Today’s Daily Cup of Joe has a quick series of catch up notes on a couple players.
Scott Darling
Inside of a week of being demoted to get the NHL roster back down to a more workable two goalies, Curtis McElhinney sustained an injury that required the team to reach to the AHL add another goalie to the NHL roster.
The team recalled Alex Nedeljkovic for the tail end of the West Coast trip which I think says a lot about Scott Darling’s standing within the organization right now. With Petr Mrazek playing well since returning from injury and a nice spacing for the next few games, whoever was recalled seems destined to watch from the bench while Mrazek takes a turn being #1.
The reasons to recall Darling were plentiful:
–Darling is on a one-way deal, so the team is already paying his full salary regardless of where he plays. By instead recalling Nedeljkovic, the team will have to spend an extra chunk of salary bumping Nedeljkovic up to his NHL salary.
–Since the recall was only there for an emergency and unlikely to play, Nedeljkovic would have been better off playing at the AHL level. So the team gave up some ice time for Nedeljkovic by doing it this way.
The situation was headed in that direction anyway, but the backup goalie situation can be interpreted as an even more definitive statement that the team is committed to moving on from Scott Darling and just does not want him back at the NHL level.
Remember that the Hurricanes have no way that makes sense to officially cut ties with Darling right now. If the team just terminated his contract, it would be on the hook for his full salary as scheduled. If instead the team buys him out next summer, the Canes would save about $2.4 million and would be able to spread what it did owe over four years instead of two. So
Janne Kuokkanen
I continue to be surprised that Janne Kuokkanen has not been the latest forward recall. Kuokkanen pretty much made the NHL roster in 2017-18 and was really close again this year. He is leading the Checkers in scoring and brings a decent two-way game to boot. With the team battling through scoring woes, Kuokkanen would figure to be a no-brainer to try. Kuokkanen could bring a bit more playmaking to the wing on Staal’s line or otherwise be a source of more scoring depth.
Dougie Hamilton
Now 28 games into his time with the Hurricanes, Dougie Hamilton has yet to start firing on all cylinders. His play defensively and with the puck on his stick has been a bit erratic. In addition, Hamilton is only on target for about 30 point which would be a significant drop off from his strong 2017-18 season. Finally, Slavin/Hamilton just has not materialized as the elite pairing hoped for.
When one considers each players skill set, they are a bit redundant in terms of advancing the puck. And significantly, Slavin’s greatest strength in my opinion has been his ability to defend 1-on-1 in the neutral zone or at the blue line. Slavin’s game is not as advanced in terms of being a last line of defense behind Hamilton or a similarly offense-minded center. If Brind’Amour swapped Hamilton and Pesce, the second pairing could improve while at the same time putting Hamilton in restart position offensively.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Does anyone else also see Janne Kuokkanen as a potential scoring upgrade from within?
2) What do you make of Hamilton’s ‘meh’ start in a Hurricanes jersey? Is it just taking some time for him to get acclimated and the re-find his higher gear?
3) What are your thoughts on recalling Nedeljkovic instead of Darling to backup Mrazek with McElhinney out?
Go Canes!
1. Sure, I see it as a possibility. The Canes seem to take the attitude that playing games in the NHL is a detriment to the further development of a player. Surely a very negative approach assuming a player can’t improve just as much playing against NHL caliber talent as against AHL caliber talent. Koukkanen looks to me to already be better than several forwards on the Canes so the NHL team would not be taking a step backwards in level of play IMO. Canes continue to demonstrate an old-fashioned style of player management.
2. I am of the opinion that Hamilton has played well and that his offensive numbers will go up as the season progresses.
3. Just have to guess here. You could say the Canes want to get Darling into more AHL games to get his confidence and rhythm back. Or you can take the tack that the Canes don’t want him back in the NHL. The former would be a sign of good player management if management though Scott has more immediate potential to help the NHL team than Ned. The latter makes no sense at all. How does the team come out ahead by just turning its back on an over $14,000,000 investment unless it thinks the situation is hopeless. The hopeless approach would just be another sign of a management that takes a negative approach to player management. The attitude should be let’s get Darling back to his good NHL level of player as quickly as possible unless it feels Ned currently can help the team more than Scott.
