By Antoine Mathieu, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
QUEBEC CITY, QC. — In today’s article, I have a team that hasn’t done much since winning the Cup in 2006.
2014-15 EASTERN CONFERENCE predicted standings
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Boston Bruins
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- New York Rangers
- Montreal Canadiens
- New Jersey Devils
- Washington Capitals
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Detroit Red Wings
- New York Islanders
- Florida Panthers
- Ottawa Senators
- Carolina Hurricanes
2013-’14 summary: Carolina Hurricanes
Regular season record of 36 – 35 – 11, 83 points, 13th East, missed the playoffs.
The Carolina Hurricanes will begin a new regime now that Kirk Muller and Jim Rutherford are gone from the organization. The Hurricanes haven’t made the playoffs since 2009 and considering their aging core players and their rather thin prospect pool, a rebuild seems inevitable. Carolina doesn’t have a team that can compete and with the exception of a few players, their roster is pretty mediocre.
During Rutherford’s 20-year-tenure as general manager of the team, drafting was never his forte. Over that period of time, the Hurricanes and Whalers only developed 15 regular NHL’ers (350+ NHL games.) Out of those 15 players, I’d only consider 10 of them as impactful players (top four defenseman, starting goalie or top six forward.) Compare that to other teams and that’s a pretty pathetic track record. Montreal, for example, in that span developed 28 NHL regulars and 20 impactful players.
It doesn’t help that the Hurricanes’ amateur scouting has picked a lot of busts in the first round such as Philippe Paradis, Igor Knyazev, Jeff Heerema and Nikos Tselios. And they are a crew who failed to find gems in the later rounds; Frederik Andersen who wasn’t even signed is their only late round steal in years. To his defense, Jim Rutherford certainly didn’t help their situation by trading so many picks for rentals or fringe NHL’ers. In 2007 and 2008 the Hurricanes only had five picks (no second round pick in 07.) Even when the team wasn’t competitive like in 2013, the Canes only picked four times (no second round pick once again.)
No one can say that they’re really surprised by the fact that the Hurricanes have failed to make the playoffs in the past five seasons. Rutherford has done nothing to acquire depth on the bottom six or to assemble an NHL calibre defense. Even if you take a look at their team when they won the Cup, their defense was nothing special: a 36-year-old Glen Wesley, a 35-year-old Bret Hedican, Aaron Ward, Niclas Wallin, Frantisek Kaberle and Mike Commodore. The Canes are far from the defensive group who won the Cup the next year in the Anaheim Ducks with Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer and Francois Beauchemin. In his entire tenure with the Canes, not only did Rutherford fail to acquire a number one defenseman but he also failed to develop one.
Ironically, the Canes did draft an established number one defender in Jack Johnson but following contract disputes between the two parties, Rutherford decided to trade Johnson to the Los Angeles Kings. Carolina also sent Oleg Tverdovsky in the exchange; in return they got Eric Belanger and Tim Gleason. Gleason was a serviceable top four defenseman for a couple years for the Hurricanes but Belanger only played 56 games with the team before being traded to Nashville. Unfortunately for Canes fans, this wasn’t the first time that Carolina lost out on a deal.
In 2008, Carolina traded Andrew Ladd to the Chicago Blackhawks for Tuomo Ruutu. The Finnish forward had some good seasons with the Hurricanes but he’s failed to remain healthy in recent years which lead to his trade to New Jersey last year. Ladd on the other hand has two Stanley Cup rings and is now the captain of the Winnipeg Jets. He’s also traded second round picks for the likes of Riley Nash and Bobby Sanguinetti. They could have used those picks on better players/risks. To give you a good idea: Andrew Cogliano, Antoine Vermette, Ben Lovejoy and Christian Ehrhoff were all traded for a second round pick or less during that time span.
