September 6, 2025 • 60 mins
What are the true difference-makers for the Hurricanes this season? Hockey's return brings renewed optimism for Carolina fans, but last year's underlying metrics tell a complex story that could shape the team's fortunes.
The analytics paint a fascinating picture: Carolina dominated in expected goals but couldn't consistently convert chances, while their defense ranked 7th in expected goals against but finished a concerning 21st in actual goals allowed. This defensive paradox points to one critical storyline for 2024-25: goaltending stability. Frederik Andersen's health remains the X-factor after playing just 72 games over three seasons, while Pyotr Kochetkov presents a statistical enigma – elite in high-danger situations (92nd percentile) but below average on medium-danger shots. Can new acquisition Cayden Primeau provide the organizational depth needed?
Alexander Nikishin's arrival brings legitimate star potential to Carolina's blueline. After a tantalizing playoff glimpse last season, the Russian defenseman combines rarely-seen physical tools (99th percentile shot velocity) with what scouts describe as "unmatched two-way impact." His recent interviews reveal a player focused on earning his role through consistent work rather than reputation – music to Rod Brind'Amour's ears. Meanwhile, Jackson Blake faces the classic sophomore challenge after signing his eight-year extension. His remarkable defensive awareness (98th percentile) provides a foundation, but can he avoid the second-year stumbles that have affected countless young players?
The upcoming Prospect Showcase will spotlight future contributors like Charles-Alexis Legault and the intriguing Ivan Ryabkin, while PTO signings Oliver Kylington and Giovanni Smith represent low-risk opportunities to strengthen organizational depth. Subscribe and hit the notification bell to follow these storylines all season with Storm Tracker, your source for comprehensive Hurricanes analysis.
Highlights:
• Analytics reveal the Canes ranked first in expected goals but lagged in actual scoring
• Goaltending consistency remains a critical factor with Frederik Andersen's health concerns
• Pyotr Kochetkov excels in high-danger situations (92nd percentile) but struggles with medium-danger shots
• Alexander Nikishin projects as a top-pairing defenseman with elite shot metrics and "unmatched two-way impact"
• Jackson Blake's sophomore season expectations include building on his 98% defensive rating while improving offensive production
• Special teams showed a stark contrast: 2nd-ranked penalty kill but 24th-ranked power play
• The Prospect Showcase will feature promising talents including Charles-Alexis Legault and Ivan Ryabkin
• PTO signings Oliver Kylington and Giovanni Smith provide potential depth options, with Kylington offering more upside if he can recapture his 31-point form
Listen to future episodes of stormTRacker by subscribing to stay updated on all Hurricanes news and analysis.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, hockey will be back soon and Canes fans have a
lot to look forward to as wegear up for a new season of
Carolina Hurricanes hockey.
What did we learn about theCanes' performance last season
and what are some of thestorylines that might capture
our attention soon?
Who should we have our eyes onin the upcoming Prospect
(00:55):
Showcase?
Who should we have our eyes onin the upcoming Prospect
Showcase and what do we knowabout the two players who are
currently signed to PTOs withthe Hurricanes?
Delighted, as always, to haveErin and Katie joining me to
talk about all these things andmore, and we'll get right to it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hi there.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay.
So you know, we look back atlast year's performance and you
know, I know, katie you've donea lot of work with the metrics,
as usual, analyzing what wasworking, what wasn't working,
and we might be surprised bysome of the things that you
found there.
Are the Canes set up to dobetter this season and what
(01:39):
areas of concern should we haveas we look forward to the year?
Katie, want to kick it off.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Sure.
Well, I found the JFresh cardfor the Canes and for their
season overall, and they had agood season.
There's lots to be encouragedby and definitely there are some
areas in which they haveimproved.
How much of an improvement thatis, I think, remains to be seen
.
There's a range of what you canexpect, depending on the impact
(02:08):
that the new guys like Ehlersand Miller have on the team.
As expected, it shows that theCanes were really good in
generating chances.
I'm always harping on the factthat the Canes have really a lot
of problems finishing and thiscard definitely shows that that
while they were the first in theleague in actual scoring.
(02:31):
So there's a bit of a um of adifference there.
What really concerned me andkind of surprised me especially
because brindamore system isknown for its defense as a
hallmark is, while the defenseitself had good metric numbers
(02:53):
and was seventh in the leaguewith expected goals against,
they were actually 21st in theleague in goals against actual
goals against.
So the defense was doing itsjob, but there seemed to have
been some breakdowns, whether itwas in goal or just some bad
(03:14):
puck luck, when it came to theiropponents scoring against them.
So that probably would be thebiggest area that the team is
going to be looking to improveis having a full, healthy season
of Frederick Anderson and CoachHekov working together,
creating a solid foundationmoving forward.
(03:36):
The special teams were also abit of a mixed bag.
The PK was good.
They were ranked second in theleague in PK based on the
analytics, but they were 24thfor the power play, and we've
talked about the power playbefore and that's an area where
we're hoping that Ehlers canhelp to dial up the team a
(03:56):
little bit more and get thatunit more productive, because
McCain's already had a reallygood offense.
If they can bring the powerplay into that equation as well,
it's going to crank it up evenfurther.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, and you know, as we kind of peel the onion
back on this, there's someinteresting storylines that go
with this.
We're going to talk about threeof them which I think could
really play this year for theHurricanes, and we'll kick it
off with goaltending.
You mentioned goaltending, ofcourse, being a key element as
the Canes go into this season.
You know you look at someinteresting things with Freddie
(04:30):
Anderson.
His last three seasonsFreddie's played 34, 16, and 22
games in each of those seasons.
I mean this is just incrediblytough for the Hurricanes to go,
with him playing so little.
It's challenging.
And of course we've all beenwaiting for Piotr Kociakoff to
kind of take the mantle.
(04:51):
Daily Faceoff said somethinginteresting in their predictions
this year.
Here's what they said aboutKocekach.
They said we've been bullish onhim taking over as Carolina's
starter for years, but he has toplay well for that to happen.
He's coming off a down year andthe 1A job remains Anderson's
(05:13):
when he's healthy.
So I think the situation isclear when it comes to Kochetkov
, so we've got a situation herewhere I think Kochetkov has some
challenges.
And, katie, can you pick it upand talk a little bit about his
JFresh analysis for us?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, the main thing with Kochetkov as far as the um,
his player card, is, it showswhat a lot of us have already
seen in the eye test, that whenhe's in the really high danger
circumstances, like on thepenalty kill or he has the high
danger shots against, he's oneof the best goalies in the
(05:53):
league.
He is absolutely fantastic atstopping the puck, but it's when
you get into those kind ofmiddling areas that he just he
seems to disappear or overthinkthings.
His medium danger chance totalsare surprisingly low.
(06:13):
I mean we know that he's beenbeen low, but it's in the single
digits and he needs to figuresomething out.
I mean, we've had those quotesthat he said before that we've
we've all laughed on and that heneeds to just stop thinking and
just start reacting andtrusting his instincts, and that
that seems to be very much thecase in this, in this instance,
(06:35):
because those high pressuresituations where you don't have
time to think because the shotscoming immediately, his
instincts are fantastic, butwhen he has a chance to second
guess himself or get himselfjust touch out of position,
that's where things seem to fallapart.
So if he can really rely on hisinstincts and his reflexes and
(06:57):
his feel for the game, I thinkthat will be the key to him
having a successful season thisyear.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, and you know NHL Edge kind of echoes the same
kind of metrics.
He's high danger savepercentages in the 92 percentile
, so he's right there.
He's one of the best in thegame.
But goals against average he'sin the 92th percentile.
So he's right there, he's oneof the best in the game.
But goals against average he's74.
So that's not a great number.
And then you go to overall savepercentage at 898.
(07:27):
He's below the 50th percentile,the mid-range save percent you
mentioned.
He's below the 50th.
And percentage games greaterthan 900, save percentage he's
below the 50th.
And and percentage gamesgreater than 900, say,
percentage, he's below the 50thpercentile.
So you know, his game last yearjust was not there and uh, and
again, it's kind of surprisingbecause we remember he went
(07:47):
through some stages where he waslights out.
We, you know, we saw thatincredible, you know stint, that
he had for, uh, several gameswhere he was playing great, but
then all of a sudden, you know,things don't go his way.
What do we think will be thesituation this year with the
Canes If Freddie gets injured?
How do we feel about thegoaltending?
What do we think might happen,erin?
(08:08):
Some thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, the one thing that I think that's going to be
really interesting to followthrough the training camp part
of the season is what have theyacquired in Caden from Moe
because that is something that alot of people have talked about
the Canes when we didn't haveFreddie or Piotr last year, we
had Spencer Martin and DustinTokarski, as we've talked about
(08:31):
before, and you just want to bein a situation where, if you
have to call someone up thatyou're not looking at someone
that you know, you're justhoping that they can maybe get
one win out of four.
You want somebody that's goingto be able to make an impact and
be a reliable call-up or areliable backup in the case of
injury.
So I'm going to be interestedto see how, what the coaching
(08:53):
staff's evaluation of Primo isin that role somebody that could
be a backup for either Freddieor Piotr at times of need,
because we know those times willarise.
I think the key for the Canesthis year is how long can
Freddie stay healthy?
And this is where thecalculation just gets so
difficult, because you have, youknow, at his age you're talking
(09:14):
about age-related regressioncreeping in and making the whole
picture a lot blurrier, becausewhat he's been dealing with has
certainly not been because ofthat.
The injuries the knee injuryand then the blood clotting
issue those are not age-relatedthings, those can happen to
anybody at any age.
But as he starts to get closerto that 37, 38, 39 age, you know
(09:38):
you've got goalies that will begreat all the way through, and
then you have goalies that willfall off of a cliff very
abruptly.
So if we can get a solid,healthy year out of Freddie
Anderson, if he can play, youknow, considerably more than 16
or 22 games, you know that thatwould mean a lot for the Kings.
That would be a huge differencemaker for them in terms of, you
(09:59):
know, being able to build theirseason.
So that's the biggest unknownto me is what happens if you
know one or the other of themreally can't.
Now, as far as Piotr isconcerned, another benefit I
think, to having a younggoaltender like Primo in the
system is that that gives Piotrsomeone else to compete with for
some of that stuff too.
(10:20):
You know not that he's going tocome in and try to steal the
job, necessarily, but you neverknow.
I mean, montreal has beenpretty good with producing young
goaltenders who suddenly seemto come out of nowhere.
So you know there's never youcan't rule that out completely.
So, and Primo's stats haven'tbeen that bad.
So it's just going to be niceto have another young goaltender
(10:40):
in the system because at thevery least that's kind of a
reminder to Kuchekov that heneeds to take the lead and if he
wants his job it's his to get.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, you know, we talked about Caden Primo before
and you're right, his underlyingstats, for the most part, are
quite good, and he had somestretches with Montreal where he
looked good as well.
So I think he's a guy that Ifeel much more comfortable with
Caden as the guy that's going tocome in should we need him, as
opposed to and I love them both.
(11:12):
Dustin and Spencer did the bestthey could.
They absolutely did, and weknow that Spencer's moved off to
Russia.
I'm not sure where DustinTokarski will play this year
That'll be interesting to follow, but yeah for sure.
And again, Freddie's off to theOlympics, so this is exciting
stuff.
And he'll be going with NikolaiEhlers, so that's kind of cool.
(11:32):
But again, we'll see how it allplays out.
Healers, so that's kind of cool, uh, but again, we'll see how,
uh, how it all plays out.
And and you know, you look atthe, the situations for freddie
at the blood clot clot situationtwo years ago last year, he had
an injury that put him out.
Um, yeah, you just don't knowwhat's around the corner with
fred.
But you know, the crazy thingtoo about freddie, as we all
know, is when he's healthy he isoutstanding.
(11:53):
He's a great coach absolutelyyeah.
So let's a great goalieAbsolutely yeah.
So let's hope that he has oneof those years where health is
on his side and we'll see howthat plays out.
So, yeah, clearly, goaltendingPiotr's going to be called upon
this year.
Freddie, if he's healthy, willbe super, and we've got Primo
and Amir Miptakov and weshouldn't forget him, I guess as
(12:17):
well.
He's in the mix and of coursehe's, I understand he's going to
be staying with his buddy,andrei Sveshnikov, so so that's
kind of fun as the head intotraining camp.
So we'll see how that plays out.
And speaking about Russians, thenext storyline that we wanted
to get into was around AlexNikitian.
(12:37):
And boy, there's a lot ofdiscussion around Nikitian these
days.
As we go into this, I thoughtI'd read something from Stephen
Ellis at Hockey Faceoff talkingabout the Hurricanes prospects
for this year, and he mentionedthis about Nikitian.
He said finally, it's time forNikitian to shine.
