Early on during the Hurricanes current playoff drought, the team saw a number of regular roster players and allegedly promising prospects leave the Hurricanes and then proceed to wind their way out of the NHL within a few years. Players like Jay Harrison, Nathan Gerbe, Patrick Dwyer, Chad LaRose, Alexander Semin, Jiri Tlusty, Tim Gleason and others play regular roles on the Hurricanes and then shortly thereafter find themselves out of the NHL. In addition, once promising prospects like Zach Boychuk, Chris Terry, Zac Dalpe, Ryan Murphy and others left and were unable to stick at the NHL level with other teams. Given that the Hurricanes were struggling in the standings, it was not surprising that players who could make the Hurricanes roster were not good enough elsewhere.
But in recent years a different roster phenomenon has occurred. Players who were struggling with the Hurricanes have thrived elsewhere. And players who were thriving elsewhere have struggled with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Prior to this year, the team had seen Eric Staal whose scoring had fallen to meager depth scoring levels rebound to score 42 goals and rejuvenate his career in Minnesota. And the team had also seen Eddie Lack and Scott Darling coming off of strong previous seasons make the jump to North Carolina and then flop spectacularly.
But with the significant changeover of higher-end prospects and players this past summer, the results are even more spectacular. Micheal Ferland and Jordan Martinook have fared well in a Hurricanes uniform, but Dougie Hamilton has struggled thus far generating a mixed review in total.
But what is most glaring is how spectacular Hurricanes players are faring in other uniforms so far this season.
Jeff Skinner has surged with 21 goals in 28 games and sports a massive plus 18 when the second highest on an upstart Sabres team is Jack Eichel’s plus 8.
After seemingly peaking as a modest depth scorer with the Hurricanes, Elias Lindholm has found a higher gear scoring-wise with 16 goals and 18 assists in 32 games.
Noah Hanifin’s transition away has been less spectacular, but he is somewhat quietly playing top 4 minutes on one of the NHL’s best teams after being a third pairing defensman with the Hurricanes.
And finally, Cam Ward and Marcus Kruger have not been immune to the Blackhawks’ woes and did not receive the same ‘Canes departure boost’ as the others. And Joakim Nordstrom and Derek Ryan have performed in similar depth roles after departing.
What say you Canes fans?
How do you explain this phenomenon?
The Hurricanes who have struggled for goal scoring could use Lindholm and Skinner’s totals, but would they have matched or even come close to those numbers in a Hurricanes uniform?
Is something within the Hurricanes organization, system or culture holding good players back such that they can only reach their potential elsewhere?
Is it possible that this is just a short-term blip and that the players excelling elsewhere in 2018-19 will return to Earth?
Go Canes!
If we knew the answers to these questions we’d have a pretty durn good team.
But the problem is individual players, the composition of players, the systems and strategies dictated by the coach and the general environment or atmosphere in the organization.
You run a successful enterprise, be it a business or a sports team, by identifying the right people and putting them in an environment that allows them to succeed.
There is a lot to be dais (and a lot has bee said) for the hit and miss first round draft success of the last decade, but it’s a fact that 4 of the cornerstone Canes (Eric Staal, Skinner, Lindholm and to a lesser extent Hannifin) are now fulfilling their potential, unfortunately after having been passed on by the Canes.
One of the problem s is that those players were traded at well below value and the return did not address the glarin needs of the team, scoring, power forward, upgrade in goal.
But we can see it’s not as simple as individual players not being good enough, it’s that they were not successful with the Canes. The trading fiasco is on management. They make those decisions and, as I keep saying and whatever excuses we can come up with, some maybe valid, our management has a pretty abismal track record when it comes to NHL success.
Then there’s the coaching and systems. After the last Paul Maurice tour in Carolina the Canes have hired rookie head coaches and, as far as I can see, have also not hired assistant coaches with much NHL experience.
Kirk Muller never succeeded after leaving the Canes, now he’s back where he was before the Canes gig, assistant coach in Montreal.
