Today’s Daily Cup of Joe has notes on a couple players
Haydn Fleury
With Dougie Hamilton out of the lineup, Haydn Fleury is set to receive an extended run in the lineup. The next couple months could be pivotal for Fleury’s career. Fleury is now 23 years old, in his third season at the NHL level (with AHL stints in both of the first two seasons) and has logged 113 games in the NHL. If he has a next level up, he should be making the transition from acclimating to the NHL to finding a higher gear.
His second half of the season will likely determine where he slots for 2020-21. With Trevor van Riemsdyk and Joel Edmundson set to become unrestricted free agents this summer, strong play could put Fleury at #5 on the depth chart heading into the off-season and have the team only looking for a depth defenseman complement. If instead Fleury struggles down the stretch, he likely gets pegged as a #6/#7 defenseman again, and the team could add a player or two to slot above him.
His play has been good in both games since Hamilton’s injury. Hopefully, that is Fleury seizing the opportunity and not just a short upswing that is part of the ups and downs of a long season. That said, I still see the same couple limitations with his game. He still has too great of a propensity to make simple plays to get the puck off his stick. No doubt there are times when chipping the puck off the boards to the neutral zone is the best play, but I think Fleury too quickly settles for safe and simple such that he avoids big errors but also gives the puck away a ton too. At some point, he needs to gain the ability to slow the game down and know when he can take a bit more time to move the puck to a team mate instead of just safety. I also think he can still be too passive defending the puck. If one watches Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce, one thing that jumps out is how aggressive they are taking away time and space and engaging the puck. Against good NHL forwards, if a defenseman gives them time, they tend to capitalize regardless of if the defense is in position.
So my primary watch points for Haydn Fleury are threefold:
1) Can he improve by less frequently settling for chipping pucks to space for turnovers versus having the patience when appropriate to hold long enough to find a passing option?
2) Can he become a bit more aggressive defending the puck a la Jaccob Slavin without being beaten or being caught out of position too often?
3) In making these adjustments which can be riskier and require great judgment, can he keep ‘big oopses’ to a minimum?
James Reimer
If he gets the start on Tuesday for his third straight, it seems fair to at least temporarily call him the team’s starting goalie. Certainly it is possible that Petr Mrazek regains the starting role and steams through the latter half of the 2019-20 season. That is exactly what he did at about this time last season.
But is it also possible that James Reimer is the Petr Mrazek of 2019-20? Like Mrazek last year, Reimer entered the season as a veteran who had at one point proven himself capable of being a decent or better NHL starter. But also like Mrazek, Reimer was coming off a tough season and looking for a rebound. And interestingly, both players down seasons came on teams that struggled mightily and offered minimal help. Simultaneously maybe having something to prove but not with all of the pressure of an anointed #1 goalie has worked well for Reimer so far. Reimer’s save percentage is up to an impressive .921, and his record is 11-6-1 despite taking more than his fair share of road starts against tough opponents. Could he be veteran just starting to take advantage of his fresh start on the way to a strong season?
What say you Canes fans?
1) After a good amount of NHL games to get acclimated, is Haydn Fleury primed to take advantage of the opportunity he has? What do you see as his ceiling as an NHLer — the #6/#7 defenseman he has been thus far? Or something more?
2) What do you make of James Reimer’s strong play of late and his seeming position as the #1 goalie right now? Is he just doing an admirable job as a backup spelling Mrazek until he gets hot? Or is Reimer destined to remain the starting goalie for the remainder of the 2019-20 season?
Go Canes!