Darling’s waiver was not a sign the team had given up on him long term. The choice of Ned to fly coast to coast to coast to watch a game in a Canes uniform rather than travel to and play in a Checkers game clearly showed the pecking order between the two. Clearly “the committee” has chosen to use an hallucinogen that creates the fantasy 2 weeks in Charlotte will turn Darling’s career around. We can only hope Mac can heal fast, or that “the committee “will hand out the same hallucinogen as a promotion the night Scott returns to goal.
1. I will echo RR’s comment on player development approach of the team. AHLers who end up with the big squad end up with extremely limited minutes. One can make the argument that this is expected and reasonable – but it is also clear that RBA doesn’t trust the young players, who do make mistakes, and over-relies on his veterans.
I read an interesting comment by Tortorella (I think) that with the younger age of the really good players you have to play them and let them make their mistakes and learn from their mistakes at the NHL level. Torts said something along the lines that coaches have to understand and adjust to that – which is difficult for some coaches (and apparently RBA) to adopt.
If you bring up Kuokk and stick him on the 4th line the only thing that really improves is his paycheck. I have made the comment in the past that players should only be called up if they will be put in a position to succeed.
Kuokk had success in the preseason on Staal’s wing. But bring him up only if he is going to be used properly.
2) Hamilton is trying to be engaged in the offense (I don’t know his average shots/game but what is he at now? – 134 straight games with a shot on goal?). Something is not clicking – not sure what it is. He was never known as a beast in the d-zone though – maybe a different usage helps? I don’t know.
3) I am assuming you wrote this article early in the weekend. Ned, of course, was sent back down and Darling recalled yesterday. I don’t understand why Ned was flown out from MA to CA to backup Mrazek for one game is the idea was to bring Darling back for this week? It seems that decision was made during (Checkers) gametime. Darling started, played 2 periods and then sat for Helvig with no information provided as to why.
If someone has a rational explanation as to why Ned over the weekend and then swapping Ned for Darling once both teams returned to NC I would be interested. CLT doesn’t play again until Thursday
I don’t think Darling is in the team’s plans beyond this season – unless he finds himself suddenly on fire. After watching a couple of his games with Charlotte I am seeing the same types of whoopsies as well as excellent saves, in about the same percentages so I am not seeing that as a possibility. But we have him, we have to pay him, and there will be times we have to play him (such as now with Mac out) and short of giving Ned NHL starts (which has to happen sometime, right?)
1. Definitely, I guess the team is trying not to create Lindholm 2.0 but are swinging too far in the other direction now, though Lindholm is blossoming on the Flames top line.
2. The Darling saga is just bizarre. I guess the team was taking a longshot chance that someone would claim him of waivers. There’s nothing to do in the situation except give Darling more ice time and hope he can turn it around. He was capable of good play in the past, the D in front of him is good. He worked hahrd over the summer by all accounts. I have a very hard time believing in his turnaround, but it’s either that or giving up on a 14 million dollar investment altogether, even before the semin payoff is done. I’d say give him some more games in net, just not in the next 4 or 5 games, which I feel are pivotal to determine whether this team wil be battling for a playoff spot or auditioning for next season.
3. I’ve said it elsewhere that Hamilton has not found a fit on canes D. Slavin and Pesce are better together, faulk and Calvin have emerged as a strong D pairing. It’s either have the most expensive third pairing in the NHL with Hamilton and either TVR or Fleury or trade Hamilton to another team.
That’s not necessarily a major knock on his play. Eric Carlson has struggled to find his Rhythm with the sharks and the Canes have done an awful job of providing net front presence and finishing ability that is the key to scoring from the back end.
The short term outcome of the big trade with Calgary puts the Flames ahead.
Hannifin for Ferland would’ve been ideal, but I don’t fault management for that necessarily and Hamilton might still find a good fit on D in which case Faulk or TVR would be on the trading block.
What I see is a team too deep at D and not deep enough at forward. Hopefully a trade with the Leafs is possible, that’s a team that is much too deep at forward and deficient at D.
Also I can’t get my order right. 😉
I don’t follow the Checkers closely and don’t know what roles Kuok has on the team, but I’d leave him there unless and until we’re willing to give him the same roles on the Canes that have led to his success in CLT.
The thing that I don’t understand is this: if a player has success at one level playing in specific roles/situations; and we want to evaluate whether that player is ready to play at the next level; then why wouldn’t we give the play the same roles/situations at the higher level and see what happens? Why would we think that a different set of roles/situations at the higher level would be how to measure that player’s progress? Mistakes will be made, obviously, but I’d like someone to explain to me how we could realistically know on a player any other way.
