Five things to love about Jeff Skinner

Getting to Know: Bobby Sanguinetti

Our newest series entitled Getting to Know will  focus on the new additions to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Back in June the Canes acquired Bobby Sanguinetti during the second day of the NHL Entry Draft for a 2nd and 6th round pick.  There were several comments regarding the young defenseman who was taken 21st overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

GM Jim Rutherford spoke the day before about not drafting defenseman early as he considered their prime to be during their UFA years.  Less than 24 hours  later he sprung for an AHL All Star in Sanguinetti — putting the kid into the mix.  At  points Sanguinetti played with the Rangers last season but he simply did not have what coach John Tortorella expected and lost his spot to Michael Del Zotto.

Here in Carolina he may face the same scrutiny trying to overcome Jamie McBain.

Still his statistics over the past two seasons in the AHL have been impressive.  Leading his team in scoring, making two All Star appearances and breaking the fastest skater competition.

Back in 2006 he was drafted out of the Owen Sound Attack and finished his OHL career with a very strong Brampton Battalion team.  While his offensive instincts always showed true, his defensive game has always been a weakness.  He almost broke 30 goals in his last season in the OHL leading most Rangers fans to feel they had the second coming of Brian Leetch.

His inability to translate those skills to the NHL led to his demotion and possible trade.  As Elliotte Friedman of HNIC pointed out, most teams felt the Rangers  gave up on him early but Rutherford does not seem to mind.  The team received an excellent pickup who may make an impact, like every other kid, in the next year or two.

Tags: Bobby Sanguinetti, Carolina Hurricanes

Canes Playing With Their Own Salary Cap

Just an interesting article I found while on Kukla. Luke DeCock of the News Observer essentially explains why the Hurricanes failed to spend money this offseason as they put themselves on a self-imposed.

Click here for the entire article and get ready to see some kids play this season!

Tags: Carolina Hurricanes

Random bits of Canes news

Today is the Jimmy V Celeb Golf outing with former Hurricanes players in the mix.  Lets Go Canes has all the coverage, via Twitter

Yesterday, Bill Meltzer on Versus.com wrote a piece where he named former Cane winger Craig Adams a likely candidate for a coaching job.  Meltzer basically gushes over the 33-year-old:

Craig Adams (Pittsburgh Penguins): The 33-year-old Harvard alumnus possesses not only book smarts but one of the sharpest minds for the game of any active player in the league. Now entering the second and final year of the contract extension he signed with the Penguins last summer, he is the type of player who enters each season knowing that he can’t take a roster spot for granted. A member of two Stanley Cup winning teams, Adams knows what it takes to win. Despite scoring just 37 goals and 100 points in 589 regular season games, his defensive contributions at even strength and on the penalty kill have been crucial to his teams’ success. When he gets beaten, it’s rarely because of a mental mistake. This says it all: Adams was on the ice as Pittsburgh killed off the final harrowing 6.5 seconds of Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals.

When he chooses to retire, he certainly should have a spot somewhere on the Canes coaching staff.  Adams played parts of seven seasons with the team before playing for the Chicago Blackhawks and eventually the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Since the lockout he has won two cups; one with Pittsburgh and the other with Carolina.

Tags: Carolina Hurricanes, Craig Adams, hockey, NHL, Versus

Carolina Hurricanes Links Around the ‘Net

Just a slow little Wednesday in the hockey world as every fan imagines their star player needing to sign a new deal and increasing cap hits. I thought this would be a great time to show the Hurricanes fans some of the better articles written about our boys from the past week.

Puck Daddy – Mount Puckmore - Where a columnist explains the four faces of the Franchise. Although this may be a bit tricky, this writer would have added a vote for Jeff O’Neill. Bob Wage of Canes Country still does an excellent job, as usual.

‘Canes can’t afford bad start in ‘10-11 by Brian Hunter – This article is part of a 30 in 30 by the NHL staff writers.  None of the information should be new to you, unless you don’t read this site.

