Grade The Canes Draft Weekend

[dogbazinho]

I will say that Buffalo has shown a good example of how a team can perform a quick rebuild and somewhat maintain an exciting product instead of a slow franchise killing death that we are in the midst of. One thing that hampers us greatly is flexibility. Bad teams need to be able to kick off players and take advantage of cap dumps, teams losing young players due to fit issues and just bad decisions. We can't due to our immovable contracts and so we stagnate while worse teams get franchise players through the draft and castoffs from stacked playoff teams.

 

[What the Faulk]

At least on Semin I honestly think, if he doesn't rebound this season, it's (best case) expansion team or it's buyout for him. Or it's trade with us retaining heavy next offseason like the Bruins Lucic trade since the Ruutu and Harrison ones will be off the books.

Bingo. I think Semin can't possibly be worse next season than he was this season. Will he ever be worth his contract? Highly doubtful. But the money won't hurt as much, and we know teams have to hit the cap floor. I think he'll be easier to move with just two years left on his contract, or maybe a buyout will make more sense than panicking after one year, in which case, four years is more palatable to have so much dead space than two, especially with, as you said, other dead money coming off the books. Getting rid of him now (with $$ retained in either a buyout or trade) just means you have another top 6 hole to fill. I'm not sure they can realistically find two guys to do that. At least this gives them another chance with the current core. If they suck again, so be it. It'll be much easier to rebuild next offseason than this one.

 

[NotOpie]

So I gave the Canes a B+ because even though I'm an optimist, I'm a hard grader.

Hanifin - no brainer, period. It took me a while to come to this realization, but I came around, glad I did, and glad the Hurricanes brain trust did too.

Aho - head scratcher, but the more I read and see about him the more I like the high-skilled aspect. But still with Bittner, Chlapik, Harkins, Hintz, Trenin, Sprong, and Nattinen all still on the board (all of whom will likely have NHL careers), this seemed like a reach - but there were those that though Jeff Skinner was a reach.

Lack/Wiz - love it! Wizniewski is the perfect fit for what we need, a solid Top 4 guy, great character guy, a leader, and somebody who has a history of mentoring young blueliners. I love the Lack pickup as it puts immense pressure on Cam, who only seems to perform well under pressure. More importantly, it puts pressure on contract negotiations. Everything about these trades I love.

Booth - I like picking goalies 2 out of every 3 drafts. He was very highly rated and fell to us here. Not a sexy pick but a very savvy one.

Roy - the big power forward we need and want. He's got all the tools (even if his skating can improve a bit, like all big men). He needs some solid coaching. Love this pick, he just needs development time.

Stevens - I hope Ronnie knows something that I/we don't. Big kid, going to Yale, so there's always that.

Smallman - this is another of those sleeper picks. Right Wing is an area of weakness and this kid seems to have a lot of what "Bill Peter's Hockey" is all about.

Massie - really know nothing about this guy, but he was rated significantly higher than where we picked him. Could be a function of fancy stats....and we needed to grab at least one more d-man.

Cotton - my 2nd favorite pick after Hanifin. Big, fast, good hands....what's not to like....in many places this guy was a 2nd/3rd rounder.

Lorentz - it's a 7th round pick, meh...

Love the Hanifin, Roy, Smallman, and Cotton picks. Loved the trades. Hoping for the best on the others. Ronnie has started to mine the high school ranks which could be interesting and we have another crop of kids who will be going the NCAA route. Like Ronnie said, we'll see how well he did in 3 to 4 years.

 

[Ole Gil]

We're probably not a better team today than we were at last trade deadline.

The success isn't going from Sekera/Khudo to Wiz/Lack. It's that they managed to tread water while adding a 2016 1st and McKeown and only losing a 3rd and adding only 1 million a year? in the process.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

The success isn't going from Sekera/Khudo to Wiz/Lack. It's that they managed to tread water while adding a 2016 1st and McKeown and only losing a 3rd and adding only 1 million a year? in the process.

This. It's a move that both makes us marginally better this year and sets us up for the coming years.

 

[DaveG]

The success isn't going from Sekera/Khudo to Wiz/Lack. It's that they managed to tread water while adding a 2016 1st and McKeown and only losing a 3rd and adding only 1 million a year? in the process.

Yep. I mean Wiz is a downgrade from Sekera but that situation always going to be almost impossible to replicate. Our defense has managed to go from being a total joke (like it was after Pitkanen went down) to at least being passable again. Add to that the fact that we still have yet to hit free agency so there's still the possibility of getting Faulk the LHD partner help, or for Hanifin to just absolutely rip **** up in camp and end up with him.

