More news bubbled up on the ownership transition front in the middle of an otherwise quiet week in mid-August.
Despite the slow time of year, some digging still yielded a decent mix of Hurricanes hockey reading to help pass another slow day in the dead of the offseason.
Carolina Hurricanes prospects
Brock Otten from OHL Prospects shared a deep dive on the five Hurricanes prospects who played in the OHL in 2016-17 (scroll to August 12 if you check this later) and shared Martin Necas’ likely destination for 2017-18 along the way.
Kevin LeBlanc from Dobber Prospects did his annual 31-in-31 on the Hurricanes prospects from a fantasy hockey angle.
Tom Gulitti from NHL.com also chimed in with a 31-in-31 update on the Hurricanes prospect pool.
2017-18 Carolina Hurricanes projections
Also from NHL.com, Rob Vollman dug into the statistics and suggested that the Hurricanes could be much-improved.
Finishing the trifecta, Pete Jensen from NHL.com shared an early fantasy hockey look at the 2017-18 Hurricanes.
Chuck Greenberg, Peter Karmanos and the ownership situation
Chip Alexander provided his latest update on the ownership situation in his August 9 article at the News & Observer.
Also on August 9, Cory Lavalette at the North State Journal chimed in with an article that shared unprecedented detail on the team’s financials for the 2016-17 season.
Here at Canes and Coffee, we shared our thoughts on possible angles on the most recent batch of news to break.
Go Canes!
We here at C&C all seem to agree that the prospect pool is highly promising. In thinking about the prospects and the needs in Raleigh the next several years, I thought I had found one shortcoming–players for the right side. The Canes have been forced to go to free agency to get RWs and RHDs (Stempniak, Williams, TVR). At first glance, that seemed to be a trend that would continue. I should not have doubted the brain trust. Four of the picks from this years draft are right shots (Necas, Geekie, Matthews, and Martin). My guess is GMRF and his scouts will identify the best right shot options for the 2018 draft available around the 25th pick (yes that presumes the playoffs and one round of success). Luckily, there are several strong RHDs (both Bouchards, Calen Addison, Jett Woo) and at least two right-shot forwards (Kupari and Yvonne) that might be available.
Two points: 1) the organization is doing an amazing of finding talent and keeping future options balanced; 2) I spend way too much time thinking about this stuff!
CT…you’re right on both points!
I SELDOM KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT NEXT YEAR UNTIL THANKSGIVING…
when I typically start getting depressed about the current season and start looking for a brighter future. If we start the season WELL…I might not know much about the potential draft picks until EASTER…!
Yes, I think the collection of prospects that have been amassed are reasonably balanced between forwards, dmen, (right / left), but I’d be a little happier with a couple more top-level goalies in the mix…EH?
puckgod. Even the goalie prospects are promising. Ned was really impressive in international play–so his down year in the AHL might just have been part of the learning curve. Booth had moments of brilliance in the juniors, while Helvig seemed to be a steady workhorse who might make the next step this year. Lafontaine looks like a solid college goalie, and Makiniemi might be a foreign steal. I think Matt is mostly correct that knowing how good a goalie is going to be at 18 is really difficult. But there is a good mix of types, sizes, nationalities, and leagues. Even goalies appear to be a strength.