Nikitian is one of the topprospects in hockey and should
(13:01):
have a pretty immediate effect.
With the Hurricanes out oftraining camp, nikitian has
added more urgency in his puckgame, especially last season.
He's big, smart, great with thepuck and all those traits
should allow him to challengefor first pairing minutes sooner
rather than later.
His advanced pro experiencedoesn't make him your average
(13:23):
prospect, that's for sure, and Iknow that our thinking going
into this was okay.
Is he going to slot in in asituation where he can actually
play some big minutes?
Might he be in the mix for thecalder?
Katie, you want to kick it off?
Speaker 3 (13:42):
well, I definitely think he's going to be playing
some big minutes, whether thatis on the first pair, the second
pair, um, if he starts theseason on the third pair, I
think that's just for gettinghis feet wet and that's not
going to last long that he'll beon his way up shortly.
Um, the question then for thecalder becomes how does he
distinguish himself in such away that, as a defenseman, he is
(14:06):
in the same conversation assome of the other promising
young forwards, like demidov inmontreal?
and the only way he can do thatis to get some national
attention, some nationalspotlight, and the one
defenseman that the nationalmedia has learned how to love is
Jacob Slavin.
And so to get the kind ofattention that he needs, he's
(14:26):
going to have to produce results.
But he's also going to have toplay a lot of minutes alongside
of Slavin and look for hisopportunities there, which there
should be plenty of, because hedoes have a good head for
offense, and that is not JacobSlavin's bread and butter for
sure.
So it would open up a lot ofopportunities for Nikitian to
(14:48):
work his magic in the zone withhis big shot and finding the
soft spots from the blue line,knowing that he has somebody
like Slavin behind him to helpmitigate anything that, any
hiccups that come along the way.
But then, beyond that, I don'tknow that it's just the top
pairing minutes He'd also needto assert himself in such a way
(15:10):
that he is interested withquarterbacking, the top power
play, because that's also goingto be an opportunity for him to
shine, for him to get somepoints and to show off all of
those skills that we have beenso patiently waiting for perhaps
not so patiently waiting forthat we've seen in all of his
(15:30):
highlights in the KHL.
So possibility yes, but a lotof things have to fall into line
for him in order to be in theCalder conversation and with the
chance of seriously taking it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Well, one thing about you know you're talking about a
shot and I pulled up some NHLedge stuff on that from his
short tenure in the playoffs.
He, his average speed was 78miles an hour, which was the
99th percentile of the groupthat was there.
His top speed was 93.67, whichwas in the 79th percentile, and
(16:07):
90 to 100 mile an hour shots Inthe short term he was there.
He had three of them, so he wasin the 93rd percentile.
Well, he was in that.
So he's a guy that, uh, youknow he's going to want to shoot
the puck and a different typeof quarterback, as we've
discussed in the past.
And, of course, shane, as uh,shane gossespierre, as shane is
(16:27):
more of a, he likes to uh, tomove the puck, he likes to find
the open man and he's not somuch a big, big shooter.
So I think, with Nate just gonefrom last year and he was our
big shooter for the most part itwould be nice to have a guy
like Nikitian to jump in and dothat.
I wanted to mention one otherthing here about Nikitian.
(16:50):
From McKean's they had theirthis is the 25-26 annual preview
and they said a couple ofthings I think that are really
relevant.
When we look at Alex, they sayhe excels defensively.
This is interesting.
So not many folks have talkedabout Alex and his defensive
game, but the folks at McKeansay he excels defensively, using
(17:12):
his awareness, timing andangling to shut down plays
effectively.
So that sounds like the rightkind of player.
He sticks to opponents well,sealing them against the boards
with precise checks and usinghis active stick to disrupt
plays.
And offensively he's efficientrather than flashy, moving
(17:33):
smoothly with the puck anddelivering accurate, well-timed
passes.
So again here's a guy that he'snot a flashy player.
If you watch Nikitian he's notlike you know, your guy over in
Montreal and some of the otheryoung defensemen that we are
talking about.
Frequently he's more of a kindof you know, just goes about his
(17:55):
business, but does itexceedingly well.
The final comment from McKean's,I think, is critical.
It says Nikishin is NHL readyand showed great flashes with
Carolina in the playoffs lastseason.
He projects as a top pairingdefenseman with unmatched
two-way impact.
Unmatched two-way impact.
(18:20):
These are high words of praisecoming from folks who spend all
their time analyzing theseplayers and talking about them.
So I think again we've got aguy in Nikitian that, yeah, is
going to be critical.
Now, something that wasinteresting, and we talked a
little bit about this too.
Aaron and I'd like you to maybeshare a couple of thoughts on
this.
There were some commentsrecently about an interview with
(18:42):
Alex, and did you have anythoughts about what was said?
Do you recall what they talkedabout?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
You're talking about the interview with I can't
remember how to say her name.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Daria Tuboltseva.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Tuboltseva, tub remember how to say her name.
I'm sorry, daria Tubolt-Seba.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yes, tubolt-seba, thank you, I'm so sorry.
Yes, I did see that interviewon X.
I think, katie, you probablysaw some of that too.
It was a couple of weeks agothat some of that was shared and
what impressed me, from myrecollection of reading it, was
just that he talked about thework.
He really focused on the work,just that he talked about the
work.
You know, he really focused onthe work he needs to do and the
(19:20):
work he's expecting to do.
And he, you know, gave the vibeto me of a player who is just
really eager to get there andstart putting that work in a
very solid work ethic.
And I mean these are Carolinahurricanes terms.
We talk about the canes all thetime with these words.
So this is not someone who'scoming in expecting to be some
hotshot.
He's not coming in expecting tobe treated like, you know, an
(19:46):
automatic star or anything ofthe sort he's expecting, even
though he was the captain of histeam back in Russia.
He's expecting to be treatedlike anybody else who has to
prove himself and earn his way.
And I think when you hear thatfrom someone who's, you know, so
obviously talented, you justkind of get that sense of you
know this is going to be great,because that is exactly the kind
of attitude that Bradford Mooreis going to love, that Tim
Gleeson is going to love, andthis is going to give them the
(20:09):
trust in him that he's notexpecting to come in and be
handed those top pair minutes orhanded those power play minutes
.
You know he's expecting to haveto to be patient and work, and
that's something I think thatyou know.
Just looking at from thatperspective, looking at that
article, I would say it's a keyfor the um canes fans too is
that we shouldn't be um having,you know, the twitter equivalent
(20:32):
of pitchforks and torches.
If he does start out on thethird pair, we should not be
storming the arena.
If he has to play, you know,lower than we think he should,
he may be on the second bearingfor a while with Chatfield.
We've talked about that as apossibility.
We don't know what the planexactly is for Keandre Miller,
(20:52):
and that's going to be somethingthat's going to impact all of
this too.
It's another piece of thepuzzle because they're both new
to the Canes.
Really, even though Nikitianwas there for the playoffs,
they're both going to be new tothe Canes in terms of, you know,
getting started for their firstfull regular season.
We just need to be patient andtrust that this young man, who
talked about himself that way,knows perfectly well that
(21:13):
there's no instant gratificationin the NHL and that he's not
going to be disheartened ordiscouraged if he has to work
his way up and prove himself alittle bit.
So I think it's going to beneat because I think he's going
to have an entire arena full offans that are just cheering him
on, especially in those momentswhen he unveils that boom both
in the shot and in the hits.
He's going to be a tremendouslyfun player to watch and I was
(21:36):
excited.
Did you have anything from theinterview that you wanted to
highlight?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Well, yeah, I definitely do A couple of things
.
That really jumped out at mewas he did talk about playing in
Lenovo Center and he said itwas just incredible.
Yes, like he said, it was justsuch a thrill for him.
And he said I had heard alittle bit about North American
rinks, but this was reallysomething, yeah, so I thought
(22:06):
that was kind of cool.
The other thing he talked alittle bit about his friend
Demidov and he was saying that,of course, demidov came over and
he had a pretty goodunderstanding of the English
language.
He had done some very seriouswork studying prior to coming
over.
And, of course, alex that was abit of a gotcha for me because
(22:27):
I was a little bit behind thecurve on that one.
I probably should have beenputting more emphasis on my
English, but he did do a lot ofwork this summer, apparently,
and he said he can basicallytalk to his teammates now he's
got a command of the languagethat's sufficient to help him in
terms of communication withthem.
(22:49):
And you know, it's kind of likeyou remember when Piotr first
started kind of working hismagic with English and he picked
it up as well.
So this is great and I thinkthe whole tenor of the interview
was clear he just wants to be amember of the team and, as it
(23:11):
was said very clearly, hedoesn't want to be a weak link.
So you know, he wants to besomeone that makes a difference
out there.
And you know, I, I love theattitude of alex.
I just everything I see abouthim.
You know, he, he just really isembodying carolina hurricanes
front and center.
And and boy oh boy, that's uh,with his talent, this is going
(23:32):
to be a lot of fun.
So yeah, so there's a storylinewe're definitely going to.
And Carolina Hurricanes frontand center.
And boy oh boy, that's with histalent, this is going to be a
lot of fun.
So yeah, so there's a storyline.
We're definitely going to befollowing Gosh.
We followed it all last seasonas he found the way and
ultimately came over surprisinga lot of folks with that.
But I think the surprises aregoing to continue this year as
Alex really starts to write hisstory for the hurricane.
(23:53):
So it's great stuff.
Now, one other storyline wewanted to spend a few minutes
with and this gentleman we kindof talked a little bit about him
in our last podcast and said,kind of cool, he just signed an
eight-year deal, so he's gotnine years left with the
hurricane.
So I guess we're going to betalking about him for a little
while longer.
And of course that's JacksonBlake.
(24:14):
And the big question aroundJackson Blake is, you know, I
guess there's two questions whenis he going to slot in the
lineup?
Number one and I guess, numbertwo, what should we expect from
him this year?
A lot of discussion this summerabout him.
I saw a recent interview withAdam Gold talking to Rod
Brendamore and they were sayingsome very positive things about
(24:37):
Blake.
So what do we think thesituation might be for Jackson
Blake this year?
Katie?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Oh, that's a good question, you know.
Is he going to build off ofwhat he started last season?
Is he going to have a littlebit of a sophomore slump?
Don't know, we'll see how itgoes, but we know that his work
ethic is there and that's what'skey.
With the Canes he was alwaysgoing after the puck.
If he lost the puck he'd oftenget it back and just never give
(25:12):
up.
Yeah, he, he was insistent on,on, you know, not taking his
foot off of the gas.
It was all the gas all the time.
And if you look at his playercard, his player card
defensively is excellent.
For having been a rookie, hegot a 98% defensive rating.
(25:32):
I mean that is incredible.
And you know that's not goingto slip, that's not going to go
anywhere, he's just going to getstronger and he's going to
refine those tools in thehurricane system.
So where I'd like to see himbuild this year is on his
offensive skill, because he didseem a little bit snake bit.
(25:53):
It seemed like he he'd getopportunities and it just slip
off of his stick, or he'd hitthe post or, you know, he'd pass
instead of shoot.
There are a few learning curvesthat he has that that he went
through as far as knowing youknow which opportunities to take
in certain circumstances andgetting those instincts.
(26:13):
So I think that's really wherehe's going to be able to round
his game into form and becauseof that and because of the trust
that the team has put in himwith that new contract, I
believe he is going to be on oneof the top two lines.
I'd love to see him on the topline.
He got a lot of time withSebastian Ajo last season and
(26:34):
they did have some pretty goodchemistry and Ehlers coming in
could end up building on that.
And Blake has a particulartalent of retrieving pucks which
would give Ajo and Ehlers a lotmore opportunities to keep
creating and to find scoringchances.
If Rod decides to put Jarvis upon that top line which I don't
(26:56):
think any of us would argue thatJarvis has earned that slot on
the top line then I definitelythink that Blake could could
slot in next to Coke and Yemi onthat second scoring line and
and really be a positiveinfluence there with KK and
Svetch.
So wherever he ends up, he isgoing to be a net positive for
(27:17):
that line and help solidify thatline defensively.
So just hoping a few few morebounces go his way and he should
have a great sophomore.
Sophomore year Erin thoughts.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, I agree for the most part.
I do think I want to revisitthe little sophomore slump thing
because it's not just, it's nota myth, it's not, you know,
it's something that really doeshappen.
And the main reason that ithappens is because you spend
your first year in the NHL.
You're kind of an unknownquantity as you go from team to
team, you know the goaltendersdon't know you, they don't know
what you're going to try to pull, the opponents don't know you.
(27:57):
Some veterans are very, youknow, it depends on the team,
but there are some teams wherethe veterans kind of give a
little, you know, hands off, therookie vibe kind of a feeling,
so that they don't you're nottrying to injure a rookie with a
with a really hard hit oranything like that.
So the things, things get alittle bit more um ramped.