We were all pretty critical of Bill Peters and were sure he would not succeed, but he’s leading a pretty good Flame squad that is tearing up the west, with some of the ex Canes, 3 of them in fact. The defense coach is nw with Buffalo, one of the top teams in the east.
The one coach whose been with the Canes the whole time is the current head coach. RBA is a great person, a hall of famer but he’s never shown the ability to lead a team to victory, not at any level. He was in charge of a powerplay that was perannually one of the worst in the league.
He is a great motivator but based on what we’ve seen he’s not good at strategy, and he does not have a strategic assistant coach with an outsider’s perspective.
Then there’s Carolina, the fans have grown apathetic, there is a lot of competition for people’s money with all the university teams that are the foundation of the triangles athletic pride, and a growing soccer market. A decade of playoff misses is not helping the Canes gain back the market and maybe players here feel forgotten, under appreciated or just relaxed, knowing that people are not really interested in their every move or success, this is where they can just take it a little bit easy, away from the spotlight.
My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the team does not have the right mesh of skills to be successful. The Canes are one of the lowest, if not the lowest, apaid roster, and sometimes you get what you pay for. You can hope for miracles, but the reason it’s called a miracle is that it rarely happens.
You can’t acquire one or two stars and then fill out the team with the bargain bin castaways from Chicago (TT is not in that category, he was a reasonably good addition), and newly drafted kids asked to perform miracles.
Shrude acquisitions like Max Domi (he was good yesterday, really good) through smart trades and more willingness to invest in players is the key to improvement.
The coaching staff is under manned and I dont think RBA is the right guy for the job, strength coach, development coach, assistant coach, or if he remains in the head coaching job he needs more help.
The apathy of the fans will disappear with success on the ice, it’s as simple as that.
I think you can contribute the success of players leaving the Canes on several factors:
1) It is like leaving a bad marriage (if you have had the good fortune to do so! 🙂 )or leaving your own bad job. You don’t realize how unhappy you were until you leave and you find a new positive energy that can carry you quite a while.
2) Playing with higher end talent. I admit I thought that Skinner and Eichel would clash and maybe they will, but watch them on ice together and they are completely in sync. Eichel, who is a beast, brings the puck through the neutral zone and is then comfortable with feeding Skinner. Skinner can focus on what he does best and knows Eichel will find him with the puck or the puck will end up around the net.
Similarly, Lindholm centers Gaudreau and Monahan. Lindy was made for that job – he is a great assist man and he gets and makes his opportunities because the other teams have too much on their plate handling G&M.
3) Success breeds success, and winning brings a winning attitude. We actually saw that here the first few weeks of the season. But Calgary and Buffalo are currently have excellent and, in the case of Buffalo, unexpected success.
In no way would their success have been duplicated if the stayed here for another. If success breeds success, then losing is a cancer – and I believe the malaise of that cancer is a heavy weight on the team. It is institutional – and even elevating a motivational ex-player to coach and a veteran “leader” to the “C” doesn’t lift that weight
The positive here is Buffalo – and how quickly they turned around their own culture of losing (which was frequently commented on last season even with Eichel). What did it take Buffalo? – a player from the outside who meshes well with the undisputed team leader coming in an creating success on the ice. And, again success breeds success – people can buy into success. And even those players who might have thought that Eichel was a diva last season are going to shrug and say ” but he’s our diva” and go out and follow him.
I am concerned what consistent team mediocrity and frequent losing is doing to Aho. I am concerned with the impact on young stars like Svech, even Slavin. No professional athlete wants to lose or spend their career on a losing team.
Maybe it is time for a refresh in team leadership – let the “kids” (Aho, Slavin, Svech) take the reins and let the veterans (Staal, Williams) provide support. Not RBA’s way – but that’s what EDM, TOR, and BUF have largely done. Otherwise, expect more of what we have seen – good players coming in and not playing to their potential/expectation and underperforming players leaving the team and becoming stars elsewhere.
Edm is and has been a hot mess for a decade.
They have gotten no end of #1 picks, including MacDavid, but have still managed to fail, despite all that.
