Prospect Info: Carolina Hurricanes Pre-Draft Prospect Ranking - Top 15

Navin R Slavin

Fifth line center
Jan 1, 2011
16,175
63,350
Durrm NC
One question for you guys- why do you all rate Bean as our top prospect? I mean he is good, and with a lot of potential, but I am not sure he should be our top prospect. At WJC he didnt look to good, and there is still a chance he will not even make NHL, because he needs to improve a lot to play at this level.

I think my list is pretty clear.
 
Jun 21, 2016
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Latvia
I'll give you my $0.02 on why I have him rated high. From what I've seen of him, read of him and heard of him, he has a skill set (mainly offensive) that really does not exist anywhere within the organization. Secondly, his skills match very well with how the game is played today, meaning he's an excellent skater, has very good on ice vision/awareness, can jump into the play, and is good in transition. He's a scoring threat from the back end, but more in the mold of an Erik Karlsson than a Justin Faulk (I'm not saying he has the potential of Karlsson, just that's more his style from when I've watched him). For those reasons, I think his high end potential is greater than any other prospect we have.

That said, I understand your point. Maybe it's unwarranted but I do have more concerns that he's a higher risk for achieving his potential. IIRC, someone mentioned how underwhelmed they were when seeing him at camp this fall. His defensive game still needs work and he's still on the small side for an NHL defenseman. I get that he's around 170-175lbs (173 at the combine), but he looks very slight out there. He's not short though. I think he's a few years away from getting to the NHL, and frankly, with Slavin, Hanifin, Fleury and maybe even Carrick, the Canes have the luxury of letting him develop his game. We really won't know what we really have in Bean for quite a few years.
Thanks for this! :)
 

Vagrant

The Czech Condor
Feb 27, 2002
23,660
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North Carolina
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My hot take on Jake Bean is that he's maligned a lot for being a pick at a position that we didn't really want. I think his status as a prospect is a bit diminished as a result of being viewed as superfluous, which isn't really fair to him. Additionally, a lot of us really got burned on Ryan Murphy and the association isn't entirely without traction.

As far as evaluation of his play, it's important to remember that he's not yet 19, even at the time of this posting. The WJC is usually seen as a tournament where your 20 year old defensemen are more heavily leaned upon. McAvoy is an exception, but he's looking like a really special player. Patience is going to be key with Jake and I hope the organization learned a lot from how we handled Murphy to use as a blueprint of exactly what to avoid.

What makes him special is his ability to create offense, which is something that we lack even with as strong as we are at the NHL level. Faulk is a pure shooter and Slavin is so smart that he picks up points making the proper read, but the dynamic of being able to make things happen from the defense is a rare one. There are probably about 25-30 guys in the league that can drive offense from the blueline. Jake Bean projects to have that impact if he can continue his development and keep his confidence across levels, which is where Ryan Murphy had the most trouble. The aspects in particular that excite me about Bean is that his production isn't a direct result of having an overpowering shot, which can sometimes be fools gold as it relates to production in Junior. When you can get a goaltender to overchallenge or drop into butterfly as soon as you raise your stick back, making the extra pass and picking up an assist isn't as difficult for you. Bean works in reverse. He's more of a pure passer and his shot being above average is really just a bonus. There are times when that works in his favor and he's able to get a quick wrist shot to the net when the goaltender is anticipating the pass and it gets through. Similar to how having Ovechkin on the powerplay really opened things up for Mike Green to use his wrist shot.

If there is a better way to describe it, I would say he's like a 8.5 peak with a 5.0 floor type prospect where to me Fleury is a 7.5 peak with a 6.0 floor.
 

A Star is Burns

Formerly Azor Aho
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Dec 6, 2011
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I agree Vagrant, and I've said it for a while. I had said it wouldn't surprise me if they took a dman last year, but almost everyone seemed so shocked by the pick, and didn't like the thought of a dman that I think it stuck with him in a negative way. And people are so quick to jump on anyone taken behind him that has perhaps done better even though Bean was known to be a prospect with a very high ceiling, but several years away from it. Of course it's hard to say if he'll reach his potential, but I think he gets criticized a bit more than he deserves at times. Of course, everyone still seems to think pretty highly of him, I just think it colors the way he's seen for a lot.

On the flip side, Kuokkanen had some pretty mediocre stretches this year, and was worse at the WJC's to me, but got much less flak. I still think a lot of that comes from the fact that he came to us in almost the exact same way as Aho, and a number of people were calling for him to be our second round pick. Not to say he isn't a good pick either, because even with some hiccups, he had some great moments this year as well. I just think there are some things that colored how people feel about them.
 

Boom Boom Apathy

I am the Professor. Deal with it!
Sep 6, 2006
48,174
97,101
If there is a better way to describe it, I would say he's like a 8.5 peak with a 5.0 floor type prospect where to me Fleury is a 7.5 peak with a 6.0 floor.

I think that is a very good way to summarize it.

On the flip side, Kuokkanen had some pretty mediocre stretches this year, and was worse at the WJC's to me, but got much less flak. I still think a lot of that comes from the fact that he came to us in almost the exact same way as Aho, and a number of people were calling for him to be our second round pick. Not to say he isn't a good pick either, because even with some hiccups, he had some great moments this year as well. I just think there are some things that colored how people feel about them.

True. In fairness, Kuokkanen was a 2nd round pick so the expectations at WJC "should" have been less, thus, less flak may have been valid. I do agree though that some had "Aho" fresh on their minds when it came to Kuokkanen and that's an unfair comparison. Realistically, Aho is by far the exception and Kuokkanen looks like a decent pick, but probably picked where he should have been.