I think in the second year andthere have been a lot of players
who've had an excellent firstyear and then a second year that
(28:18):
just seemed like a reset orretool.
And we could even talk backabout Seth Jarvis, because Seth
Jarvis had a little bit of thathimself.
Now he didn't suffer in thepoints perspective as much, but
he didn't seem to be taking thatnext step and the fans talked
about that a lot.
But the coaching staff did notsee that.
What they saw was Jarvis was atthat point stepping back a
little bit to solidify thoseareas of his game that maybe
(28:40):
were a little bit weak, areasthat we don't necessarily focus
on because he was playing sowell in general.
But, like Katie was talkingabout Blake's defensive rating,
jarvis was also very good in hisfirst season and now he's
extremely good.
He's at 100%, I think, on JayFresh.
So that's what you shared withme the other day.
(29:02):
But there was a time period inbetween there where there was a
little bit of movement andthat's where I think that you
know you have to expect that ayoung player you know,
especially if he gets consistenttop six deployment, because
that is one thing.
With Jackson Blake last seasonhe did spend a good bit of time
on the top line with Ajo and youknow whoever else was up there,
because it was different people, but he did not stay there very
(29:23):
long and he was not there, youknow, in this one solid stretch
all the way through he wasmoving up and down.
He was on the second line attimes, he was on the fourth line
.
At times he was actually on thefourth line, probably more than
people realize at this point,because he began there and he
was there for a good longstretch of games.
So that's where, if he's gotconsistent top six deployment,
(29:43):
no one should panic.
If he seems to be taking alittle step back and it may not
be offensively, he may be, youknow, some some good scoring
opportunities he may.
Actually I would expect him tooutproduce his, his scoring from
last season, because I think heonly would he end up with 34
points.
So I would I would expect him toend up with more than that.
(30:04):
But you know there may be somedefensive hiccups in some other
areas along the way where he hasto smooth some things out.
And again it's that message ofpatience that fans shouldn't be
getting too bent out of shape ifJackson Blake doesn't quite
look like he did in the firstyear.
And unfortunately we all callthem you know they're out there
on the Internet we call them thecomplainiacs.
There will be people who willlook at any missteps from
(30:27):
Jackson Blake and the firstthing they will say is why did
they sign him to that contractfrom Jackson Blake?
And the first thing they willsay is why did they sign him to
that contract, you know, but weshould be prepared to be
extremely happy if heoutperforms our expectations,
but also perfectly satisfied ifthere's a little bit of that
sophomore slump in his game,because it's natural and they
signed him to the contractknowing that that happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
So, yeah, all good points.
And you know, interesting thingon NHL Edge, some of the
analysis tells us some thingsabout Jackson Blake too.
He was at the 99th percentilefor offensive zone time, so he
was most of the time probably.
His defensive numbers are greatbecause he was in the O-Zone so
much he was in the O-Zone thetime that probably his defensive
(31:12):
numbers are great because hewas in the ozone, so much he was
definitely, and we know thatbecause he's, he was uh capable
of handling the puck, staying onthe play, making things happen.
So he was eating up minutes inthat offensive zone.
But a couple of areas hestruggled on and I think these
are the concern as you go intoyear two uh, top skating speed.
He's not a quick skater, so hewas below the 50th percentile on
(31:34):
skating side.
And the other thing was topshot speed, and again he's below
the 50th.
So we know he's not a bigshooter, he's not a hard shooter
.
He gets his goals by, you know,kind of being in the mix and
finding ways to get them best,some of them past the goalie.
That probably shouldn't havegone by, but he got some good
breaks that way.
I remember a few.
But again, I think the goodnews for the Hurricanes they've
(31:59):
got depth, you know.
And as we've talked about theroster, right now we're looking
at a couple of guys sitting onthat fourth line and Taylor Hall
and Eric Robinson who couldslot up there if they need to.
If you know, jackson Blake isstruggling a little bit.
They can take some pressure offhim and move him back to the
(32:19):
fourth line if they need to.
So I think it's a goodsituation.
But any way you look at it withBlake, he's a guy that
definitely is going to be a keymember of the team.
Interesting comment from DailyFaceoff in their 25-26
prediction, looking at Blake andthey said the 17-17-34 line
(32:40):
masks the fact he ended the yearas a first liner and power play
one member, scoring six goalsin his final nine games.
So there's a story that maybewe sometimes forget.
I don't recall him doing that,but I guess he did and that's
fantastic.
He could be one of the cheapest25-goal scorers available,
(33:01):
although either signing dampensmy enthusiasm a bit.
So that's coming from the guysover at Daily Faceoff.
Blake clearly a guy that he'sgoing to be working hard this
summer.
You know the kind of player heis.
It comes from his dad, it comeshonestly.
So you know, no matter whathappens on the ice, he's going
to make things happen in a goodway.
(33:23):
So I'm looking forward toBlake's second year and
hopefully that sophomore jinx issomething that he can avoid
coming into this year.
So a number of storylines thathave been in discussion on X and
(33:43):
other places, we have chosennot to get into them in big
detail today.
Of course, there's always thediscussion about the 2C spot and
the power play and other areason the cane, so we'll leave
those for another time, but Ithink right now concentration
will remain on the discussionswe've had today and certainly
(34:04):
look forward to the play offolks like Alexander Nikishin
and Jackson Blake in the comingdays.
So let's move on to the nextpart of discussion, and I
thought we'd spend a few minutesand talk about the prospect
showcase coming up, and Ithought I thought for for you,
aaron and Katie, I'd give you achance to talk about some of the
(34:24):
folks that we do know a littlebit about.
Obviously, there's some playersthat are up from the Chicago
side and in fact we saw a coupleof them with the Hurricanes
this year, this past year, for acup of coffee, and that would
be Bradley Nadeau and JustinRobitaille, and of course, the
other member of that group thatwe're very interested in is
(34:45):
Charles Alexis LeBleu.
Anybody want to kick this off?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
I'll go ahead because my quick comment is I've said
this multiple times because ofhis size and his profile.
I'm really interested to seehow Laco does with this face and
to see how well he performs,because I think he's not far
(35:13):
from being NHL ready and hissize, his reach and the fact
that he's a stay at homedefenseman really profiles as
something that the Canes coulduse in the near future.
Um, and I'm really lookingforward to seeing how that
translates because, as we allknow, the NHL game is not played
at the pace of an NHL game andhow he's able to adjust there.
(35:37):
But yeah, I think he's the one.
I know what Nadeau is and someof the other ones I think have a
lot of skill, but theirlikelihood of being impact
NHLers, especially for the Canes, is limited.
But the one that I think hasthe biggest opportunity in the
near future to become a regularis Legault, and I'm really
(36:00):
looking forward to seeing him.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Absolutely.
Erin any thoughts.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Well, I would agree with Katie on that and just add
that you know I think we havetalked a lot about Nadeau.
I think there are some peoplewho are going to be disappointed
if Bradley Nadeau does not makethe team.
But realistically, this is nota player you want in your bottom
six, and right now the top sixwing slots are full, so you want
(36:26):
to make sure that he comes intothe canes.
You know, if that happens, whenthat happens, at a time when he
can make a difference on one ofthe top two lines.
So you know, thoseopportunities may well come up,
but he does still have some workto do in the game away from the
puck, from what I have beentold.
(36:53):
So another year in the AHL isnot going to hurt him at all.
It's going to be tremendouslyfun to watch him in the prospect
showcase, though, becauseplaying against people that are
mostly in his own age range andyou know that he was dominating
quite well over in the AHL lastyear is this going to be fun.
So, um, and then Roby, Ithought did did well in his
brief call up too, but again,not somebody.
That's going to be an immediateum ad for the Canes.
So, um, just uh wishing all ofthose guys the best at the at
the showcase and hope they havea great time.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, there's a number of players that uh that I
thought I'd spend a minute on,because you know, ivan Ryabkin
uh is is an interesting one.
He signed his uh ELC like aweek ago.
It's kind of a bit of asurprise.
Not many folks were expectingthat.
I don't think he tore up theUSHL.
(37:34):
We talked about it last yearwhen he came over to play with
Muskegon 19 goals in 27 gamesInteresting comments from the
folks at McKean's on this andthey said one year ago Ivan
Ryabkin was being compared toother high-flying Russian
offensive dynamos Matvey Mishkovand Ivan Demidov.
(37:55):
So, erin, that's right up youralley with Demidov.
Of course, he put up 58 pointsas a 16-year-old in the NHL.
So this is a guy that tore itup.
The NHL is like junior hockey,it would be like the USHL and so
on.
And he that tore it up the NHLis like junior hockey, it'd be
like the USHL and so on, and hereally tore it up.
But you know, again, there weresome concerns with you know his
(38:18):
attitude in certain ways, hiswork ethic, his conditioning,
all the things that you know.
These younger players sometimeswhen they've got so much talent
, they just go out there and youknow, and they just do it
naturally right.
They've got so much talent,they just go out there and you
know, and they just do itnaturally right.
And I think Ray Abkin is a guythat clearly needs to be closer
to the Hurricanes and we talkeda little bit about this offline
(38:41):
to say maybe the reason theywanted to sign him was to have
him, you know, right here, withmuch more control by the
Hurricanes folks.
And the question is, where ishe going to end up this year?
Is he going to head to Muskegon?
Is he heading up to Canada toplay junior?
Is he going to go down toChicago?
And I know that one of ourcompatriots, nick Bass, feels he
(39:02):
might be heading to Chicago andI think that would be great if
he does, because again, workingwith Cam Abbott and the crew
down there would be wonderful.
One interesting final commentfrom the guys at McKean's.
They said he's undoubtedly oneof the most divisive prospects
in all of hockey today.
So he's another guy that youknow.
(39:22):
He's got the good in some otherthings I guess we have to think
about, but there is still alegitimate path for him to make
the NHL.
I think the fact that Cade'sjumped on this.
They believe he can.
You know we talked about thedraft earlier.
Going into the draft, of course, I was a guy that was really
high on Reapkin, so it seems tobe playing out quite nicely.
(39:44):
So he's there.
You've got a couple of otherguys from Chicago that'll be
there Yoel Nystrom, 23-year-old.
He's a veteran D guy.
He played a couple of games, Ithink, with Chicago last year.
He's played five parts of fiveseasons with Fargestads in the
SHL, so he's a veteran.
I mean he's going to come inand add some veteran leadership.
(40:05):
I don't see him very high inthe death chart leadership.
I don't see him very high inthe death chart and he's a
smaller player at 5'11", 170.
So I don't know what to expectfrom him.
Dominic Bedinka is going to bethere, 19-year-old.
He's coming over early One yearin the playing with Malmo last
year.
He's a right-hand shot guy.
(40:26):
They, like him, got some workto do.
So we'll see how it goes forBedinka.
You know you look at thatChicago team.
It's interesting as we talkabout this and their defensive
core is going to be loaded thisyear.
You've got these young guys,you've got Charles Alexis
Legault, you've got, of course,my man, dominic Fensori, and you
(40:48):
know, you've got some otherguys that have been re-upped and
back with the team again thisyear too, like Roland Sealy, so
it's going to be fun talkingabout the Chicago Wolves this
year.
Somebody else that we need totalk about is going to be Gleb
Trikosov.
So I don't know if you recalllast year in the Prospect
(41:09):
Showcase, gleb was tremendous.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
He was great.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, he had four goals, he had a hat trick in one
game.
He really, you know, and he hadjust come over as kind of a
19-year-old.
And here he is, you know, overin North America after being
signed and he came over withRuzlan Kazi and boy I tell you
it was really something to seehim Now.
He had a tough year, right.
So just three points in 20games with the Wolves.
(41:36):
He was hurt.
A number of different thingsjust didn't go right for him
this year and I'm kind ofhopeful that he'll get back on
track because you know the Canesthink very highly of Glenn and
he's another guy that bringsnatural offensive ability to the
table.
He was drafted much higher than, or much lower rather than was
(41:58):
expected.
So the Canes did get him in asituation where he was again
looked upon as maybe afirst-rounder, certainly high
second-round guy.
So we'll watch Gleb Somebodyelse.
How about Felix Angersoer?
What are we thinking aboutFelix these days?
Thoughts.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Well, he was so impressive.
It was in the 2023 preseason.
He had a great debut and therewere people that were talking
about whether he might make theteam Even the head coach seemed
to think that he was making acase for himself at that time
make the team.
Even even the head coach seemedto think that, you know, he was
making a case for himself atthat time.
But, as it turned out, sendinghim to chicago was the right
deep move, because or sendinghim back home and then to
chicago was the right movebecause he did have some
(42:37):
development to do, and so he wasin chicago last year, this past
season, and um just just didnot, uh, stand out.
He only had 20 points in 61games and was a minus 10.
So that's not really what youwant to see from Felix.