Tor, Bos and Buf are the teams I look to. One thing Tor and Buf have been lucky with is that rare beast, a legit elite top 1 center. Aho is not at that level, even if he is pretty durn good (recent run of games notwithstanding).
They also have multiple top 3 picks from recent years, carolina has managed to play themselves out of the top 3 tier of prospects to the second tier where it is more hit and miss, the exception was the draft lottery luck last year that, in retrospect, may not have been the best thing for the short term success of the team as it distracted management from their primary task of adding scoring, though hopefully the Canes will enjoy having Svech for many years to come.
Buf also have an owner who is willing to pay whatever it takes to get the team sorted. Some of those contracts have ended up pretty misdirected, but it looks like the work has started paying off.
The most encouraging things about the Canes is the success in Clt. Success in the AHL is far from guaranteed NHL success, but we’re seeing players playing hard and cultivating a winning attitude.
I think the difference is the coach. He’s done a fantastic job with the roster. This is the kind of coaching or leadership change that the Canes need, plus rebalancing the roster.
I made a similar comment on Twitter last night… it just seems like every move the Hurricanes make seems to blow up in our faces. I don’t think skinner or even Lindholm would be replicating their success if they were still here, but I expected A LOT more out of Dougie Hamilton. The season is still relatively early and he’s talented enough to quickly heat up and change that narrative, but that trade that once looked like a massive coup now looks… not that way. Plus there is the whole Adam Fox part of it… and boy, could we really use him right now to generate some offense from the back end. Somehow, this team is still right on the edge of the playoff push. But it’s time to get going. Svechnikov had a breakout game last night. He was the best player on the ice. Time to move him up the lineup and see how he looks with the Finns. There are no more excuses. I legitimately think he could score at a near point per game pace with those two. Give Kuokkanen some more time to get comfortable. I thought he was solid early last night before disappearing the second half of the game. Then, hopefully Ferland and Staal can come back soon and the lineup will maybe start to have a little more firepower. I’d like to see Kuokkanen next to those two, actually. I think a Ferland, Staal, JK line behind Aho, TT, and Svechnikov would be a really nice top six. And speaking of, Aho needs to step up and start to takeover. We need this to be his team, at least until Svechnikov is ready to be the face of the franchise. He was too passive last night until he finally went after it and scored that goal late. Way too many shots he passed up. But as I said… As dreadful as things have felt lately, this team still has the potential to make the playoffs. But it’s time to make a move. I don’t know that adding a legit top 6 sniper is possible right now. Tarasenko feels like a pipe dream. But this team has the talent. It just needs government start being put in position to succeed.
Stupid autocorrect.. I hate posting from my phone. That should have said “to”, don’t know where “government” came from.
I agree with raleightj on his second point. We have lacked enough skilled forwards and higher end talent to be a consistent scoring threat. This has a ripple effect and puts more pressure on the D and goalie (it is somewhat true that the best defense is a good offense in this case). When our skilled forwards depart and are matched with better players they not surprisingly perform better.
I don’t believe in the hex of the organization or the Canes culture. If Buffalo and Arizona can rebound then so can we. I’m pretty sure we have been searching for a reasonable trade for at least one top-six forward but have not been able to finalize for whatever reason. Rumor has it that very recently a deal with a western conference team fell through at the last minute. If the Canes can land another skilled forward soon and then another at the last trade deadline then it’s conceivable that we could emerge from the pack to be a very good team. It is still possible that the current adversity strengthens the team and we peak at the perfect time late in the season.
I believe we are two top forwards away from being a very good team. For example, Jeff Carter and/or Braydon Schenn and/or Kapanen. It’s time for management to get something done and spend some $ to address needs. In perspective, this season’s results so far are not surprising (losing Skinner, playing numerous rookies, etc.). Curtis McElhinney was found money and deserves much credit for what he’s accomplished to date. I remain cautiously optimistic and feel like most of the pieces are in place.
You posed an interesting question, Matt. In order to understand this phenomenon, we need to take a look at the big picture.
