Futrell’s 2016-17 player reviews for AHL-level Hurricanes prospects (Links: Haydn Fleury and Lucas Wallmark), this week’s Thursday Coffee Shop focuses on the 2016-17 Charlotte Checkers players and their potential to make an impact at the NHL level in 2017-18.
Carolina Hurricanes poll questions
Please remember to click ‘vote’ after each individual poll response.
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Discussion questions
1) If Ulf Samuelsson departs for an assistant coaching job with the Blackhawks as rumored, who has guesses for a new coach for the Checkers?
2) Which of the 2016-17 Charlotte Checkers are you highest on? Do you think any have the potential to surprise like Slavin and Pesce and be a difference-maker, not just a depth player, early on?
Go Canes!
In terms of career building moves, Rod Brindamor should selfishly ask for the job. My impression is though commitments to his family will keep him from looking for additional achievements to post on his resume that require a relocation out of Charlotte.
1) I don’t know if I can answer this because I don’t know the usual trajectory for hockey coaches. Do NHL assistant coaches become AHL head coaches?, or is it usually the other way? Do AHL coaches come out of juniors?, or NCAA? Regardless, I don’t think the answer is Brind’Amour. If his primary job this season was the power play, he didn’t perform well; I don’t think he is head coach material, yet.
2) I have really liked Fleury, Wallmark, and Zykov. Of those three I think Fleury has the chance to be the best – and I will be curious to see if he supplants Hanifin as 2P-L. Now there is a wild thought, but not inconceivable to me. I think the player most likely to become a difference maker is Saarela. Although I don’t think he starts with the Canes, I can see him as quite possibly a top-6, and a good one, sometime during the season.
1. The one name that comes to mind (though I have no idea what he’s doing now) is Kevin Dineen??
2. Fleury is a better than even chance IMO. McKeown is not far behind, maybe 30-40%…?
Right now is a bad time to do this kind of guess-work… assuming RF makes any sort of moves/ trades… In a few weeks it might be cleared up, a lot!
Not sure who the coach is going to be, but if the organization takes the advice of Jordan and C&C braintrust and ends up with all the prospects having “more time” developing, then the first three lines sound great:
Kuokkanen/Roy/Gauthier
Foegele/Saarela/Zykov
Smallman/Brown/Lorentz
Charlotte will be loaded.
1. Ulf’s replacement: puckgod mentions Dineen and that would be good IMO. I’m not sure where he is now (under contract, etc.). Chris Chelios just severed ties with Detroit. His son plays at Charlotte. He might be a fit, but really I’m not the best person to really advise on this question. Maybe ctcaniac, ironcaniac, dmiller, raleightj, teninumee (pardon the spelling), surgalt, or someone else can bail me out on this one.
2. Checker surprises: I think Wallmark could possibly turn out this way if given the chance (not just brought in for 4th line). I like Saarela like raleightj mentions and Roy as having this potential. Of course I think it’s Fleury’s time to step in at defense.
There are a lot of ifs that could really affect who, if any one steps forward as puckgod points out. For example, say Victor Rask is included in some deal to get a 1st line forward (scorer). That would really open things up for the glut of centers and forwards we have in the system to get a real shot at a top nine slot.