I didn't know much about Bean when he was drafted, but fully understand why RF picked a defenseman when he did and a forward when he did. Whether or not he picked the right guy, we won't know for 5+ years, but I understand the methodology of why he picked him where he did. Also, as Vagrant said, he has a skill set we don't have. Frankly, how Bean pans out is probably #101 on the 100 things I worry about for this team. If he doesn't pan out, yeah, it would suck, but with Slavin and Hanifin already on the LHD side, it's not the end of the world.
 

NotOpie

"Puck don't lie"
Jun 12, 2006
9,218
17,639
North Carolina
I agree Vagrant, and I've said it for a while. I had said it wouldn't surprise me if they took a dman last year, but almost everyone seemed so shocked by the pick, and didn't like the thought of a dman that I think it stuck with him in a negative way. And people are so quick to jump on anyone taken behind him that has perhaps done better even though Bean was known to be a prospect with a very high ceiling, but several years away from it. Of course it's hard to say if he'll reach his potential, but I think he gets criticized a bit more than he deserves at times. Of course, everyone still seems to think pretty highly of him, I just think it colors the way he's seen for a lot.

On the flip side, Kuokkanen had some pretty mediocre stretches this year, and was worse at the WJC's to me, but got much less flak. I still think a lot of that comes from the fact that he came to us in almost the exact same way as Aho, and a number of people were calling for him to be our second round pick. Not to say he isn't a good pick either, because even with some hiccups, he had some great moments this year as well. I just think there are some things that colored how people feel about them.

The thing that I find curious when folks look at Bean, is that fact that, despite being injured for better than 1/3 of the season, he still posted great numbers (more than PPG). He did this on a pretty pedestrian Calgary Hitmen team. Sure he had his ups and downs and I would expect those to continue, but he doesn't turn 19 for another month. I'd hope that he puts on a little weight and hits the weights in the off-season. Then, I'd like to see him turn in a memorable draft+2 season.

I was one of those who was confused by the Bean pick as I hadn't done much analysis on him prior to the draft. I was certain we would take a forward with that selection. As things turned out, I believe we had one of our better drafts last year.
 

MinJaBen

Canes Sharks Boy
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Dec 14, 2015
20,678
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Durm
My new Top 15:

1. Warren Foegele
2. Warren Foegele
3. Julien Gauthier
4. Warren Foegele
5. Warren Foegele
6. McLovin
7. Callum Booth
8. Warren Foegele
9. @FoegDaddy96
10 Spencer Smallman
11. Warren Foegele
12. Warren Foegele
13. Warren Foegele
14. 2 other Finns
15. The Swede we draft this year

Figured you might like this, then...

 

DaveG

Noted Jerk
Apr 7, 2003
51,016
47,854
Winston-Salem NC
you guys arent very high on Tolchy anymore?

He needs to show he can translate his skill set to the AHL level, which unfortunately he has yet to really do in 2 seasons. Dude is still super high upside, but still a total project that's been passed now pretty easily by some people that play a far more projectable game that have some good upside themselves.
 

neelynugs

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
35,390
9,759
Sparked by a conversation on another thread, I thought it might be a good exercise to rate/rank our prospect pool. In my case I'm going to use some combination of "best chance to get to the NHL", "highest potential impact in the NHL", and "opportunity to get the the NHL the soonest". I'm not going to include guys like PDG or McGinn given that they are already, borderline NHL'ers.

Here's my list as of this second (we all know how changeable things are):

1. Haydn Fleury
2. Aleksi Saarela
3. Valentin Zykov
4. Jake Bean
5. Lucas Wallmark
6. Janne Kuokkanen
7. Julien Gauthier
8. Nicolas Roy
9. Warren Foegele
10. Roland McKeown
11, Callum Booth
12. Trevor Carrick
13. Andrew Poturalski
14. David Cotton
15. Matt Filipe

Honorable Mentions:

A - Spencer Smallman
B - Alex Nedeljkovic
C - Jeremy Helvig

A couple of quick comments....while I think Zykov gets to the show sooner and more consistently than Saarela, I believe that, ultimately, Aleksi has the greater upside. Even though Jake Bean has been inconsistent in international play, what he did on a pretty poor Hitmen team this season after coming back from injury was impressive. Interestingly enough, I'd likely have Kuokkanen ranked a bit higher, but I believe he will miss out on making the big club next season and therefore end up back in Finland for a year....which might be the best thing for him at this juncture.

several months later, and adding in the 2017 group, how would you guys see the current carolina top 10?
really like kuokkanen as a player.
 

DaveG

Noted Jerk
Apr 7, 2003
51,016
47,854
Winston-Salem NC
to date, adding in the 2017s:

1 - C Martin Necas
2 - D Haydn Fleury
3 - D Jake Bean
4 - C Janne Kuokkanen
5 - C Nic Roy
6 - RW Julien Gauthier
7 - LW Valentin Zykov
8 - D Luke Martin
9 - C Lucas Wallmark
10 - F Warren "McLovin" Foegele
HMs: C Aleksi Saarela, C/RW Stelio Mattheos, D Roland McKeown


trending up: Zykov, McLovin, Mattheos

FWIW here's a thread/poll we did on it right around the time of the Traverse City tournament/after prospect camp this summer. http://hfboards.mandatory.com/threads/2017-carolina-hurricanes-prospect-ranking.2371937/
 

CandyCanes

Caniac turned Jerkiac
Jan 8, 2015
7,159
24,571
I'm good with that.

He's been playing his ass off this year IMHO. Needs to be called up by seasons end and put in a position to show us what he's got unless we're fighting tooth and nail til the last day of the season (and there's a chance of that). Same goes with Zykov and McLovin.

Kind of sucks that none of them have gotten a shot yet this season with PDG still getting opportunities. Now with what seems like Stempniak coming back there chances of getting a shot become tougher.
 

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