He's, he's, I know he's beentrying to add on a little bit in
terms of body weight and allthat sort of thing, and that's a
(42:59):
hard thing for you know it.
Just, it takes time, it doesn't.
You can't just wake up and snapyour fingers and add 20 pounds.
It doesn't happen unless you'reme and there's chocolate chip
cookies involved, but no, butyeah, for these athletes it's.
It's not that easy to you know.
You get older and you think,gosh, I remember those days.
But um, no, it's, it's.
I think that he's, uh, he's gotwhat I like about felix and I.
(43:21):
I haven't had a chance to watchhim much with chicago, but what
I like about him is that he'sgot a really high hockey iq.
He does, and those playersusually do find a way.
So he had a bad year.
He had some setbacks.
I think that he's going to comeback full of enthusiasm and be
trying to pick up from a betterplace and get going on a better
(43:41):
foot this year.
So we'll see if we see some ofthat in the showcase.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yeah, and I think you're right.
I mean high hockey IQ the guyis.
When you watch him ininternational play he shines.
He's just a great player fromthat perspective, but he does
need to bulk up.
The other thing that wasunfortunate last year was he was
tried at center ice a lot inChicago.
(44:06):
It was a bit of an experimentto see could they move Again,
because he sees the ice so welland he's responsible defensively
.
They thought you know, is thisa guy that we can move to the
center ice spot, knowing theCanes could sure use some more
talent at center down the line,but that didn't work out so well
(44:26):
.
So I fully expect he's going tobe back on the right side and I
think that will be good for himand I look forward to seeing
him in the showcase because youknow this is a chance for him.
He's been there a couple oftimes.
This is a chance for him toreally show that he's taking
this seriously in terms ofgetting himself into a place
where he can be a seriousprospect for the Canes again.
(44:48):
Right now he's not there.
He's well down the line and Iknow there's a lot of Caniacs
that will probably be surprisedwith that, but he was a guy that
many people thought would be aCane not too long down the road.
One other guy I want to mentionin Chicago, before we spend just
(45:08):
30 seconds on some of the folkswe don't know is Ruzlan Kazeev.
Ruzlan Kazeev we've talked alot about.
He's a guy that's 6'6", 200 andsome odd pounds.
He's just a huge mountain of aman in the goal, and there's
nothing wrong with having somebig goaltenders.
As we know, he's got thatRussian pedigree Again.
(45:34):
He was trained extremely well.
He's a guy that he's justathletic as heck and he shows
that Some of the saves he makesare circus saves, and it's
incredible.
Last year was a so-so year forhim.
He played a little bit morethan was expected, right, he
played 20 games last year, whichyou know when you looked at him
(45:54):
as number three on the depthchart, and he could have
actually been pushed down toBloomington for more play, but
they they chose not to do that.
They wanted to keep him close,and so he's definitely a
prospect and I expect a lot morefrom him this year too.
So let's keep an eye on RizlanKazeev at the Prospect Showcase.
He is really the goalie of note.
(46:14):
Nikita Kapp is there, but Idon't know where he sits in the
depth chart at this point intime.
So we'll keep an eye on Kazeev.
There were three other guys thatwere invited that we don't know
anything about.
This is interesting.
They are part of the Canesworld.
They weren't drafted by theCanes, but I thought I'd mention
them.
One of them is Ethan Lee.
He's a center 24-year-old guy.
(46:36):
He played with Quinnipiac forthree seasons.
This is interesting.
So here's a guy that they mighthave scouted in while they're.
You know, maybe Brendan Warsaw,while he was watching Skyler
down there.
He actually moved fromQuinnipiac over to Bentley
University, became their captainand had a big season last year.
(46:57):
So he's a guy that's again 24years old.
He's a little older.
He's a solid player at 6'1", 95, centerman.
Who knows All these guys?
They get invites.
They don't usually stick around, so I'm not so sure what the
future holds for Ethan BlakeBiondi is another sentiment
23-year-old guy.
He was drafted in the fourthround by Montreal in 2020.
(47:20):
So there you go.
The Habs looked at him.
He has an interesting award.
He was the Minnesota Mr HockeyAward okay, in 2020.
And that is for the outstandingsenior high school boys hockey
player in the state of Minnesota.
This is something right.
So now there have been a fewplayers that have actually come
(47:44):
out of that.
Nick Purbix actually was one ofthe guys that was in the voting
for that one year.
He didn't win it, but he was inthe voting, so there are some
players that might show up.
But this I thought was aninteresting one with Biondi.
So he signed, I think, withChicago this year.
So he'll probably show up withthe Wolves and we'll get a
chance to see what he can do.
(48:05):
And rounding it out is agentleman called Evan Veerling
and he was drafted in the fifthround by the Rangers in 2020 as
well.
He's another six footer, notparticularly heavy.
He's won about 180.
But he's.
He's a guy that played with theBarry Colts OK, and that's
(48:28):
where, of course, andreiSvetchnikov played as well in
the Ontario Junior League and hehad a big season with the Colts
.
Vierling did in 22-23 with 95points in 60 games.
So he's a guy that again, youknow some of these players.
They just kind of float aroundand who knows where they end up.
But all three of these guys area little bit older at 23, 24,
(48:49):
and I don't see them as futurehurricanes, but they're
interesting guys to take a lookat in any case.
So we'll watch them as well Now.
So let's move on to the finalpart of this piece of the
discussion, and that's a look atthese PTO signings for the
hurricanes.
So I don't know if you'refamiliar, last year the Canes
(49:10):
had a bunch of PTOs.
They go back and forth right.
One year they'll have one ortwo and then they'll have a
bunch, and a lot of it, as youknow, has to do with their
schedule.
So if they have a schedulewhere they have back-to-back
games, it kind of puts them in asituation where they're trying
to find some extra bodies tofill the roster, and I think
(49:33):
that's part of the decision thatthey have here.
But it turns out that bothplayers, oliver Shillington and
Giovanni Smith, were with theColorado Avalanche last year,
katie.
So what can you tell us abouteither one of these players?
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Well, smith is definitely a fourth liner at
best.
He plays a heavy game and aslong as he doesn't get burned I
guess he's fine.
He didn't really impress me.
His stint with the abs wasshort.
He came over from San Jose andthe Blackwood-Yorgiev trade and
(50:15):
I guess he was just kind of theextra contract to help the Avs
even things out.
He was a body to fill somespace because the Avs went
through a ton of players due toinjury and other issues.
They had 49 different playersdressed for them last year and
Smith was one of them and ofthose 49, he was probably the
least impressive of all of them,save perhaps one of the goalies
(50:36):
who never saw the ice.
So I think I'm just going toleave it at that.
As far as Smith is concerned,maybe he'd be good for an extra
body on the Wolves or somethinglike that, if he doesn't find an
NHL home this season and beavailable just in case.
Shillington is a little bitmore of an interesting situation
(51:00):
because he does have NHL talent, or at least he did back before
injuries and other issuesinterfered with that.
Back before injuries and otherissues interfered with that, he
was hoping for a rebirth ofsorts with the abs last season
and it just never quitematerialized.
Once again, he spent some timeinjured and it was really
(51:22):
unfortunate because it lookedlike he was finally figuring it
out, finally getting into agroove, and he got injured and
it sidelined him again and hejust wasn't able to come back
after that.
And by that point the abs werein the latter part of the season
and they didn't have time towait for him to get it figured
out.
They were pushing for aplayoffs, uh birth and, you know
(51:43):
, making sure that they got thethree seed wrapped up and they,
you know, had their, their,their moves, and shillington
just wasn't part of their planmoving forward.
And so, um, with the pto,there's a little more upside
with him, but again there's justthe injury issues and not
knowing whether or not he canrecapture the skill that he
(52:05):
showed before all of thathappened are the big question
marks.
So we'll see.
Based on what I saw last season, I'm not particularly hopeful,
but I'd love it if he wouldprove me wrong.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Yeah, I mean Shillington.
And you're right, katie, he hada breakout season 21-22 with
the Flames Nine goals, 22assists and a plus 34, and he
was playing about 18 minutes agame.
So he's a guy that they werereally talking big about him
when after that season, in fact,the the scouting report from
(52:40):
hockey forecaster said this theSwedish defenseman is blossoming
as he reaches his prime.
He's a terrific skater who cancarry the puck out of trouble
and make a good first pass.
He's getting better at pickinghis spots for joining the rush,
but his lack of size can be aproblem.
So he's a guy that they saw asa very strong offensive
(53:01):
defenseman.
Obviously, 31 points is a goodstart on it and he was really
starting to trend upward in abig way.
In fact signed a two-year dealwith the Flames.
As a result of that andeverything, the wheels came off.
As we know, he missed an entireseason, which is really unusual
(53:22):
.
It's kind of rare that you seethat with a player.
But for personal reasons, hejust stepped away from hockey
and coming back has beenextremely difficult.
And you personal reasons, hejust stepped away from hockey
and coming back has beenextremely difficult.
And you're right, katie, hethought you know this deal with
Colorado when it was a low-costdeal for the Avalanche about a
million bucks hey, this would bea win-win, right?
We talked about it a little bitat that time and saying, okay,
(53:45):
you got Calvin DeHaan and yougot.
You know, you got OliverShillington.
You got Calvin DeHaan and yougot.
You know, you got OliverShillington, you got some others
, a cast of others, trying toget on that blue line and he
just never really panned out.
I think the situation here isthat you know, left shot guy,
veteran, you know, could he takea two way deal and go down to
Chicago?
(54:05):
He'd be a nice guy to have downthere to continue to work with
the younger players as well asbe available for a recall.
The Canes don't have a lot ofplayers in Chicago that they can
recall.
At this point I don't thinkthey haven't added a lot of
veterans.
Ty Smith was there last year.
He's not there, so clearly youknow he could be a guy that
(54:28):
could fill that role.
But in any case, we'll bewatching him.
I was in Calgary recentlyspending some time with my sons
and one of my sons is a bighockey player and actually saw
him in a game, the final game ofthe series that he was in the
summer league and he had achance to fire some of his
(54:49):
bullets.
He looked a little bit likeAlexander Nikishin back there.
In any case, he was talking tome about Oliver Shillington when
he was with the Flames and hedid mention that he thought
Shillington had played well hislast season with the Flames and
he had some positive things tosay about him for sure.
I think as we wrap things up, Ithought we'd spend a couple of
(55:14):
minutes and just talk about man,how dull has it been.
You know, we've we've had verylittle to talk about and it's
probably one of the worstsummers for hockey activity that
activity that I can remember,katie.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah, just been trying to trudge along.
Thankfully school started backfor me so it's helping things go
a little faster.
Not as much time to dwell onall of the lack of movement that
has happened in the NHL.
The Canes' new road jerseyreveal that came through
(55:56):
yesterday was like the biggestthing, because there's been no
news that all this dialogue ishappening, because we're just
sitting here treading water,twiddling our thumbs whichever
idiomatic expression you want touse just waiting for hockey to
(56:17):
finally start again.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
Yes, Well, you know, I was thinking to myself the
other day that, depending on howold you are, the phrase cruel
summer either means Bananaramaor Taylor Swift, but either way,
(56:39):
this has been in a lot of ways.
I know Tom, you talked aboutthis a little bit NHLers and for
a lot of AHLers who have had to, you know, deal with this lack
of movement, this lack ofopportunity, by signing overseas
, and some of them are quiteyoung, some of them, you know,
(57:02):
we're used to players maybesigning overseas in the twilight
of their careers and wanting toget those couple extra years of
play before they really can'tanymore.
But when you see some of theseyounger players that are
accepting deals, you know, inthe KHL and other places, you
know you realize that thisdecision kind of perplexing
decision by a handful of middleroad teams to say no, no, we
(57:22):
think we're right on the cusp,we're going to stand our ground,
we're going to hold the line,you know, and not create some of
that movement and add some guysand subtract some guys.
You know there's a lot ofplayers that have been left out.
So I think it's been a dullsummer for us, very boring, but
it's actually been kind of a notso fun summer for these guys to
have to pack up their lives andgo overseas.
So hopefully, whatever this isis just a strange anomaly before
(57:46):
the new collective bargainingagreement stuff starts kicking
in, and you know, one of thethings that we're all looking
forward to, I think in some ways, is that next season the hockey
season is supposed to start atthe end of September.
Right, that should be aninteresting change, yeah, an
interesting.
Two more games in the season,two fewer preseason games, which
(58:07):
is going to make Rod Brindamoredo his best Gene Kelly
impression.
Somebody hand him an umbrella,but we don't want the summers to
be longer, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
Well, a couple of comments.
The top signings were kind ofunderwhelming.
I mean, the Canes were right inthere with Nikolai Ehlers and
of course Mitch Marner was thebig one, but after that it was.