As for Darling, it’s Mrazek’s net until Mac gets healthy – and then maybe even longer if his play over the last few games continues – and the feeling must be that Darling is a better bet than Ned. I don’t think it’s anything more complicated than that. And that’s probably the correct call.
As for Hamilton, he’s not tradable this soon and I wouldn’t trade him unless we got a great offer. He hasn’t meshed as well as we hoped he would with Slavin, but our view on that may be a little colored by the comparison to how well Faulk has meshed with de Haan. We’re getting the player we expected to get and he’s been just fine. He produces on the PP but hasn’t really gotten going there – neither has anyone else on the team for that matter – so it’s hard to blame him especially given how limited his PP time has been. I counsel patience. Reuniting Slavin/Pesce and putting him with TvR/Fleury is an interesting idea. As it turns out, we are very deep on D and allocating ice-time so that everyone gets enough and in their area of strength is the main challenge.
To my surprise the result of Friday’s west coast win was seeing the Canes in sole possession of 3rd place in the Metro Saturday morning. While the team has drifted down in the standings during the current 4 day hiatus between games, management might be a bit more satisfied with the outcome of their decisions to this point in the season than us critics in the stands.
Perhaps we are seeing a 3 part end game to the current rebuild plan. Part 1: patiently wait for the right trade for a forward to present itself, Part 2: patiently stick with the current roster as long as it stays relevant in the race for third in the Metro and Part 3: Allow the best of the AHL prospects fully “over ripen” and build confidence with a highly successful season in Charlotte.
Yep. I believe this assessment nails it 99.99%.
I’m not sure Kuokkanen would be a significant upgrade offensively. Early flash doesn’t necessarily mean continued performance. (see Foegele) I agree with keeping him in Charlotte for the full year unless they need him in a top six role. Look at Wallmark for example. He was over a point per game player for Charlotte last season. How has he done offensively? He’s been good, but not lighting up the scoresheet. I think following the same progression with Kuokkanen is wise for his development. It won’t please the armchair GMs though.
Yeah, Hamilton isn’t hitting on all cyliders. He looked a lot better with someone covering his butt when he was playing with Van Reimsdyk or Fleury. Hamilton/Slavin is too much of the same. Slavin was back to playing with Pesce before the latter’s injury. My bet is they will be back together once they feel Pesce can take the extra minutes. Hopefully Hamilton will be able to create more offense confident that he has backup.
The Darling soap opera is a head scratcher. The only explanation I can come up with is they were hoping that McElhinney’s injury was minor and giving Ned a little time with the big club would be helpful. Now that it appears McElhinney will be out for more than a short while they want Ned to get his starts in Charlotte. This, unfortunately, brings Darling back to the Canes. I think the Canes are done with Darling. They were sending him a message too when they brought up Ned. I’m of the opinion that the players want no more of playing in front of Darling. They don’t trust him. He hasn’t been good in games, but the players see more than games. Goalies that stink in practice aren’t loved by skaters either. My guess is the leadership group gave Brind’Amour, Dundon and whoever was listening a vote of “no confidence” for Darling.
Speaking on behalf of the council of armchair GMs I’d like to see a Kuokkanen NHL stint.
I think, and I have no evidence for this whatsoever, that the Canes should give players who we are hoping will carry the load next year extended NHL tryout this year so they have a clearer idea what to expect next year.
We’re seeing improvements from Walmark, not as fast as we’d like but we’re seeing a bit of a growing process, and we’d like to have more players get NHL ready.
It’s absolutely true though that there’s surprisingly little connection between AHL and NHL success, see, for instance, the NHL trials and tribulations of Nicolas Roy. Necas was just named AHL player of the week which bodes well. The kid just wasn’t NHL ready in the fall (and I don’t think anyone can blame him), but it looks like he’s not just adjusting but growing in the AHL. Hopefully we’ll see the same when he’s ready to join the Canes roster again.
It’s funny that our old captain E. Staal is a pending UFA and could be the talk of the trade deadline, wonder if he’s a homecoming queen for the Canes next year.
Also JW is a pending UFA and likely to be one of the top wingmen at the trade deadline. Sticking with the prom theme, of course we hope that the Canes, like a high school senior, can go all the way .. to the playoffs.
