I will post something more formal in the next few days, but it is that time of year for reader-submitted articles. My hope is to post a run of reader articles in early August. If you are interested, please just reach out via email with a short description/outline for a proposed article.
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe offers a short collection of random player comments/thoughts…
Warren Foegele
He will no doubt have a bit of a learning curve to climb if he wins an NHL roster spot, but I really think his combination of speed, skating and aggressive forechecking could be an X-factor on a variety of lines. He could add speed to go with good read/react players with less mobility like Justin Williams and/or Victor Rask. He could be a disruptive forechecking force that causes turnovers and scoring chances for skilled players. He could just add more of the ‘difficult to play against’ variety that the team needs more of.
Brett Pesce
He has established himself as a steady defensive defenseman. My two cents ranks him as the team’s most consistent and best all-around defenseman for the 2017-18 season even over partner Jaccob Slavin. But the one knock on Pesce’s development thus far is his lack of offensive production. He collected only three goals and 19 total points in 65 games last season. The fact that he does not play on the power play is definitely a factor. And to be clear, Pesce does not have to score a bunch to be a good and useful player. But in today’s NHL, blue line scoring is incredibly powerful in terms of boosting offense. Is he a player who has a higher gear offensively as he matures? Pesce is not a natural at creating bunches of offense with the puck on his stick, but when I watch him play from behind the play, he actually has pretty good sense and instincts for where and when to join the rush or even drive a lane as a temporary forward. Could he be just a burst of finishing and/or another level of growth away from being a good depth scorer despite lack of power play ice time?
Teuvo Teravainen
No doubt Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen will be a going concern again in 2018-19. Interesting for me is watching which side Teravainen ends up on and if he is equally effective as a goal scorer on each side. He spent most of the 2017-18 season playing right wing first next to Aho/Staal and then later on the right side of Aho when he moved to center. But Teravainen did also log some minutes at left wing and seemed equally comfortable there. My sense is that he first really well as an off side shooter in the European vein, but if Andrei Svechnikov ultimately plays his way onto the top scoring line, it is likely that Teravainen would then shift to the left side. So worth watching is if Teravainen can be equally effective as a goal scorer on either side.
Phil Di Giuseppe
Di Giuseppe will be interesting to watch coming out of the gate. Starting a couple years back, I was higher on Di Giuseppe than most. I thought he looked adequate if not better playing with Skinner/Rask, and despite adding a physical power forward element to his game along the way, Di Giuseppe has enough skating and skill to theoretically complement higher-end offensive players. But for pretty much the entirety of two full seasons, he failed to produce. But then suddenly when all hope for scoring seemed lost, Di Giuseppe had a short but powerful outburst of 3 goals and 4 assists in only 5 games in March. The question is if that was an anomaly or the beginning of something.
Martin Necas
Aside from the goalies, Martin Necas’ s 2018-19 season could have the biggest effect on the team’s success. If no other center is added, Necas could slot as the team’s second best offensive center in the opening day lineup (assuming Aho plays center). If he fast tracks to an NHL scoring role, the Hurricanes are suddenly deep at the center position. If he takes a more step-wise approach in his development and is not an offensive difference-maker out of the gate in 2018-19, the Hurricanes are really light on offensive fire power down the middle.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Who has thoughts/opinions on my Monday player musings?
2) Who has additional player thoughts/comments to be considered as we fill up another day of the long offseason?
Go Canes!
Matt–you have pointed to some keys for the upcoming season.
FOEGELE–He could be successful on aline with either Staal (I still would like to see a disruption line with Staal at center and Foegele/McGinn on the wings) or Rask. I think most of fans would like to see him make the opening lineup. However, the acquisition of Martinook and Ferland might mean he starts back in Charlotte.
PESCE–I have been high on Pesce’s offensive and overall potential for a few seasons now. He was starting to show some scoring ability (9 points in 19 games) when he was injured late last season. I see him scoring 35 points this season. Blueline scoring is very important. All of the final 8 teams in the playoffs this past season had at least 105 points from their top 3 defensemen. With the addition of Hamilton, who is good for 45 points or so, if Slavin and Pesce can both get 30+ points, the Canes should be around the minimum defense scoring needed. Finally, I have written before about the research of Ryan Stimson regarding optimal playing styles. I haven’t been able to find his data for 17-18, but in 16-17 Pesce was the Carolina defenseman with the optimal performance. I hope RBA will allow Pesce to play a style that will increase his scoring–perhaps he should be on the 2nd PP unit.
TERAVAINEN–TT is under-appreciated by Canes’ fans. He and Aho are a dynamic due. But since his junior days–Teravainen is listed- alongside (Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Evgeni Malkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Jordan Eberle, and Alexander Ovechkin in WJC-20 all-time scoring–he has been a top player. By at least one metric (http://hockeyviz.com/fixedImg/wowy/1718/CAR/teravte94/wrap) he was the best two-way player for Carolina last season, making even Staal and Slavin better in both ends of the ice. dmiller turned me on to the strong link theory of hockey–given that TT is significantly better than many fans understand, it may well make sense to split up Aho and TT letting Aho center Svechnikov and TT play wing with Necas.
One other player I would comment about is Ferland. I see a lot of Canes’ fans on other sites aligning him on a line with either Aho or Necas. In reading about Ferland on Flames-related sites, many commenters really like his style but question his overall defensive game. If you look at the data on Hockeyviz, you will see that Ferland is pretty much the opposite of Teravainen in that he detracts from his line mates. The Canes need a player with Ferland’s physical style of play–just not on a scoring line.
Thank you for the hockeyviz links, I enjoyed exploring some our players stats.
I have promoted putting Ferland or Martinook on a line with Necas and/Svechnikov to start the season. Not because it will maximize scoring while players are on the ice, but rather with the objective of keeping them on the ice. It is not unusual for upstaged veterans or upstaged other young players to go head hunting with the young stars, particularly guys like Necas who can skate circles around them. If they finally get a shot at him, they likely to take it in a big way.
The counter example – the way to NOT do it, is how the canes treated Jeff Skinner early in his career. I advocated trading him because he had concussions and no one would protect him. An opponent would go headhunting on Skinner and E Staal and company would just look at him laying on the ice and skate off. Pathetic. IMO we did Skinner a disservice by not placing him on a team where his teammates would protect him.
In summary, to keep our young stars healthy and on the ice, I fully expect the canes to provide protection, even if it means giving up a few goals.
Sorry for the issue with comments today. I somehow turned ‘allow comments’ off at some point on accident (as best I can tell).
Thank you for those who reached out to make me aware of the problem.
Following CTCAINIAC’s comments, I decided to go to the Checkers stats, and found…Wallmark led in Tot Points with 55 (17G 38A) in 45 GP. 2nd was Zykov 54TP (33G 21A) in 63 GP. Foegele was 5th 46TP
28G 18A in 73gms! These are just AHL stats!
Decent numbers for the three guys, and I won’t be surprised to see any, or all of them in Raleigh, Eh?!!