I mean, orlov was one of thetop ones and I don't know what
to say about that.
The interesting thing about youmentioned AHLers and others
(58:43):
going to the KHL Boy.
There were a bunch of ex-kindof Canes folks that went Rocco
Grimaldi, andrew Prudorowski,max Lojoie, chase Prisky, ty
Smith he's gone to Russia JoeyKeene and an interesting one was
Vasily Ponemarov.
Now, that was kind ofinteresting.
(59:03):
He signed a three-year deal inthe KHL.
I guess he gave up on the pens.
They just weren't giving him anopportunity to get it done.
But you know these players haveto play and you know you kind
of wonder some of them goingover to play in Russia.
That's kind of an interestingconcept when you think about it.
In any case, yeah, we'll befollowing the storylines.
(59:24):
We'll be following what happensin the Prospect Showcase coming
up and, of course, theexhibition games and then, of
course, getting ready for theseason start.
For those of you who've beenwatching or listening, as always
, we're thrilled that you spenttime with us.
If you have any comments orthoughts, please put those in
(59:44):
the comments section down belowand we'll try to respond as
quickly as we can.
If you like this episode, yeah,please press the like button.
That'd be great.
And, of course, if you want tobe alerted of future episodes of
Storm Tracker, please press thesubscribe button and, of course
, the bell, and you'll bealerted and we'll look forward
to getting together with youreal soon, right here.
Well, hockey will be back soon and Canes fans have a
lot to look forward to as wegear up for a new season of
Carolina Hurricanes hockey.
What did we learn about theCanes' performance last season
and what are some of thestorylines that might capture
our attention soon?
Who should we have our eyes onin the upcoming Prospect
(00:55):
Showcase?
Who should we have our eyes onin the upcoming Prospect
Showcase and what do we knowabout the two players who are
currently signed to PTOs withthe Hurricanes?
Delighted, as always, to haveErin and Katie joining me to
talk about all these things andmore, and we'll get right to it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hi there.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay.
So you know, we look back atlast year's performance and you
know, I know, katie you've donea lot of work with the metrics,
as usual, analyzing what wasworking, what wasn't working,
and we might be surprised bysome of the things that you
found there.
Are the Canes set up to dobetter this season and what
(01:39):
areas of concern should we haveas we look forward to the year?
Katie, want to kick it off.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Sure.
Well, I found the JFresh cardfor the Canes and for their
season overall, and they had agood season.
There's lots to be encouragedby and definitely there are some
areas in which they haveimproved.
How much of an improvement thatis, I think, remains to be seen
.
There's a range of what you canexpect, depending on the impact
(02:08):
that the new guys like Ehlersand Miller have on the team.
As expected, it shows that theCanes were really good in
generating chances.
I'm always harping on the factthat the Canes have really a lot
of problems finishing and thiscard definitely shows that that
while they were the first in theleague in actual scoring.
(02:31):
So there's a bit of a um of adifference there.
What really concerned me andkind of surprised me especially
because brindamore system isknown for its defense as a
hallmark is, while the defenseitself had good metric numbers
(02:53):
and was seventh in the leaguewith expected goals against,
they were actually 21st in theleague in goals against actual
goals against.
So the defense was doing itsjob, but there seemed to have
been some breakdowns, whether itwas in goal or just some bad
(03:14):
puck luck, when it came to theiropponents scoring against them.
So that probably would be thebiggest area that the team is
going to be looking to improveis having a full, healthy season
of Frederick Anderson and CoachHekov working together,
creating a solid foundationmoving forward.
(03:36):
The special teams were also abit of a mixed bag.
The PK was good.
They were ranked second in theleague in PK based on the
analytics, but they were 24thfor the power play, and we've
talked about the power playbefore and that's an area where
we're hoping that Ehlers canhelp to dial up the team a
(03:56):
little bit more and get thatunit more productive, because
McCain's already had a reallygood offense.
If they can bring the powerplay into that equation as well,
it's going to crank it up evenfurther.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, and you know, as we kind of peel the onion
back on this, there's someinteresting storylines that go
with this.
We're going to talk about threeof them which I think could
really play this year for theHurricanes, and we'll kick it
off with goaltending.
You mentioned goaltending, ofcourse, being a key element as
the Canes go into this season.
You know you look at someinteresting things with Freddie
(04:30):
Anderson.
His last three seasonsFreddie's played 34, 16, and 22
games in each of those seasons.
I mean this is just incrediblytough for the Hurricanes to go,
with him playing so little.
It's challenging.
And of course we've all beenwaiting for Piotr Kociakoff to
kind of take the mantle.
(04:51):
Daily Faceoff said somethinginteresting in their predictions
this year.
Here's what they said aboutKocekach.
They said we've been bullish onhim taking over as Carolina's
starter for years, but he has toplay well for that to happen.
He's coming off a down year andthe 1A job remains Anderson's
(05:13):
when he's healthy.
So I think the situation isclear when it comes to Kochetkov
, so we've got a situation herewhere I think Kochetkov has some
challenges.
And, katie, can you pick it upand talk a little bit about his
JFresh analysis for us?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, the main thing with Kochetkov as far as the um,
his player card, is, it showswhat a lot of us have already
seen in the eye test, that whenhe's in the really high danger
circumstances, like on thepenalty kill or he has the high
danger shots against, he's oneof the best goalies in the
(05:53):
league.
He is absolutely fantastic atstopping the puck, but it's when
you get into those kind ofmiddling areas that he just he
seems to disappear or overthinkthings.
His medium danger chance totalsare surprisingly low.
(06:13):
I mean we know that he's beenbeen low, but it's in the single
digits and he needs to figuresomething out.
I mean, we've had those quotesthat he said before that we've
we've all laughed on and that heneeds to just stop thinking and
just start reacting andtrusting his instincts, and that
that seems to be very much thecase in this, in this instance,
(06:35):
because those high pressuresituations where you don't have
time to think because the shotscoming immediately, his
instincts are fantastic, butwhen he has a chance to second
guess himself or get himselfjust touch out of position,
that's where things seem to fallapart.
So if he can really rely on hisinstincts and his reflexes and
(06:57):
his feel for the game, I thinkthat will be the key to him
having a successful season thisyear.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, and you know NHL Edge kind of echoes the same
kind of metrics.
He's high danger savepercentages in the 92 percentile
, so he's right there.
He's one of the best in thegame.
But goals against average he'sin the 92th percentile.
So he's right there, he's oneof the best in the game.
But goals against average he's74.
So that's not a great number.
And then you go to overall savepercentage at 898.
(07:27):
He's below the 50th percentile,the mid-range save percent you
mentioned.
He's below the 50th.
And percentage games greaterthan 900, save percentage he's
below the 50th.
And and percentage gamesgreater than 900, say,
percentage, he's below the 50thpercentile.
So you know, his game last yearjust was not there and uh, and
again, it's kind of surprisingbecause we remember he went
(07:47):
through some stages where he waslights out.
We, you know, we saw thatincredible, you know stint, that
he had for, uh, several gameswhere he was playing great, but
then all of a sudden, you know,things don't go his way.
What do we think will be thesituation this year with the
Canes If Freddie gets injured?
How do we feel about thegoaltending?
What do we think might happen,erin?
(08:08):
Some thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, the one thing that I think that's going to be
really interesting to followthrough the training camp part
of the season is what have theyacquired in Caden from Moe
because that is something that alot of people have talked about
the Canes when we didn't haveFreddie or Piotr last year, we
had Spencer Martin and DustinTokarski, as we've talked about
(08:31):
before, and you just want to bein a situation where, if you
have to call someone up thatyou're not looking at someone
that you know, you're justhoping that they can maybe get
one win out of four.
You want somebody that's goingto be able to make an impact and
be a reliable call-up or areliable backup in the case of
injury.
So I'm going to be interestedto see how, what the coaching
(08:53):
staff's evaluation of Primo isin that role somebody that could
be a backup for either Freddieor Piotr at times of need,
because we know those times willarise.
I think the key for the Canesthis year is how long can
Freddie stay healthy?
And this is where thecalculation just gets so
difficult, because you have, youknow, at his age you're talking
(09:14):
about age-related regressioncreeping in and making the whole
picture a lot blurrier, becausewhat he's been dealing with has
certainly not been because ofthat.
The injuries the knee injuryand then the blood clotting
issue those are not age-relatedthings, those can happen to
anybody at any age.
But as he starts to get closerto that 37, 38, 39 age, you know
(09:38):
you've got goalies that will begreat all the way through, and
then you have goalies that willfall off of a cliff very
abruptly.
So if we can get a solid,healthy year out of Freddie
Anderson, if he can play, youknow, considerably more than 16
or 22 games, you know that thatwould mean a lot for the Kings.
That would be a huge differencemaker for them in terms of, you
(09:59):
know, being able to build theirseason.
So that's the biggest unknownto me is what happens if you
know one or the other of themreally can't.
Now, as far as Piotr isconcerned, another benefit I
think, to having a younggoaltender like Primo in the
system is that that gives Piotrsomeone else to compete with for
some of that stuff too.
(10:20):
You know not that he's going tocome in and try to steal the
job, necessarily, but you neverknow.
I mean, montreal has beenpretty good with producing young
goaltenders who suddenly seemto come out of nowhere.
So you know there's never youcan't rule that out completely.
So, and Primo's stats haven'tbeen that bad.
So it's just going to be niceto have another young goaltender
(10:40):
in the system because at thevery least that's kind of a
reminder to Kuchekov that heneeds to take the lead and if he
wants his job it's his to get.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, you know, we talked about Caden Primo before
and you're right, his underlyingstats, for the most part, are
quite good, and he had somestretches with Montreal where he
looked good as well.
So I think he's a guy that Ifeel much more comfortable with
Caden as the guy that's going tocome in should we need him, as
opposed to and I love them both.
(11:12):
Dustin and Spencer did the bestthey could.
They absolutely did, and weknow that Spencer's moved off to
Russia.
I'm not sure where DustinTokarski will play this year
That'll be interesting to follow, but yeah for sure.
And again, Freddie's off to theOlympics, so this is exciting
stuff.
And he'll be going with NikolaiEhlers, so that's kind of cool.
(11:32):
But again, we'll see how it allplays out.
Healers, so that's kind of cool, uh, but again, we'll see how,
uh, how it all plays out.
And and you know, you look atthe, the situations for freddie
at the blood clot clot situationtwo years ago last year, he had
an injury that put him out.
Um, yeah, you just don't knowwhat's around the corner with
fred.
But you know, the crazy thingtoo about freddie, as we all
know, is when he's healthy he isoutstanding.
(11:53):
He's a great coach absolutelyyeah.
So let's a great goalieAbsolutely yeah.
So let's hope that he has oneof those years where health is
on his side and we'll see howthat plays out.
So, yeah, clearly, goaltendingPiotr's going to be called upon
this year.
Freddie, if he's healthy, willbe super, and we've got Primo
and Amir Miptakov and weshouldn't forget him, I guess as
(12:17):
well.
He's in the mix and of coursehe's, I understand he's going to
be staying with his buddy,andrei Sveshnikov, so so that's
kind of fun as the head intotraining camp.
So we'll see how that plays out.
And speaking about Russians, thenext storyline that we wanted
to get into was around AlexNikitian.
(12:37):
And boy, there's a lot ofdiscussion around Nikitian these
days.
As we go into this, I thoughtI'd read something from Stephen
Ellis at Hockey Faceoff talkingabout the Hurricanes prospects
for this year, and he mentionedthis about Nikitian.
He said finally, it's time forNikitian to shine.
Nikitian is one of the topprospects in hockey and should
(13:01):
have a pretty immediate effect.
With the Hurricanes out oftraining camp, nikitian has
added more urgency in his puckgame, especially last season.
He's big, smart, great with thepuck and all those traits
should allow him to challengefor first pairing minutes sooner
rather than later.
His advanced pro experiencedoesn't make him your average
(13:23):
prospect, that's for sure, and Iknow that our thinking going
into this was okay.
Is he going to slot in in asituation where he can actually
play some big minutes?
Might he be in the mix for thecalder?
Katie, you want to kick it off?
Speaker 3 (13:42):
well, I definitely think he's going to be playing
some big minutes, whether thatis on the first pair, the second
pair, um, if he starts theseason on the third pair, I
think that's just for gettinghis feet wet and that's not
going to last long that he'll beon his way up shortly.
Um, the question then for thecalder becomes how does he
distinguish himself in such away that, as a defenseman, he is
(14:06):
in the same conversation assome of the other promising
young forwards, like demidov inmontreal?
and the only way he can do thatis to get some national
attention, some nationalspotlight, and the one
defenseman that the nationalmedia has learned how to love is
Jacob Slavin.
And so to get the kind ofattention that he needs, he's
(14:26):
going to have to produce results.