When we first arrived in Raleigh, the newly minted Canes were owned by Mr. Karamanos. Mr. K was not one who liked spending money. I read a recent post here suggesting that it must be miserable working for the Canes now. I don’t know anything about that. But I had several friends who worked for the Canes under Mr. K’s ownership and they were miserable.
Mr. K did not spend money on players. Except, that is, when it came to Russian players. He consistently overspent on the wrong Russians. The last such adventure we are still paying for: Alexander Semin.
When it came to renegotiating contracts, the first one for the Canes was spectacularly a disaster and a blessing. Keith Primeau thought more highly of his worth as a player than did the Canes. Hard to tell whether the valuation was Mr. K’s or Jimmy Rutherford’s, but the negotiations quickly became ugly and very personal. The face of the Canes was Jimmy’s.
Things got so ugly that Jimmy traded Keith. The trade was with the Flyers. Keith found himself on his way to Philadelphia. On the other side, a couple of players came to us. The only name that rang a bell with me was a relatively unknown player named Rod Brindamour.
The Keith Primeau ugliness was repeated several times in the following years.
In the years leading up to 2005-06, Jimmy put on display his genius for seeing things in NHL players that nobody else could see. None of the players he acquired were even close to being elite. Amazing.
But just as he was an acknowledged genius at stealing great players from under the noses of their previous teams, he was very bad at handicapping amateur hockey flesh and developing them.
Paul Maurice stayed with the Canes longer than any other Canes coach. In my opinion, he was loyal to Mr. K and tolerated his wheel-grabbing ways. Muller was an ineffective coach.
We fans didn’t like either of them. Then came Peter Laviolette. Laviolette had taken a mediocre Islanders team and gone into the playoffs. Then for no reason that made any sense, found himself out of a job. Canes fans were ready to tar and feather Maurice. Halfway through the season, Laviolette was hired to replace him. Laviolette brought the team around for the second half of the season. The next year was the lockout. The next year, Laviolette’s troops were predicted to be dead last in the league. We rode out the season at number one in the Eastern Conference and went on to win the Cup.
Laviolette didn’t last long after that. I believe that Mr. K couldn’t help himself. He had to take back his team. Laviolette went on to great success.
Bill Peter’s reign was awful overall. He had no sense for his players. The fact that he chose to miss training camp so that he could play at coaching in Europe is proof positive.
The odd retirement of Jimmy Rutherford demonstrated his fight for freedom from Mr.K’s iron grip. The same week, he took the GM job at Pittsburgh.
Jimmy’s and Mr. K’s legacy was a mediocre team of bitter and disorganized players, one conference championship and a Stanley Cup. Oh! And a prospect cabinet that was empty.
Ronnie Francis built a scouting network where there had been virtually none. He filled the prospect cabinet giving us one of the best arsenals in the NHL.
So now, here we are. We are less than halfway through this season. We have a new owner, new GM, new coaches, new players, new captain, and a new culture.
And our shiny new number two draft pick just had his first 2 goal night. I can’t help but notice the irony of the fact that he is Russian. Eat your tiny hearts out Jimmy and Mr. K!
C’mon gang. Let’s give this new group a chance.
Good writeup IMO. My only other comment would be that RBA needs to get with the program. Enough hands off management. Get someone in front of the net as their job and start holding players accountable starting with our so called star players. The team plays like a bunch of fancy dans afraid to shoot, afraid to go to the net, and too happy to throw an errant pass to another teammate instead of skating the puck up the ice and putting shots on net with traffic in front of the net. I’ve had season tickets since team arrived in Raleigh and I am tired of watching lousy effort after lousy effort. Team seems to have no pride. They left their goalie hung out after he miraculously held them in the game early. But that seems to be just another consistent trait for a Canes team along with lack of consistent effort, lack of net presence, lack of accurate passing, and just overall sloppy uninspired hockey.
Something interesting in the Dundon talk a few days ago that reflects on going out and spending money.
Dundon said he is currently “subsidizing” the team. He said he wouldn’t want to consistently subsidize the team at more than $10M a year. He said he is expecting to put $20M into the team this year, though. That doesn’t sound like a man who wants to open his wallet any wider.