I am glad to see Necas scoring and contributing in Charlotte, but his point totals and highlights of him flying up the ice don’t have a lot to do with why he was send down. Has he learned to play in the neutral and defensive zones? I understand being moved to wing, but that signaled to me he wasn’t getting it. I don’t suspect we see Necas, barring injuries, until he figures out the other two zones.
Also, Williams has a 15 team no trade clause. He also has stated that this is his last year. His plan was to return to Carolina to retire. He still may prefer to make one last cup run if the Canes are out of it, but I doubt they will be. The Metropolitan isn’t that strong.
Why did we call up Saku and not Janne? Are you kidding? Ferland is down and out with a concussion. Sure Ferland was scoring at a great pace before he got his bell rung. But Ferland’s main purpose was to protect the little Finns. Where is Saku playing? With the little Finns. He is big and fast and plays in Ferland’s office. He also hits hard.
Why isn’t Dougie hitting on all eight? The answer is not simple. Mark Giordano. He misses him. We have nothing like him (Calvin deHaan is close). We have a left-handed d-man in Charlotte who is closer. Let’s bring him up. He eats forwards alive as they cross the blue line and cleans house in front of the crease. I always have trouble with his name, Crajkovic. And give Dougie’s brother a job. What is it worth to have Dougie with his mojo working at a 20 goal a year pace? Once he no longer has Faulk competing with him for PP ice time, you might see a change. It’s good to be king.
Scott Darling. Who knows why they are doing what they are doing with him? I have heard many theories on this site. The one I haven’t heard yet (maybe I missed it) is that management is posturing for a trade of one of our goalkeepers. Many teams are looking for keepers. Is Mac really injured?
Allow me, if you will, to posit a theory. We don’t have a clue.
Saku played exclusively on the 4th line in the ANA game. Martinook was playing on Aho’s left wing with Turbo on the right.
Cajkovsky.
Looks like the Janne vs. Saku argument is moot. Ferland has been reactivated from IR. Yay!
1. I don’t see any reason not to bring Kuok up for a stint. Originally I was thinking the reason we haven’t seen any of the AHL guys who are putting up numbers was for expansion draft protection, but anyone who’d be a first year guy this year is ineligible.
:side note: Could one of you who sees more of the Checkers let me know if he’s been playing in the middle or on the wing?
2. Hamilton has been fine. He’s been directly responsible for a couple goals against, but I think his presence on the ice is a net positive so far and it’s fully possible that he’ll elevate his offensive game soon.
3. If anyone knows voodoo, witchcraft or any number of dark arts tell them to give Darling a call…
I don’t Kuokk has played any significant minutes at center – perhaps none at all. He has played almost exclusively on Roy’s left wing.
2. I don’t know what to make of this. 1.8 vs. 3.3. Those are Jaccob Slavin’s Goals For per 60 and Goals Against per 60. Hamilton’s comparables are 2.2 and 2.6.
Pffft! Just spit out my drink. That’s crazy bad. Is that 5 on 5 or include special teams? He plays a lot more on the kill than the PP, so that could be part of it.
Maybe my original position that Slavin should stop trying to be an offensive defenseman from last season was a better take than I thought.
Those numbers are from Hockey-Reference and are Even Strength. I think that includes 4-on-4 and end of the game situations where the goalie has been pulled, which makes them look even worse because I know Slavin was on the ice for the 6-on-5 in the first game of the season and might have been on the ice for the extra-attacker goal against Minnesota.
I think the case for one trade is becoming overwhelming: trade Hamilton for Pesce. What I mean is that Pesce needs to be reunited with Slavin. I also mean that Pesce needs to be untouchable if Slavin is untouchable, because Slavin is significantly less effective with Hamilton–more than 1/3 of the way into the season I think that is now a fair statement. There is a bromide that serious stock traders (and gamblers) know, which is don’t commit to a trade/bet. Make it with the intentions of profiting, but if it doesn’t work out don’t be afraid to take a loss. I know others think Hamilton can’t be traded because he was acquired with great expectations, but he should be the only right-hand D who is considered for a trade. Faulk is now playing on the top-pairing with de Haan (I noticed this in the Toronto game two weeks ago when Faulk/de Haan were on the ice against Marner and Tavares much more than Hamilton/Slavin). The way Faulk is playing he is more valuable than any return the organization would receive. And I will say it again, trading Pesce is basically trading Pesce and 20% of Slavin’s effectiveness. I am ok with keeping Hamilton as long as Pesce is on the second pairing with Slavin.