Canes Country will be attempting to keep up with news around the hockey world this short offseason. Welcome to Volume One!
It is another year and another time for the Hockey Hall of Fame to snub Rod Brind’Amour. This one stings a bit because Keith Tkachuk was nominated ahead of Brind’Amour. Tkachuk was good, but in my opinion he did not impact the NHL like Brind’Amour. Cory provided a nice side-by-side comparison on “X”.
Cory left out the faceoff stat. Tkachuk often played winger but won 51% of his faceoffs (1413 out of 2731) while Brind’Amour was always dominant in the league with a 59% winning percentage, (2249 out of 3786).
Brind’Amour captained a team to a Stanley Cup Championship, Tkachuk did not. End of story, as far as I am concerned.
_____
The attendance for the downtown parade was updated yesterday to 180,000. Not too shabby for a place once thought not to be a place where NHL hockey would survive, let alone thrive. I did not see any reports of violence or any arrests made. What a crowd, what a crowd!
_____
So now the Carolina Hurricanes are known as an NHL “Super team”? Brady Tkachuk supposedly listed Carolina as one of four teams he would accept a trade to. It boiled down to one choice though. No surprise there. There are no guarantees of success for the Panthers even though it looks like they won this trade short term. Sometimes there can be too many personalities in one locker room. Sometimes a room can become divided, the loud, cool group and the quiet group. It will be interesting to watch.
_____
The NHL Entry Draft is fast approaching and as of this writing, the Hurricanes only have four picks. But we all know that Carolina loves to wheel and deal during the draft. They could very well turn those four picks into six picks or more.
Here are their picks as of now:
Round 1 – 31st overall
Round 4 – 105th overall
Round 6 – 165th overall
Round 6 – 192nd overall
Can they get a pick in exchange for Jesperi Kotkaniemi? Now is the time to pull the trigger if it is possible.
One team to watch closely regarding making a deal with the Hurricanes is Calgary. The Flames have four picks in the second round. Yes, four. It would make total sense for Carolina to trade the 31st overall for two picks in the second round. But is Calgary game?
Perhaps the Canes have a specific player in mind at number 31? In a day or two, we will take a look at a few players who might be on the board at that time who the Canes might want.