The Hurricanes management was also prone to losing players for nothing when they could have still helped the team. In 2010, the Canes decided not to-resign Ray Whitney because they thought he was ‘done.’ Whitney answered by having two great seasons with his new team the Phoenix Coyotes (57 points and 77 points respectively.) The man they call the ‘Wizard’ actually outscored Eric Staal in 2011-12 by seven points, not bad for a washed up player! Carolina also decided not to re-sign Dennis Seidenberg in 2009 because the two parties were too far apart in terms of money. Seidenberg went on to become one of the league’s steadiest defenseman in the league and won the Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011.
There was also the Tomas Kaberle contract that Pierre Gauthier foolishly took from the Hurricanes’ hands when it was pretty clear that Kaberle wasn’t the player he once was with the Leafs. Rutherford prior to the trade had even admitted in an interview that he regretted giving that contract to the defender. The Czech played his last stretch in the NHL with Les Glorieux tallying 25 points in 53 games before being bought out in 2012-13.
That doesn’t mean that Rutherford didn’t make any good moves during his two decade stint as GM of the Canes. He acquired Jussi Jokinen for next to nothing and traded for Joni Pitkanen who played like a top pairing defenseman for them. He also signed Cory Stillman, Ray Whitney and traded for Doug Weight and Mark Recchi who were all essential in their Cup win. Last year alone, he acquired Andrej Sekera for Jamie McBain, who’s still a UFA at the moment, and a second round pick. Sekera had the best season of his career and performed like a solid number two defenseman for them. Plus he signed Anton Khudobin who stole the starter job away from Cam Ward.
The problem with Rutherford was that he was too conservative and too comfortable with his job security. Until last season, it was unclear as to what direction the team was going: they were a bubble team that didn’t finish low enough to get a good pick. He made moves that patched some holes and other than the Jordan Staal trade, he never made any blockbuster moves. Also other than Alex Semin, he’s never really made a big splash in the free agency either.
Another problem with the way the Hurricanes have been built as of late is their total lack of toughness. For a while, Tim Gleason and Tuomo Ruutu were their ‘tough guys’; as you can see their standards are definitely different than the Bruins’ management. Those guys are not soft per se but they are far from being a Milan Lucic, Shea Weber, David Backes or Robyn Regehr. It wouldn’t hurt if the Canes had more beef on their bottom six or their top four on defense.
A Brandon Prust or Chris Neil type of player is really needed on that team. Like I’ve pointed out in previous articles, role players usually set a team’s identity. They are the guys who make room for other players and generate respect from other teams. Jeff Skinner and Alex Semin are far from being physical; you have to compensate that lack of physicality with players who will play the body. It’d be more logical for Carolina to have physical guys like Steve Ott or Derek Dorsett rather than Drayson Bowman, Nathan Gerbe and Riley Nash.
Beside their top pairing consisting of Faulk and Sekera, the Canes will ice Ron Hainsey, Brett Bellemore, Tim Gleason and John Micheal Liles; far from la crème de la crème. Beside their top six involving the Staal brothers, Semin, Skinner, Jiri Tlusty, and Elias Lindholm, it’s pretty mediocre. Their bottom six has Brad Malone, Jay McClement (who replaces Manny Malhotra), Pat Dwyer, Nash, Boychuk and Gerbe. This total lack of depth is mostly what’s preventing Carolina from being competitive.
I’m curious on what the Hurricanes will have to do to convince a team to take Cam Ward and his contract that earns him $6,300,000 for two more seasons. Khudobin made the 2006 Conn Smythe winner expendable last season but there may be an Ondrej Pavelec situation where the team can’t move him because of atrocious contract. Eric Staal could be traded in the upcoming year, he could return a nice package and I doubt he wants to stay in Carolina despite being with his brother. There’s nothing left for him to prove with that team.
Quick facts about Carolina:
Since the lockout, the Hurricanes have only made the playoffs two times.
Last season was the first time in Eric Staal’s career that he had less than 70 points.
The Hurricanes have never picked first overall at a draft, is this the year?
You’re a wizard if you can guess tomorrow’s team!