Bunch of jerks great year Canes preview

[yave1964]

PRESEASON OUTLOOK Kind of meh, they seem to make a habit of finishing 9th in the conference missing the playoffs by a few points almost every year. A big trade with Calgary and donating Skinner to Buffalo for a bag of beans didn't impress nor did signing Mrazek. Not expected to contend.

 

FINAL RECORD 46-29-7 99 points, 4th in Metro. Stunned defending champs the Capitals in double overtime game seven on a goal by MGGinn set up of course by Justin Williams. Then they swept the Islanders in the second round before being steamrolled by the Bruins in the conference finals.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR The bunch of jerks thing was either awesome or a travesty but everyone was talking. The stretch drive in which they passed the Canadiens and Jackets to finish in the first wildcard and avoid drawing the Lightning was huge. But the high point was after a slow start they sat at 15-17-5 going into the new year and caught fire, going 21-6-1 thru March 2nd, two months of flawless hockey with a different hero nightly to announce that the Jerks were to be taken seriously. Besting the Capitals and Isles was damn nice as well.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR None. Even losing to Boston didn't hurt anything, by then they were playing with house money for over a month. They had highs and lows, started slow but after the first of the year were one of the top three or four teams in Hockey and exceeded all expectations.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Sebastian Aho established himself as a stud, 83 points to lead the team while moving inside to fill the 1C role admirably. Williams had 23 goals, Teravainen 21 and rookie Svechnikov 20, Svech coming on strong down the stretch after a slow start. Slavin developed into a top pair defender at both ends of the ice and excelled in the playoffs. Ferland battled concussion issues but was a beast when healthy. Dougie Hamilton had 18 goals and 39 points, Faulk was solid, the whole defense was near brilliant. Niederreitter came over from the Wild and simply killed it at a near point a game pace with the Canes. A crazy balanced attack, a whopping 13 players had double digit goals. Mrazek and Mcelhinney came from nowhere and had outstanding seasons. Brind A'mour proved that he was absolutely the right choice for the job. Health was key, most of the key cogs were 15 players appeared in 72 or more games so they had a full season of continuity. And then the AHL team, the Checkers won the Calder Cup. Lots and lots went right.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG. Staal was the exception, he missed time several times and after a good start offensively he slipped in the second half. Victor Rask was awful before being traded. Darling was a complete washout in net. Zykov was finally given up on as a complete bust. Seriously, that is about the whole list.

 

FREE AGENTS Key contributors Mrazek, McBackup, Ferland, and Williams are all UFAs and are wanted back. Ferland is the tricky one as he is going to be in demand as a young hard hitting power forward with offensive upside. The other three should be a bit easier. Aho is going to want signed long term or will go to arbitration. In other words, most of this offseason will be internal housekeeping.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS Literally everything went right this year, can they handle adversity when injuries or prolonged slumps occur? Can they resign Ferland? Williams? Mrazek? How much is Aho going to get? Will he take a bridge like Nylander or want an eight year deal? 

 

  A season in which everything went right is usually followed by slipping back a bit, the saving grace may be kids at Charlotte ready to step in if anyone slips and falls.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

As usual, @yave1964 , enjoy your posting style.
Entertaining, to the point, yet still with your own personal spin on things that doesn't sound like it is regurgitated from somewhere else.

I think the Canes' challenge for next season is, "Can they sneak up on people once again?"
I think not....but if the players that did so well for them are the real deal and the chemistry is genuine, they may not need to do any sneaking.
They could just go right up to other team's barns and bang the door down!

The main core up front will return, but the team will have interesting choices regarding their Captain Justin Williams and like you said, perhaps Michael Ferland as well. Getting a deal done with Sebastian Aho is a no-brainer....thing is, at what cost and for how long.

Defensively, a mixed bag back there regarding who will be with the team long term and who isn't.
Does the team want to extend Justin Faulk beyond this coming season? Or perhaps they are better off upping his value best they can then trading him off for picks and/or prospects?

Dougie Hamilton has two years left....will he be allowed to "get comfortable" in Raleigh, or will the same as Faulk go with him? Trade him off for assets?

Slavin and Pesce are the two young d-men committed long term and then the team has to make a decision on steady Trevor Van Reimsdyk who, like Justin Faulk, only has this year left on his deal.

Again, interesting decisions Canes will have to make....many of those perhaps pending on how the team starts out next season.

Goaltending-wise...well, THAT will be something.
I felt their goalies played over their heads and one (Darling) didn't play anywhere near his potential.
I want to see if they jettison the entire crop, well, maybe keep ONE as a backup, and maybe go for a Bobrovsky or Varlamov on the FA market.

They also have a nice draft board to work with this coming July.... 4 picks in the first two rounds (1-first, 3-seconds), 10 picks in 7 rounds overall, so they should be able to pick up at least one, maybe two impact players for next season with that

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

 Thanks for the kind words as usual. Yeah I love these writeups, they are a blast to do.

 

 Carolina had nearly unprecedented health and luck was certainly on their side. I am not saying they were a bad team that got lucky, just a team that got the breaks and took advantage of them.

  They have lots of kids chomping at the bit, Haydn Fleury, Clark Bishop, Martin Necas, Alex Nedeljkovic, Andrew Poturalski, Jake Bean, Julian Gauthier are all legit real deal prospects who are NHL ready at this time, another handful are close. This is a deep talented organization. I remember when the Griffins won the Calder, when the Monsters in Cleveland won the cup, when the Reign won it, the Marlies won it, looking the rosters over there were a few NHL players but the rosters were mostly dotted with career AHLers or nhl players on their way out. Not so with the Checkers. Carolina may have the deepest talent pool in the minors of ready to go players of any team in the game.

  I dont expect their health to hold up like this year, it was nearly unprecedented for so many players to stay healthy all year, really only Staal missed any time of key contributors. But even if instead of 15 guys staying healthy if it is like maybe 10, they have the depth to withstand it. I wouldnt be surprised if they took a step back because what goes up goes down but I wouldnt be surprised if they managed to stay relevant because of the kids breaking in.