An eventful week for the NHL is nearly completed. First, we went through a few iterations of the expansion draft before it finally yielded a preliminary Las Vegas roster. Then before the smoke had even cleared on the expansion draft, the regular draft and the wheeling and dealing that it brings was only a couple days away.
On a Hurricanes front, the team simultaneously avoided losing a player and brokered a deal for Trevor van Riemsdyk who Las Vegas selected from Chicago. Then on Friday and Saturday, the Hurricanes used all of its eight draft choices.
Today’s reading list focuses on this week’s group of Hurricanes newcomers including Trevor van Riemsdyk and the new draftees.
Trevor van Riemsdyk
Scott Cullen from TSN looks statistically at van Riemsdyk and suggests that the Hurricanes received good value in him.
Brett Finger from Canes Country assesses the van Riemsdyk acquisition here.
At Canes and Coffee, we offered our initial thoughts on van Riemsdyk and where he fits on the Hurricanes roster.
And a second article on the van Riemsdyk acquisition offers a few additional Hurricanes’ angles on the trade.
The Carolina Hurricanes 2017 draft class
To help everyone get up to speed on the newest Hurricanes prospects drafted on Friday and Saturday, Canes and Coffee offers a profile and reading list for each player (last two still in process).
Martin Nekas — First round (#12 overall) — Czech Republic
Eetu Luostarinen — Second round (#42 overall) — Finland
Luke Martin — Second round (#52 overall) — University of Michigan
Morgan Geekie — Third round (#67 overall) — Tri-City Americans (WHL)
Stelio Mattheos — Third round (#73 overall) — Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)
Eetu Makiniemi — Fourth round (#104 overall) — Finland
Brendan Du Jong — Sixth round ( #166 overall) — Portland Winterhawks (WHL) ==>COMING SOON
Ville Rasanen — Seventh round (#197) — Finland ==>COMING SOON
Go Canes!
The build up to the expansion draft led to expectations of a trading frenzy to proceed the draft. Little happened. Our goal tending needs had been addressed weeks ago. The expansion drat itself led to expectations of a flurry of activity that day. Little happened. Somehow the Canes lost Connor Brickley, a 25 year old journey AHLer and a 5th round pick and kept Stempniak. If you look at it as a trade getting Stempniak for so little was quite a move for the Canes. Again, a lot was expected to happen the morning after the expansion draft. Little did. The Canes were one of the few active teams, trading a pick for what at worst will be a good piece of defensive depth. Then came opening day of the entry draft. The hockey world expected trades galore. Surprisingly little did. The Canes like most of the teams stood pat. Day 2 was expected to be jam packed with trades. Almost none occurred. All in all trade activity last week was a trickle of what was expected,
UFAs hit the market within the week anybody want to predict a tidal wave of deals?
surgalt has summarized well what has happened to date which is not much when compared to all the hype for the past month. I don’t expect a lot of deals that move top players. IMO after July 1 there will be some free agent activity and maybe a significant trade or two. As for the Canes, they will pick up a free agent forward (hopefully Justin Williams) and that will be it unless something involving Galchenyuk occurs. The teams doing something will be Montreal, Rangers, Colorado and Vegas IMO.
There is bit of discontent among the Canes faithful regarding a perception the RF hasn’t done enough to improve the team this summer. My point was relative to the entire league he has done quite a bit. We all want to see the top line improve with an established league star. For that matter most every team does. But,potential deals haven’t looked right for any team, not just ours. My expectation is that events surrounding the opening of free agency will be underwhelming also.
I see no reason for discontent: RF has filled the biggest need already. Ony comment relates to the Drouin trade: did we make an offer or just miss it? If we made an offer, which d-man we offered up?
No discontent here. No deal is better than a bad deal. If there is a good deal to be made for the Canes, I have confidence RF will get the job done.
There certainly was less activity than most were expecting. Some players that have long been rumored to be available were traded – Eberle, a TBY forward (Drouin), Stepan, Hamonic, Raanta (exposed to ED) – but the main thing I’ve been thinking about are the players on this list of trades that no one saw coming: Panarin, Saad, Schenn, Hjalmarsson, Mike Smith. I continue to believe that the list of very good and available players is much longer than what shows up on the Insider lists and on Twitter.
There will be more movement over the next week or so. The list of players will likely include one of COL’s difference-making forwards (whichever one yields a Top4 in return) and Galchenyuk and a MIN defenseman but also players that will be surprising. If the Canes do a deal, it’ll likely be in one of the latter group and not the former.
We still haven’t heard from many of the teams need that need to make moves. Plenty of time left to build the roster. I’m fairly sure we’ll get a Top9 forward somehow; I’m quite sure I have no idea which one.
So you don’t think RF will leak his targets to Eklund early this week?
I agree dmiller. There are many unknowns as far as who is seeking what and what players are realistically available. For example, could the Canes in search of a top line center go after Jason Spezza from Dallas? Who knows? Just about anything is possible. Some of the moves made already are kind of mind blowing and not something I would want the Canes to do. For example, Oshie for 8 years at big money. As long as Washington continues to win, something like that will fly. Then when their fortunes turn or they have cap problems to retain other players, this type of deal really will hamstring what they can do no matter how Oshie performs.
Looking down the list of forward free agents the following names appear to be the best scorers:
Vrbata, Williams, Hanzal – All scored 20 or more goals
Bonino, Gagner, Vanek – All scored 17 or more goals
Boyle, Versteeg, Ryan – All scored 15 of less goals
IMO other than the top three, none of these appear to possibly be the top 6 forward we are looking for. Thus, unless we sign one of these three, it appears any help at forward will have to be through trade. That being the case, anything is in the realm of possibility. It’s a guessing game.
No one’s going to mention the fact that we drafted TWO players named Eetu? How often is that going to happen?
It was definitely an unusual draft. While Finnish players were prominent, the three the Canes drafted were all unexpected for the round where they were taken. Even if all three fail to make it to the NHL, I think 2017 will be seen as a good draft for Carolina.
Necas is getting strong reviews–from the commentators covering the draft at NBCSN, from scouts prior to the draft, and bloggers since the draft.
IMO, Martin is a great pick in the 2nd. There is always need for a defensively sound RHD.
The third round brought good value with two selections that many said could be second-rounders prior to the draft. And while their scoring numbers are solid, both have received some praise (Mattheos more than Geekie) for defensive and PK skills.
The last two picks makes sense. Tall/rangy defensemen are valuable, so they both should have slightly more than the usual 3%-5% chance of making it to the NHL that most players drafted in those rounds have.
It seems that most of the teams with good forwards to trade want a D in return. LV kind of cornered the market for D, so I suspect there will be several teams trading with LV.
Given that we will probably not move any D, and we are past the point of where draft picks matter, I do not think we will be doing too much. RR pointed out some UFAs. My gut feel says that is probably where we will pick a forward up. There still are a couple of teams who might have cap issues and that is another possible source. With the actions, I think Chicago may be beyond the cap issue now, the question is, who still has those issues.
I kind of do not see teams trading for Lack or Murphy. If they want them, just have to wait for them to go on waivers.
I do not view Colorado as a trade partner. Sakic wanted two first round picks for Duchene. He is still in dream land. Even if he does lower his expectation I am sure a D will be part of that trade.
I do feel we drafted very well. It gave me comfort when I learned that Pitkanen was scouting for us and some of those unknown names came from him. Eyes that maybe other teams did not have.