Check out this photo gallery from Helsinki, where the Canes will open up the season.

Cory Lavalette of Hockey’s Future runs down the top 20 prospects in the system while Chip Alexander of The News Observer debates which young players will make an impact.  My money is on any of Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, Jamie McBain, Riley Nash or Jeff Skinner.

Brian LeBlanc formerly of PuckDrops and now at NHL Hot Stove.com goes over the KHL/NHL debate.  LeBlanc is an accredited writer who is actually inside the Canes locker room every night!

Tags: Carolina Hurricanes, Drayson Bowman, hockey, Jamie McBain, Jeff Skinner, NHL, Riley Nash, Ron Francis, Zach Boychuk

The Summer of Skinner

To most of the league this NHL offseason represents the summer of Ilya Kovalchuk.  Where will he sign?  Are the Kings in or out?  Will his contract be rejected? Who else will get their contracts un-registered?

For the fans in Raleigh, North Carolina the summer is hot and slow. We know the kids will get a chance and they certainly deserve it. We waived goodbye to longtime Cane winger Ray Whitney and hello to top prospects like Zach Boychuk and Drayson Bowman.

The one huge story is the feel-good rise of young center Jeff Skinner. Nobody rose more during the NHL Entry Draft, laughing at his mid 30s CSB rating en route to a top ten selection.

Skinner gets more press than most scoring forwards in the OHL have in recent years. I can barely recall the last time I heard the name Peter Holland; it seems to only be the OHL forwards who Canadian teams drafted who find themselves this much in the press. However, Skinner may be giving Nazem Kadri or Cody Hodson a run for their overrated money.

Neate Sager of Yahoo.ca recently wrote a piece on Skinner comparing him to hockey superstar Sidney Crosby. Seriously, Crosby.

But it is not Sager who makes the ill-fated comparison.  Rather it is former Carolina Hurricane and teammate of Crosby– Gary Roberts.  Something tells me he knows what he is talking about as he is lauded for not only his offseason work ethic but his ability to work with young players.  Only a few years ago Roberts mentored a young, naive and still whiny little Crosby.

If Skinner could turn into half the player Crosby will be, the Hurricanes will be set for the next ten years.  They missed out on Tyler Seguin clearly– although having a former Whaler would have worked for the Karmanos family– but Skinner really may be the next best thing.

As stated before, very excited to see what he can do with the big boys.

Tags: Carolina Hurricanes, Drayson Bowman, hockey, Jeff Skinner, NHL, Peter Karmanos, Ray Whitney, Sidney Crosby, Tyler Seguin, Zach Boychuk

Jeff Skinner Dangles with the Best

Jeff Skinner dazzled those watching at the Team Canada World Juniors Development Camp. Don’t believe me? See for yourself.

It should come as no surprise that Skinner could make an impact at training camp, with an incredibly outside shot of making the team.  Although a surprising pick at 7th overall, a player who scored 70 goals in the OHL and gave Taylor Hall and the Windsor Spitfires their greatest challenge in the playoffs deserves his credit.

Jeff Marek of CBC Sports believes this kid is the real deal and lets it known, he basically preaches the Skinner gospel on Twitter all day.  Mike Sundheim of Hurricanes.com is excited to see how he fares during camp the big boys.

Tags: Carolina Hurricanes, hockey, Jeff Skinner, NHL

The RBC Plaza Window Treatment

Crosby… Ovechkin… Kane… Staal.

As it should be.

Click here for the full behind-the-scenes from Hurricanes.com official blogger Paul Branecky.

Tags: 2011 NHL All Star Game, Carolina Hurricanes, hockey, NHL

Alexandre Picard Signs with the Montreal Canadiens

Former Carolina Hurricane defenseman Alexandre Picard signed with the Montreal Canadiens this weekend.  Picard entered this offseason as a restricted free agent but the Canes failed to extend the blueliner with a qualifying offer making him an unrestricted free agent.