But he's also going to have toplay a lot of minutes alongside
of Slavin and look for hisopportunities there, which there
should be plenty of, because hedoes have a good head for
offense, and that is not JacobSlavin's bread and butter for
sure.
So it would open up a lot ofopportunities for Nikitian to
(14:48):
work his magic in the zone withhis big shot and finding the
soft spots from the blue line,knowing that he has somebody
like Slavin behind him to helpmitigate anything that, any
hiccups that come along the way.
But then, beyond that, I don'tknow that it's just the top
pairing minutes He'd also needto assert himself in such a way
(15:10):
that he is interested withquarterbacking, the top power
play, because that's also goingto be an opportunity for him to
shine, for him to get somepoints and to show off all of
those skills that we have beenso patiently waiting for perhaps
not so patiently waiting forthat we've seen in all of his
(15:30):
highlights in the KHL.
So possibility yes, but a lotof things have to fall into line
for him in order to be in theCalder conversation and with the
chance of seriously taking it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Well, one thing about you know you're talking about a
shot and I pulled up some NHLedge stuff on that from his
short tenure in the playoffs.
He, his average speed was 78miles an hour, which was the
99th percentile of the groupthat was there.
His top speed was 93.67, whichwas in the 79th percentile, and
(16:07):
90 to 100 mile an hour shots Inthe short term he was there.
He had three of them, so he wasin the 93rd percentile.
Well, he was in that.
So he's a guy that, uh, youknow he's going to want to shoot
the puck and a different typeof quarterback, as we've
discussed in the past.
And, of course, shane, as uh,shane gossespierre, as shane is
(16:27):
more of a, he likes to uh, tomove the puck, he likes to find
the open man and he's not somuch a big, big shooter.
So I think, with Nate just gonefrom last year and he was our
big shooter for the most part itwould be nice to have a guy
like Nikitian to jump in and dothat.
I wanted to mention one otherthing here about Nikitian.
(16:50):
From McKean's they had theirthis is the 25-26 annual preview
and they said a couple ofthings I think that are really
relevant.
When we look at Alex, they sayhe excels defensively.
This is interesting.
So not many folks have talkedabout Alex and his defensive
game, but the folks at McKeansay he excels defensively, using
(17:12):
his awareness, timing andangling to shut down plays
effectively.
So that sounds like the rightkind of player.
He sticks to opponents well,sealing them against the boards
with precise checks and usinghis active stick to disrupt
plays.
And offensively he's efficientrather than flashy, moving
(17:33):
smoothly with the puck anddelivering accurate, well-timed
passes.
So again here's a guy that he'snot a flashy player.
If you watch Nikitian he's notlike you know, your guy over in
Montreal and some of the otheryoung defensemen that we are
talking about.
Frequently he's more of a kindof you know, just goes about his
(17:55):
business, but does itexceedingly well.
The final comment from McKean's,I think, is critical.
It says Nikishin is NHL readyand showed great flashes with
Carolina in the playoffs lastseason.
He projects as a top pairingdefenseman with unmatched
two-way impact.
Unmatched two-way impact.
(18:20):
These are high words of praisecoming from folks who spend all
their time analyzing theseplayers and talking about them.
So I think again we've got aguy in Nikitian that, yeah, is
going to be critical.
Now, something that wasinteresting, and we talked a
little bit about this too.
Aaron and I'd like you to maybeshare a couple of thoughts on
this.
There were some commentsrecently about an interview with
(18:42):
Alex, and did you have anythoughts about what was said?
Do you recall what they talkedabout?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
You're talking about the interview with I can't
remember how to say her name.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Daria Tuboltseva.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Tuboltseva, tub remember how to say her name.
I'm sorry, daria Tubolt-Seba.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yes, tubolt-seba, thank you, I'm so sorry.
Yes, I did see that interviewon X.
I think, katie, you probablysaw some of that too.
It was a couple of weeks agothat some of that was shared and
what impressed me, from myrecollection of reading it, was
just that he talked about thework.
He really focused on the work,just that he talked about the
work.
You know, he really focused onthe work he needs to do and the
(19:20):
work he's expecting to do.
And he, you know, gave the vibeto me of a player who is just
really eager to get there andstart putting that work in a
very solid work ethic.
And I mean these are Carolinahurricanes terms.
We talk about the canes all thetime with these words.
So this is not someone who'scoming in expecting to be some
hotshot.
He's not coming in expecting tobe treated like, you know, an
(19:46):
automatic star or anything ofthe sort he's expecting, even
though he was the captain of histeam back in Russia.
He's expecting to be treatedlike anybody else who has to
prove himself and earn his way.
And I think when you hear thatfrom someone who's, you know, so
obviously talented, you justkind of get that sense of you
know this is going to be great,because that is exactly the kind
of attitude that Bradford Mooreis going to love, that Tim
Gleeson is going to love, andthis is going to give them the
(20:09):
trust in him that he's notexpecting to come in and be
handed those top pair minutes orhanded those power play minutes
.
You know he's expecting to haveto to be patient and work, and
that's something I think thatyou know.
Just looking at from thatperspective, looking at that
article, I would say it's a keyfor the um canes fans too is
that we shouldn't be um having,you know, the twitter equivalent
(20:32):
of pitchforks and torches.
If he does start out on thethird pair, we should not be
storming the arena.
If he has to play, you know,lower than we think he should,
he may be on the second bearingfor a while with Chatfield.
We've talked about that as apossibility.
We don't know what the planexactly is for Keandre Miller,
(20:52):
and that's going to be somethingthat's going to impact all of
this too.
It's another piece of thepuzzle because they're both new
to the Canes.
Really, even though Nikitianwas there for the playoffs,
they're both going to be new tothe Canes in terms of, you know,
getting started for their firstfull regular season.
We just need to be patient andtrust that this young man, who
talked about himself that way,knows perfectly well that
(21:13):
there's no instant gratificationin the NHL and that he's not
going to be disheartened ordiscouraged if he has to work
his way up and prove himself alittle bit.
So I think it's going to beneat because I think he's going
to have an entire arena full offans that are just cheering him
on, especially in those momentswhen he unveils that boom both
in the shot and in the hits.
He's going to be a tremendouslyfun player to watch and I was
(21:36):
excited.
Did you have anything from theinterview that you wanted to
highlight?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Well, yeah, I definitely do A couple of things
.
That really jumped out at mewas he did talk about playing in
Lenovo Center and he said itwas just incredible.
Yes, like he said, it was justsuch a thrill for him.
And he said I had heard alittle bit about North American
rinks, but this was reallysomething, yeah, so I thought
(22:06):
that was kind of cool.
The other thing he talked alittle bit about his friend
Demidov and he was saying that,of course, demidov came over and
he had a pretty goodunderstanding of the English
language.
He had done some very seriouswork studying prior to coming
over.
And, of course, alex that was abit of a gotcha for me because
(22:27):
I was a little bit behind thecurve on that one.
I probably should have beenputting more emphasis on my
English, but he did do a lot ofwork this summer, apparently,
and he said he can basicallytalk to his teammates now he's
got a command of the languagethat's sufficient to help him in
terms of communication withthem.
(22:49):
And you know, it's kind of likeyou remember when Piotr first
started kind of working hismagic with English and he picked
it up as well.
So this is great and I thinkthe whole tenor of the interview
was clear he just wants to be amember of the team and, as it
(23:11):
was said very clearly, hedoesn't want to be a weak link.
So you know, he wants to besomeone that makes a difference
out there.
And you know, I, I love theattitude of alex.
I just everything I see abouthim.
You know, he, he just really isembodying carolina hurricanes
front and center.
And and boy oh boy, that's uh,with his talent, this is going
(23:32):
to be a lot of fun.
So yeah, so there's a storylinewe're definitely going to.
And Carolina Hurricanes frontand center.
And boy oh boy, that's with histalent, this is going to be a
lot of fun.
So yeah, so there's a storyline.
We're definitely going to befollowing Gosh.
We followed it all last seasonas he found the way and
ultimately came over surprisinga lot of folks with that.
But I think the surprises aregoing to continue this year as
Alex really starts to write hisstory for the hurricane.
(23:53):
So it's great stuff.
Now, one other storyline wewanted to spend a few minutes
with and this gentleman we kindof talked a little bit about him
in our last podcast and said,kind of cool, he just signed an
eight-year deal, so he's gotnine years left with the
hurricane.
So I guess we're going to betalking about him for a little
while longer.
And of course that's JacksonBlake.
(24:14):
And the big question aroundJackson Blake is, you know, I
guess there's two questions whenis he going to slot in the
lineup?
Number one and I guess, numbertwo, what should we expect from
him this year?
A lot of discussion this summerabout him.
I saw a recent interview withAdam Gold talking to Rod
Brendamore and they were sayingsome very positive things about
(24:37):
Blake.
So what do we think thesituation might be for Jackson
Blake this year?
Katie?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Oh, that's a good question, you know.
Is he going to build off ofwhat he started last season?
Is he going to have a littlebit of a sophomore slump?
Don't know, we'll see how itgoes, but we know that his work
ethic is there and that's what'skey.
With the Canes he was alwaysgoing after the puck.
If he lost the puck he'd oftenget it back and just never give
(25:12):
up.
Yeah, he, he was insistent on,on, you know, not taking his
foot off of the gas.
It was all the gas all the time.
And if you look at his playercard, his player card
defensively is excellent.
For having been a rookie, hegot a 98% defensive rating.
(25:32):
I mean that is incredible.
And you know that's not goingto slip, that's not going to go
anywhere, he's just going to getstronger and he's going to
refine those tools in thehurricane system.
So where I'd like to see himbuild this year is on his
offensive skill, because he didseem a little bit snake bit.
(25:53):
It seemed like he he'd getopportunities and it just slip
off of his stick, or he'd hitthe post or, you know, he'd pass
instead of shoot.
There are a few learning curvesthat he has that that he went
through as far as knowing youknow which opportunities to take
in certain circumstances andgetting those instincts.
(26:13):
So I think that's really wherehe's going to be able to round
his game into form and becauseof that and because of the trust
that the team has put in himwith that new contract, I
believe he is going to be on oneof the top two lines.
I'd love to see him on the topline.
He got a lot of time withSebastian Ajo last season and
(26:34):
they did have some pretty goodchemistry and Ehlers coming in
could end up building on that.
And Blake has a particulartalent of retrieving pucks which
would give Ajo and Ehlers a lotmore opportunities to keep
creating and to find scoringchances.
If Rod decides to put Jarvis upon that top line which I don't
(26:56):
think any of us would argue thatJarvis has earned that slot on
the top line then I definitelythink that Blake could could
slot in next to Coke and Yemi onthat second scoring line and
and really be a positiveinfluence there with KK and
Svetch.
So wherever he ends up, he isgoing to be a net positive for
(27:17):
that line and help solidify thatline defensively.
So just hoping a few few morebounces go his way and he should
have a great sophomore.
Sophomore year Erin thoughts.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, I agree for the most part.
I do think I want to revisitthe little sophomore slump thing
because it's not just, it's nota myth, it's not, you know,
it's something that really doeshappen.
And the main reason that ithappens is because you spend
your first year in the NHL.
You're kind of an unknownquantity as you go from team to
team, you know the goaltendersdon't know you, they don't know
what you're going to try to pull, the opponents don't know you.
(27:57):
Some veterans are very, youknow, it depends on the team,
but there are some teams wherethe veterans kind of give a
little, you know, hands off, therookie vibe kind of a feeling,
so that they don't you're nottrying to injure a rookie with a
with a really hard hit oranything like that.
So the things, things get alittle bit more um ramped.
I think in the second year andthere have been a lot of players
who've had an excellent firstyear and then a second year that
(28:18):
just seemed like a reset orretool.
And we could even talk backabout Seth Jarvis, because Seth
Jarvis had a little bit of thathimself.
Now he didn't suffer in thepoints perspective as much, but
he didn't seem to be taking thatnext step and the fans talked
about that a lot.
But the coaching staff did notsee that.
What they saw was Jarvis was atthat point stepping back a
little bit to solidify thoseareas of his game that maybe
(28:40):
were a little bit weak, areasthat we don't necessarily focus
on because he was playing sowell in general.
But, like Katie was talkingabout Blake's defensive rating,
jarvis was also very good in hisfirst season and now he's
extremely good.
He's at 100%, I think, on JayFresh.
So that's what you shared withme the other day.
(29:02):
But there was a time period inbetween there where there was a
little bit of movement andthat's where I think that you
know you have to expect that ayoung player you know,
especially if he gets consistenttop six deployment, because
that is one thing.
With Jackson Blake last seasonhe did spend a good bit of time
on the top line with Ajo and youknow whoever else was up there,
because it was different people, but he did not stay there very
(29:23):
long and he was not there, youknow, in this one solid stretch
all the way through he wasmoving up and down.