Fleury played over 1/2 of his 113 NHL games in his rookie season, 2017-18. Last season he played in only 20 NHL games, playing most of the season in the AHL. This season he has appeared in 27 of the 49 games played, averaging about 12 minutes/game, sitting in the press box the other 22. The most notable part of his play over his short career, have been a few memorable late game gaffes, right in front of his own goal, that led to a few come from behind “losses” for the Canes. An NHL adage is it takes 250 games for a defenseman to learn the position. Fleury is only half way there. He has suffered mightily for his gaffes with irregular starts and low ice time during the last 2 years in Raleigh, almost the worst case scenario for honing skills and building confidence at the position. Like Gardiner, the reputation for bad turnovers will be really hard for Fleury to shake. Unlike Gardiner, there is not much hope for an offensive game to offset conspicuous turnovers. The rest of this season could well prove to be instrumental for Fleury securing a long term NHL future. Ironically it could also cement his having that future in Seattle, playing for the GM who drafted him.
I think the canes should try to trade Fleury to a team desperate for a d man, try to sign someone for the rest of the season and then hope for one of Prisky or Bean to be ready in the fall.
I don’t see RBA ever trusting Fleury and I think the problems you point out with Fleury’s game are unlikely to be resolved, leaving him as a top 6/7D, which is valuable but other teams may still be higher on him given his draft status, in which case a trade could be the right thing to do for the Canes.
Glad Reimer is coming around, we need someone to play like a top goalie and steal a few games while the team is not playing up to par.
Tonight is a big test, a W would leave the canes in a playoff position, on a 100 point pace for the season and feel good heading into recovery time, an l would probably leave the canes outside of the cutline heading into the break.
This is why we should put Reimer in net one more time and empty the tank.
Your opening sentence reminds me of the saying “Hope is not a plan.” Here’s my hope. Don Waddell channels Jim Rutherford and deals Gardiner, pulling off the equivalent of dumping Tomas Kaberle (in 2011) in the first year of his 3 year deal and picking up Jaroslav Spacek in a trade with Montreal. (Conceptually I have difficulty with a positive outcome of finding a desperate team to take on Fleury, while simultaneously becoming a team in a desperate search for a dman.)
The more Fleury plays, the better he looks. I don’t get the hate for this guy. He has upside in speed, size, and skill that no other defenseman in the Canes system has. It’s too bad he hasn’t been given a long tryout like most Canes D have gotten in the past.
I really can’t believe people want to see Jake Bean instead. This guy was absolutely lost his last couple preseason games. I don’t care how many points he scores in the AHL. That has little to do with NHL success. If you haven’t noticed being solid defensively wins in the NHL. If more offense is all you need Toronto would already have three cups. Throwing a defensively challenged guy on the blue line in crunch time for his first real NHL action is a recipient for disaster.
I would rather see the Canes flip Bean for a veteran defenseman that could help them win now.
“The more Fleury plays, the better he looks.” I completely agree. His developmental path to this point has been erratic at best. That path needs to be factored in as we assess his ability to play at this level. He will have to earn the trust from RBA, based on his current and ongoing performance, not on his history.
Reimer’s success of late – and through much of the season – should not come as a surprise. He was successful in TOR and also in FLA in his early time there. He can be a legitimate top goalie, but I don’t think we will play him that way through the year, even if he plays tonight (he should, IMO). Mrazek is also capable of extended runs of success = his career is hallmarked by excellent run, and then “meh” runs.
As for Fleury, I have been a fan of his. And on Sunday you saw a rejuvenated version of Fleury. He knows this is probably the most important year in his career. He talked about that in preseason – that he was going to be more serious on the ice and play tougher. And he has. He probably his grittiest game ever on the NHL level against NYI – tangling with a lot players on the boards. Several times, as well, I noted he skated the puck upthe d-zone. Whether he can really close the gaps at an NHL level is still indeterminate. But it is unfair to compare him to Slavin and Pesce – few people in the league play d like those too. On this team you have to compare him to TvR and Edmundson It is interesting to note that Fleury was drafted as an offensive d-man – I think he still have potential to really blossom (see what I did! LOL!) in that way. But he is still afraid to make mistakes which would have RBA limit his TOI.
As for Bean, lts assessed him in preseason accurately – I was surprised he was sent down so quickly. He has boomed offensively – and Warsofsky is working with him on his d, which is on the right trajectory at the very least.