With most teams now filling out their rosters a fringe NHLer like Picard makes sense as a sixth or seventh defenseman.  Maybe with a comfortable French Canadien surrounding he Quebec native will finally realize his potential as a powerplay specialist.  Picard could very well fill the void left by Marc-Andre Bergeron.

Tags: Alexandre Picard, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Montreal Canadiens

Analyzing the Canes’ open forward spots

The Carolina Hurricanes have been very open to giving a chance to their youth.

They pitched their newly acquired collegiate forward Riley Nash a spot on the team even though he made it very clear he would like to graduate. Soon enough the cousin of Columbus Blue Jackets winger Rick Nash signed with the team, citing an opportunity to play for the big club.

But the pipeline does not stop with Nash.

Former Ohio State center Zac Dalpe exploded last season after signing his first professional contract. Not only was Dalpe named a finalist for the CCHA Player of the Year but he also established himself as a scoring threat almost immediately– scoring his first goal in his debut and then his first career hat-trick a few days later.

Aside from those two, the Canes top prospect (per Hockey’s Future) would be left wing Zach Boychuk. The former first round pick played 33 games over the last two seasons and should be a front runner for a top six forward position. In 52 games with the now-defunct Albany River Rats he registered 15 goals and 21 assists, showing the team’s brass he can produce at the professional level.

The best producer at the AHL level would be 24-year-old Jerome Samson. Signed as an undrafted UFA before the 2007-2008 season, Samson showed the team he could carry their minor league production by posting 78 points in 74 games last season. After three seasons with the River Rats, he probably will need to make a bigger impact with the big club to stay in the system. He only posted two assists in seven games last season, playing mostly on the bottom two lines.

Once again, the pipeline does not stop there.

The Canes just drafted a highly-skilled forward in Jeff Skinner who may be a few years out but displayed great goal-scoring instincts by notching 70 markers over the OHL Regular Season and Playoffs. He will be a long shot to make the team however as he needs to add size and strength to his repertoire.

Jiri Tlusty has very little to prove at the AHL level after coming over from Toronto for forward Philippe Paradis. Tlusty formerly played for head coach Paul Maurice with the Maple Leafs which was partly why the team traded for him in the first place and should make the NHL roster.

Drayson Bowman also earned a cup of coffee with the club while the team was depleted by injuries. In his nine games, he posted two goals and failed to look out of place playing mostly on the third line. Hockey’s Future ranks him as their third highest prospect (second amongst forwards) and he was regarded as just a step behind Boychuk and current second liner Brandon Sutter.

According to the team, nine forwards currently fill out their roster. Now that we know the players, let’s look at how the lines look with everyone healthy:

Jussi Jokinen – Eric Staal – Chad LaRose

Tuomo Ruutu – Brandon Sutter – Eric Cole

Sergei Samsonov – Open – Open

Open – Patrick Dwyer – Tom Kostopoulous

Looking at those combinations fails to strike fear in most defensive corps. The top line should do well but LaRose would be hard-pressed to replace Ray Whitney. My best guess would be giving that spot over to Boychuk and slotting either Cole or LaRose down a line or two.

In addition, putting too many kids on the lower lines together would definitely allow for top lines to run around them. Most of these young forwards have been relied upon to score and will need to improve their two-way games in order to succeed at this level.

If I were to make a stab at what the opening lines would look like, it would be something like this:

Jussi Jokinen – Eric Staal – Zach Boychuk

Tuomo Ruutu – Brandon Sutter – Eric Cole

Sergei Samsonov – Chad LaRose – Jiri Tlusty

Drayson Bowman/Jerome Samson – Patrick Dwyer/Riley Nash/Zac Dalpe – Tom Kostopoulous

That current lineup would allow for two veterans easing in a youngster during every shift. Maurice and Jim Rutherford also hinted at rotating the kids between their new AHL Affiliate Charlotte Checkers and the Hurricanes in order to keep their confidence level up and the team fresh.