He was on the second line attimes, he was on the fourth line
.
At times he was actually on thefourth line, probably more than
people realize at this point,because he began there and he
was there for a good longstretch of games.
So that's where, if he's gotconsistent top six deployment,
(29:43):
no one should panic.
If he seems to be taking alittle step back and it may not
be offensively, he may be, youknow, some some good scoring
opportunities he may.
Actually I would expect him tooutproduce his, his scoring from
last season, because I think heonly would he end up with 34
points.
So I would I would expect him toend up with more than that.
(30:04):
But you know there may be somedefensive hiccups in some other
areas along the way where he hasto smooth some things out.
And again it's that message ofpatience that fans shouldn't be
getting too bent out of shape ifJackson Blake doesn't quite
look like he did in the firstyear.
And unfortunately we all callthem you know they're out there
on the Internet we call them thecomplainiacs.
There will be people who willlook at any missteps from
(30:27):
Jackson Blake and the firstthing they will say is why did
they sign him to that contractfrom Jackson Blake?
And the first thing they willsay is why did they sign him to
that contract, you know, but weshould be prepared to be
extremely happy if heoutperforms our expectations,
but also perfectly satisfied ifthere's a little bit of that
sophomore slump in his game,because it's natural and they
signed him to the contractknowing that that happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
So, yeah, all good points.
And you know, interesting thingon NHL Edge, some of the
analysis tells us some thingsabout Jackson Blake too.
He was at the 99th percentilefor offensive zone time, so he
was most of the time probably.
His defensive numbers are greatbecause he was in the O-Zone so
much he was in the O-Zone thetime that probably his defensive
(31:12):
numbers are great because hewas in the ozone, so much he was
definitely, and we know thatbecause he's, he was uh capable
of handling the puck, staying onthe play, making things happen.
So he was eating up minutes inthat offensive zone.
But a couple of areas hestruggled on and I think these
are the concern as you go intoyear two uh, top skating speed.
He's not a quick skater, so hewas below the 50th percentile on
(31:34):
skating side.
And the other thing was topshot speed, and again he's below
the 50th.
So we know he's not a bigshooter, he's not a hard shooter
.
He gets his goals by, you know,kind of being in the mix and
finding ways to get them best,some of them past the goalie.
That probably shouldn't havegone by, but he got some good
breaks that way.
I remember a few.
But again, I think the goodnews for the Hurricanes they've
(31:59):
got depth, you know.
And as we've talked about theroster, right now we're looking
at a couple of guys sitting onthat fourth line and Taylor Hall
and Eric Robinson who couldslot up there if they need to.
If you know, jackson Blake isstruggling a little bit.
They can take some pressure offhim and move him back to the
(32:19):
fourth line if they need to.
So I think it's a goodsituation.
But any way you look at it withBlake, he's a guy that
definitely is going to be a keymember of the team.
Interesting comment from DailyFaceoff in their 25-26
prediction, looking at Blake andthey said the 17-17-34 line
(32:40):
masks the fact he ended the yearas a first liner and power play
one member, scoring six goalsin his final nine games.
So there's a story that maybewe sometimes forget.
I don't recall him doing that,but I guess he did and that's
fantastic.
He could be one of the cheapest25-goal scorers available,
(33:01):
although either signing dampensmy enthusiasm a bit.
So that's coming from the guysover at Daily Faceoff.
Blake clearly a guy that he'sgoing to be working hard this
summer.
You know the kind of player heis.
It comes from his dad, it comeshonestly.
So you know, no matter whathappens on the ice, he's going
to make things happen in a goodway.
(33:23):
So I'm looking forward toBlake's second year and
hopefully that sophomore jinx issomething that he can avoid
coming into this year.
So a number of storylines thathave been in discussion on X and
(33:43):
other places, we have chosennot to get into them in big
detail today.
Of course, there's always thediscussion about the 2C spot and
the power play and other areason the cane, so we'll leave
those for another time, but Ithink right now concentration
will remain on the discussionswe've had today and certainly
(34:04):
look forward to the play offolks like Alexander Nikishin
and Jackson Blake in the comingdays.
So let's move on to the nextpart of discussion, and I
thought we'd spend a few minutesand talk about the prospect
showcase coming up, and Ithought I thought for for you,
aaron and Katie, I'd give you achance to talk about some of the
(34:24):
folks that we do know a littlebit about.
Obviously, there's some playersthat are up from the Chicago
side and in fact we saw a coupleof them with the Hurricanes
this year, this past year, for acup of coffee, and that would
be Bradley Nadeau and JustinRobitaille, and of course, the
other member of that group thatwe're very interested in is
(34:45):
Charles Alexis LeBleu.
Anybody want to kick this off?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
I'll go ahead because my quick comment is I've said
this multiple times because ofhis size and his profile.
I'm really interested to seehow Laco does with this face and
to see how well he performs,because I think he's not far
(35:13):
from being NHL ready and hissize, his reach and the fact
that he's a stay at homedefenseman really profiles as
something that the Canes coulduse in the near future.
Um, and I'm really lookingforward to seeing how that
translates because, as we allknow, the NHL game is not played
at the pace of an NHL game andhow he's able to adjust there.
(35:37):
But yeah, I think he's the one.
I know what Nadeau is and someof the other ones I think have a
lot of skill, but theirlikelihood of being impact
NHLers, especially for the Canes, is limited.
But the one that I think hasthe biggest opportunity in the
near future to become a regularis Legault, and I'm really
(36:00):
looking forward to seeing him.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Absolutely.
Erin any thoughts.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Well, I would agree with Katie on that and just add
that you know I think we havetalked a lot about Nadeau.
I think there are some peoplewho are going to be disappointed
if Bradley Nadeau does not makethe team.
But realistically, this is nota player you want in your bottom
six, and right now the top sixwing slots are full, so you want
(36:26):
to make sure that he comes intothe canes.
You know, if that happens, whenthat happens, at a time when he
can make a difference on one ofthe top two lines.
So you know, thoseopportunities may well come up,
but he does still have some workto do in the game away from the
puck, from what I have beentold.
(36:53):
So another year in the AHL isnot going to hurt him at all.
It's going to be tremendouslyfun to watch him in the prospect
showcase, though, becauseplaying against people that are
mostly in his own age range andyou know that he was dominating
quite well over in the AHL lastyear is this going to be fun.
So, um, and then Roby, Ithought did did well in his
brief call up too, but again,not somebody.
That's going to be an immediateum ad for the Canes.
So, um, just uh wishing all ofthose guys the best at the at
the showcase and hope they havea great time.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, there's a number of players that uh that I
thought I'd spend a minute on,because you know, ivan Ryabkin
uh is is an interesting one.
He signed his uh ELC like aweek ago.
It's kind of a bit of asurprise.
Not many folks were expectingthat.
I don't think he tore up theUSHL.
(37:34):
We talked about it last yearwhen he came over to play with
Muskegon 19 goals in 27 gamesInteresting comments from the
folks at McKean's on this andthey said one year ago Ivan
Ryabkin was being compared toother high-flying Russian
offensive dynamos Matvey Mishkovand Ivan Demidov.
(37:55):
So, erin, that's right up youralley with Demidov.
Of course, he put up 58 pointsas a 16-year-old in the NHL.
So this is a guy that tore itup.
The NHL is like junior hockey,it would be like the USHL and so
on.
And he that tore it up the NHLis like junior hockey, it'd be
like the USHL and so on, and hereally tore it up.
But you know, again, there weresome concerns with you know his
(38:18):
attitude in certain ways, hiswork ethic, his conditioning,
all the things that you know.
These younger players sometimeswhen they've got so much talent
, they just go out there and youknow, and they just do it
naturally right.
They've got so much talent,they just go out there and you
know, and they just do itnaturally right.
And I think Ray Abkin is a guythat clearly needs to be closer
to the Hurricanes and we talkeda little bit about this offline
(38:41):
to say maybe the reason theywanted to sign him was to have
him, you know, right here, withmuch more control by the
Hurricanes folks.
And the question is, where ishe going to end up this year?
Is he going to head to Muskegon?
Is he heading up to Canada toplay junior?
Is he going to go down toChicago?
And I know that one of ourcompatriots, nick Bass, feels he
(39:02):
might be heading to Chicago andI think that would be great if
he does, because again, workingwith Cam Abbott and the crew
down there would be wonderful.
One interesting final commentfrom the guys at McKean's.
They said he's undoubtedly oneof the most divisive prospects
in all of hockey today.
So he's another guy that youknow.
(39:22):
He's got the good in some otherthings I guess we have to think
about, but there is still alegitimate path for him to make
the NHL.
I think the fact that Cade'sjumped on this.
They believe he can.
You know we talked about thedraft earlier.
Going into the draft, of course, I was a guy that was really
high on Reapkin, so it seems tobe playing out quite nicely.
(39:44):
So he's there.
You've got a couple of otherguys from Chicago that'll be
there Yoel Nystrom, 23-year-old.
He's a veteran D guy.
He played a couple of games, Ithink, with Chicago last year.
He's played five parts of fiveseasons with Fargestads in the
SHL, so he's a veteran.
I mean he's going to come inand add some veteran leadership.
(40:05):
I don't see him very high inthe death chart leadership.
I don't see him very high inthe death chart and he's a
smaller player at 5'11", 170.
So I don't know what to expectfrom him.
Dominic Bedinka is going to bethere, 19-year-old.
He's coming over early One yearin the playing with Malmo last
year.
He's a right-hand shot guy.
(40:26):
They, like him, got some workto do.
So we'll see how it goes forBedinka.
You know you look at thatChicago team.
It's interesting as we talkabout this and their defensive
core is going to be loaded thisyear.
You've got these young guys,you've got Charles Alexis
Legault, you've got, of course,my man, dominic Fensori, and you
(40:48):
know, you've got some otherguys that have been re-upped and
back with the team again thisyear too, like Roland Sealy, so
it's going to be fun talkingabout the Chicago Wolves this
year.
Somebody else that we need totalk about is going to be Gleb
Trikosov.
So I don't know if you recalllast year in the Prospect
(41:09):
Showcase, gleb was tremendous.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
He was great.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, he had four goals, he had a hat trick in one
game.
He really, you know, and he hadjust come over as kind of a
19-year-old.
And here he is, you know, overin North America after being
signed and he came over withRuzlan Kazi and boy I tell you
it was really something to seehim Now.
He had a tough year, right.
So just three points in 20games with the Wolves.
(41:36):
He was hurt.
A number of different thingsjust didn't go right for him
this year and I'm kind ofhopeful that he'll get back on
track because you know the Canesthink very highly of Glenn and
he's another guy that bringsnatural offensive ability to the
table.
He was drafted much higher than, or much lower rather than was
(41:58):
expected.
So the Canes did get him in asituation where he was again
looked upon as maybe afirst-rounder, certainly high
second-round guy.
So we'll watch Gleb Somebodyelse.
How about Felix Angersoer?
What are we thinking aboutFelix these days?
Thoughts.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Well, he was so impressive.
It was in the 2023 preseason.
He had a great debut and therewere people that were talking
about whether he might make theteam Even the head coach seemed
to think that he was making acase for himself at that time
make the team.
Even even the head coach seemedto think that, you know, he was
making a case for himself atthat time.
But, as it turned out, sendinghim to chicago was the right
deep move, because or sendinghim back home and then to
chicago was the right movebecause he did have some
(42:37):
development to do, and so he wasin chicago last year, this past
season, and um just just didnot, uh, stand out.
He only had 20 points in 61games and was a minus 10.
So that's not really what youwant to see from Felix.
He's, he's, I know he's beentrying to add on a little bit in
terms of body weight and allthat sort of thing, and that's a
(42:59):
hard thing for you know it.
Just, it takes time, it doesn't.
You can't just wake up and snapyour fingers and add 20 pounds.
It doesn't happen unless you'reme and there's chocolate chip
cookies involved, but no, butyeah, for these athletes it's.
It's not that easy to you know.
You get older and you think,gosh, I remember those days.
But um, no, it's, it's.
I think that he's, uh, he's gotwhat I like about felix and I.
(43:21):
I haven't had a chance to watchhim much with chicago, but what
I like about him is that he'sgot a really high hockey iq.
He does, and those playersusually do find a way.
So he had a bad year.
He had some setbacks.
I think that he's going to comeback full of enthusiasm and be
trying to pick up from a betterplace and get going on a better
(43:41):
foot this year.
So we'll see if we see some ofthat in the showcase.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yeah, and I think you're right.
I mean high hockey IQ the guyis.
When you watch him ininternational play he shines.
He's just a great player fromthat perspective, but he does
need to bulk up.
The other thing that wasunfortunate last year was he was
tried at center ice a lot inChicago.
(44:06):
It was a bit of an experimentto see could they move Again,
because he sees the ice so welland he's responsible defensively
.
They thought you know, is thisa guy that we can move to the
center ice spot, knowing theCanes could sure use some more
talent at center down the line,but that didn't work out so well
(44:26):
.
So I fully expect he's going tobe back on the right side and I
think that will be good for himand I look forward to seeing
him in the showcase because youknow this is a chance for him.
He's been there a couple oftimes.
This is a chance for him toreally show that he's taking
this seriously in terms ofgetting himself into a place
where he can be a seriousprospect for the Canes again.
(44:48):
Right now he's not there.
He's well down the line and Iknow there's a lot of Caniacs
that will probably be surprisedwith that, but he was a guy that
many people thought would be aCane not too long down the road.
One other guy I want to mentionin Chicago, before we spend just
(45:08):
30 seconds on some of the folkswe don't know is Ruzlan Kazeev.
Ruzlan Kazeev we've talked alot about.
He's a guy that's 6'6", 200 andsome odd pounds.
He's just a huge mountain of aman in the goal, and there's
nothing wrong with having somebig goaltenders.
As we know, he's got thatRussian pedigree Again.
(45:34):
He was trained extremely well.
He's a guy that he's justathletic as heck and he shows
that Some of the saves he makesare circus saves, and it's
incredible.
Last year was a so-so year forhim.
He played a little bit morethan was expected, right, he
played 20 games last year, whichyou know when you looked at him
(45:54):
as number three on the depthchart, and he could have
actually been pushed down toBloomington for more play, but
they they chose not to do that.
They wanted to keep him close,and so he's definitely a
prospect and I expect a lot morefrom him this year too.
So let's keep an eye on RizlanKazeev at the Prospect Showcase.
He is really the goalie of note.
(46:14):
Nikita Kapp is there, but Idon't know where he sits in the
depth chart at this point intime.
So we'll keep an eye on Kazeev.
There were three other guys thatwere invited that we don't know
anything about.
This is interesting.
They are part of the Canesworld.
They weren't drafted by theCanes, but I thought I'd mention
them.
One of them is Ethan Lee.
He's a center 24-year-old guy.
(46:36):
He played with Quinnipiac forthree seasons.
This is interesting.
So here's a guy that they mighthave scouted in while they're.
You know, maybe Brendan Warsaw,while he was watching Skyler
down there.
He actually moved fromQuinnipiac over to Bentley
University, became their captainand had a big season last year.
(46:57):
So he's a guy that's again 24years old.
He's a little older.
He's a solid player at 6'1", 95, centerman.
Who knows All these guys?
They get invites.
They don't usually stick around, so I'm not so sure what the
future holds for Ethan BlakeBiondi is another sentiment
23-year-old guy.
He was drafted in the fourthround by Montreal in 2020.
(47:20):
So there you go.
The Habs looked at him.
He has an interesting award.
He was the Minnesota Mr HockeyAward okay, in 2020.
And that is for the outstandingsenior high school boys hockey
player in the state of Minnesota.
This is something right.
So now there have been a fewplayers that have actually come
(47:44):
out of that.
Nick Purbix actually was one ofthe guys that was in the voting
for that one year.
He didn't win it, but he was inthe voting, so there are some
players that might show up.
But this I thought was aninteresting one with Biondi.
So he signed, I think, withChicago this year.
So he'll probably show up withthe Wolves and we'll get a
chance to see what he can do.
(48:05):
And rounding it out is agentleman called Evan Veerling
and he was drafted in the fifthround by the Rangers in 2020 as
well.
He's another six footer, notparticularly heavy.
He's won about 180.
But he's.
He's a guy that played with theBarry Colts OK, and that's
(48:28):
where, of course, andreiSvetchnikov played as well in
the Ontario Junior League and hehad a big season with the Colts
.
Vierling did in 22-23 with 95points in 60 games.
So he's a guy that again, youknow some of these players.
They just kind of float aroundand who knows where they end up.
But all three of these guys area little bit older at 23, 24,
(48:49):
and I don't see them as futurehurricanes, but they're
interesting guys to take a lookat in any case.
So we'll watch them as well Now.
So let's move on to the finalpart of this piece of the
discussion, and that's a look atthese PTO signings for the
hurricanes.
So I don't know if you'refamiliar, last year the Canes
(49:10):
had a bunch of PTOs.
They go back and forth right.
One year they'll have one ortwo and then they'll have a
bunch, and a lot of it, as youknow, has to do with their
schedule.
So if they have a schedulewhere they have back-to-back
games, it kind of puts them in asituation where they're trying
to find some extra bodies tofill the roster, and I think
(49:33):
that's part of the decision thatthey have here.
But it turns out that bothplayers, oliver Shillington and
Giovanni Smith, were with theColorado Avalanche last year,
katie.
So what can you tell us abouteither one of these players?
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Well, smith is definitely a fourth liner at
best.
He plays a heavy game and aslong as he doesn't get burned I
guess he's fine.
He didn't really impress me.
His stint with the abs wasshort.
He came over from San Jose andthe Blackwood-Yorgiev trade and
(50:15):
I guess he was just kind of theextra contract to help the Avs
even things out.
He was a body to fill somespace because the Avs went
through a ton of players due toinjury and other issues.
They had 49 different playersdressed for them last year and
Smith was one of them and ofthose 49, he was probably the
least impressive of all of them,save perhaps one of the goalies
(50:36):
who never saw the ice.
So I think I'm just going toleave it at that.
As far as Smith is concerned,maybe he'd be good for an extra
body on the Wolves or somethinglike that, if he doesn't find an
NHL home this season and beavailable just in case.
Shillington is a little bitmore of an interesting situation
(51:00):
because he does have NHL talent, or at least he did back before
injuries and other issuesinterfered with that.
Back before injuries and otherissues interfered with that, he
was hoping for a rebirth ofsorts with the abs last season
and it just never quitematerialized.
Once again, he spent some timeinjured and it was really
(51:22):
unfortunate because it lookedlike he was finally figuring it
out, finally getting into agroove, and he got injured and
it sidelined him again and hejust wasn't able to come back
after that.
And by that point the abs werein the latter part of the season
and they didn't have time towait for him to get it figured
out.
They were pushing for aplayoffs, uh birth and, you know
(51:43):
, making sure that they got thethree seed wrapped up and they,
you know, had their, their,their moves, and shillington
just wasn't part of their planmoving forward.
And so, um, with the pto,there's a little more upside
with him, but again there's justthe injury issues and not
knowing whether or not he canrecapture the skill that he
(52:05):
showed before all of thathappened are the big question
marks.
So we'll see.
Based on what I saw last season, I'm not particularly hopeful,
but I'd love it if he wouldprove me wrong.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Yeah, I mean Shillington.
And you're right, katie, he hada breakout season 21-22 with
the Flames Nine goals, 22assists and a plus 34, and he
was playing about 18 minutes agame.
So he's a guy that they werereally talking big about him
when after that season, in fact,the the scouting report from
(52:40):
hockey forecaster said this theSwedish defenseman is blossoming
as he reaches his prime.
He's a terrific skater who cancarry the puck out of trouble
and make a good first pass.
He's getting better at pickinghis spots for joining the rush,
but his lack of size can be aproblem.
So he's a guy that they saw asa very strong offensive
(53:01):
defenseman.
Obviously, 31 points is a goodstart on it and he was really
starting to trend upward in abig way.
In fact signed a two-year dealwith the Flames.
As a result of that andeverything, the wheels came off.
As we know, he missed an entireseason, which is really unusual
(53:22):
.
It's kind of rare that you seethat with a player.
But for personal reasons, hejust stepped away from hockey
and coming back has beenextremely difficult.
And you personal reasons, hejust stepped away from hockey
and coming back has beenextremely difficult.
And you're right, katie, hethought you know this deal with
Colorado when it was a low-costdeal for the Avalanche about a
million bucks hey, this would bea win-win, right?
We talked about it a little bitat that time and saying, okay,
(53:45):
you got Calvin DeHaan and yougot.
You know, you got OliverShillington.
You got Calvin DeHaan and yougot.
You know, you got OliverShillington, you got some others
, a cast of others, trying toget on that blue line and he
just never really panned out.
I think the situation here isthat you know, left shot guy,
veteran, you know, could he takea two way deal and go down to
Chicago?
(54:05):
He'd be a nice guy to have downthere to continue to work with
the younger players as well asbe available for a recall.
The Canes don't have a lot ofplayers in Chicago that they can
recall.
At this point I don't thinkthey haven't added a lot of
veterans.
Ty Smith was there last year.
He's not there, so clearly youknow he could be a guy that
(54:28):
could fill that role.
But in any case, we'll bewatching him.
I was in Calgary recentlyspending some time with my sons
and one of my sons is a bighockey player and actually saw
him in a game, the final game ofthe series that he was in the
summer league and he had achance to fire some of his
(54:49):
bullets.
He looked a little bit likeAlexander Nikishin back there.
In any case, he was talking tome about Oliver Shillington when
he was with the Flames and hedid mention that he thought
Shillington had played well hislast season with the Flames and
he had some positive things tosay about him for sure.
I think as we wrap things up, Ithought we'd spend a couple of
(55:14):
minutes and just talk about man,how dull has it been.
You know, we've we've had verylittle to talk about and it's
probably one of the worstsummers for hockey activity that
activity that I can remember,katie.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah, just been trying to trudge along.
Thankfully school started backfor me so it's helping things go
a little faster.
Not as much time to dwell onall of the lack of movement that
has happened in the NHL.
The Canes' new road jerseyreveal that came through
(55:56):
yesterday was like the biggestthing, because there's been no
news that all this dialogue ishappening, because we're just
sitting here treading water,twiddling our thumbs whichever
idiomatic expression you want touse just waiting for hockey to
(56:17):
finally start again.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
Yes, Well, you know, I was thinking to myself the
other day that, depending on howold you are, the phrase cruel
summer either means Bananaramaor Taylor Swift, but either way,
(56:39):
this has been in a lot of ways.
I know Tom, you talked aboutthis a little bit NHLers and for
a lot of AHLers who have had to, you know, deal with this lack
of movement, this lack ofopportunity, by signing overseas
, and some of them are quiteyoung, some of them, you know,
(57:02):
we're used to players maybesigning overseas in the twilight
of their careers and wanting toget those couple extra years of
play before they really can'tanymore.
But when you see some of theseyounger players that are
accepting deals, you know, inthe KHL and other places, you
know you realize that thisdecision kind of perplexing
decision by a handful of middleroad teams to say no, no, we
(57:22):
think we're right on the cusp,we're going to stand our ground,
we're going to hold the line,you know, and not create some of
that movement and add some guysand subtract some guys.
You know there's a lot ofplayers that have been left out.
So I think it's been a dullsummer for us, very boring, but
it's actually been kind of a notso fun summer for these guys to
have to pack up their lives andgo overseas.
So hopefully, whatever this isis just a strange anomaly before
(57:46):
the new collective bargainingagreement stuff starts kicking
in, and you know, one of thethings that we're all looking
forward to, I think in some ways, is that next season the hockey
season is supposed to start atthe end of September.
Right, that should be aninteresting change, yeah, an
interesting.
Two more games in the season,two fewer preseason games, which
(58:07):
is going to make Rod Brindamoredo his best Gene Kelly
impression.
Somebody hand him an umbrella,but we don't want the summers to
be longer, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
Well, a couple of comments.
The top signings were kind ofunderwhelming.
I mean, the Canes were right inthere with Nikolai Ehlers and
of course Mitch Marner was thebig one, but after that it was.
I mean, orlov was one of thetop ones and I don't know what
to say about that.
The interesting thing about youmentioned AHLers and others
(58:43):
going to the KHL Boy.
There were a bunch of ex-kindof Canes folks that went Rocco
Grimaldi, andrew Prudorowski,max Lojoie, chase Prisky, ty
Smith he's gone to Russia JoeyKeene and an interesting one was
Vasily Ponemarov.
Now, that was kind ofinteresting.
(59:03):
He signed a three-year deal inthe KHL.
I guess he gave up on the pens.
They just weren't giving him anopportunity to get it done.
But you know these players haveto play and you know you kind
of wonder some of them goingover to play in Russia.
That's kind of an interestingconcept when you think about it.
In any case, yeah, we'll befollowing the storylines.
(59:24):
We'll be following what happensin the Prospect Showcase coming
up and, of course, theexhibition games and then, of
course, getting ready for theseason start.
For those of you who've beenwatching or listening, as always
, we're thrilled that you spenttime with us.
If you have any comments orthoughts, please put those in
(59:44):
the comments section down belowand we'll try to respond as
quickly as we can.
If you like this episode, yeah,please press the like button.
That'd be great.
And, of course, if you want tobe alerted of future episodes of
Storm Tracker, please press thesubscribe button and, of course
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