 

[Buenos Necas]

And listening to RF and Peters' comments, I think we're still looking at adding another defenseman. We did well to get Wiz though, it should be easier to find a steady left-shot defenseman to round out the top 4.

 

[My Special Purpose]

It's been a while. Real life has been very interesting. Anyhow, missed the draft live and I'm catching up on the weekend. I'm really surprised to see all the positive vibes around here. As somebody who hasn't paid much attention the past three months, I was really underwhelmed by the Canes this weekend.

I mean, we've known for a very long time that they were getting one of Hanifin, Strome or Marner at No. 5. We were also thinking they'd get another first-round quality guy who slipped five picks into the second. We were also thinking they'd do something with Eric Staal, Cam Ward, Alex Semin and/or Jeff Skinner while all teams were able to add salary and while prospective draft picks were flying off draft boards.

We got Hanifin, which was a total no-brainer at No. 5. We left about 10 more interesting guys on the board at 35, and we did virtually *nothing* about *anything* else.

Lack -- to me -- is a clear upgrade to Khabibulin, based on talent, pedigree and last season. But he's still got the specter of Cam Ward looming, and as long as Cam is here, he's going to play. I honestly wonder if Lack can improve us one tiny bit playing less than half the time, behind our defense. To me, this is re-arranging deck chairs, unless we get rid of Cam or vastly improve the defense.

And as for the defense, Wisniewski is a borderline journeyman at this point in his career. If that's really the best we can do on such a "huge" weekend for our team, that's not saying a whole lot, is it?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but with our 10 picks, including two of the top 35 and four of the top 100, did we really do anything other than the absolute *least* we could do (i.e. draft Hanifin). Did RF to anything to solve any of our issues? I don't think he did. We're still embarrassingly overpaying five guys to do very little and we still have the worst defense in the league.

 

[What the Faulk]

^ Never change

 

[AD Skinner]

Wisneiwski DOES dramatically improve the defense. Journeyman or not, he is a legitimate NHL defenseman. Sure he was scratched by the ducks, but he's easily better than anyone on our D not named Faulk.

 

[CandyCanes]

It's been a while. Real life has been very interesting. Anyhow, missed the draft live and I'm catching up on the weekend. I'm really surprised to see all the positive vibes around here. As somebody who hasn't paid much attention the past three months, I was really underwhelmed by the Canes this weekend.

I mean, we've known for a very long time that they were getting one of Hanifin, Strome or Marner at No. 5. We were also thinking they'd get another first-round quality guy who slipped five picks into the second. We were also thinking they'd do something with Eric Staal, Cam Ward, Alex Semin and/or Jeff Skinner while all teams were able to add salary and while prospective draft picks were flying off draft boards.

We got Hanifin, which was a total no-brainer at No. 5. We left about 10 more interesting guys on the board at 35, and we did virtually *nothing* about *anything* else.

Lack -- to me -- is a clear upgrade to Khabibulin, based on talent, pedigree and last season. But he's still got the specter of Cam Ward looming, and as long as Cam is here, he's going to play. I honestly wonder if Lack can improve us one tiny bit playing less than half the time, behind our defense. To me, this is re-arranging deck chairs, unless we get rid of Cam or vastly improve the defense.

And as for the defense, Wisniewski is a borderline journeyman at this point in his career. If that's really the best we can do on such a "huge" weekend for our team, that's not saying a whole lot, is it?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but with our 10 picks, including two of the top 35 and four of the top 100, did we really do anything other than the absolute *least* we could do (i.e. draft Hanifin). Did RF to anything to solve any of our issues? I don't think he did. We're still embarrassingly overpaying five guys to do very little and we still have the worst defense in the league.

Lack is definitely a upgrade over Khabibulin, Khabibulin never played great for us cause he never played on the Canes lol

FYI: I know you meant Khudobin lol.

We do need to remember us fans need to not get caught up on the draft rankings that the media releases, the media and us fans are not official scouts. Yeah while it looks like we passed up on some great prospects in the 2nd round, who knows how they will play out? We don't know yet if Aho is actually a reach or not or he could be a steal... Only time will tell. We did have a need for skilled RW'ers in our system and Aho looks to be one of those.

I trust in Ron Francis, so far he has made some smart strategic moves that are slowly moving us forward and not backwards. While these moves might not propel us to the promise land yet, at least we are moving forward. And while you are unsatisfied we haven't moved or figured out any of the big contracts yet, it's not even July 1st yet... There is still plenty more off season to go, patience my friend. We may go out and sign another d men once free agency opens.

Also you got to understand I still don't think we are in that position yet to be going hard at a playoff run, we are in the midst of a retooling and it might be another 1-2 seasons. Unfortunately that is where Rutherford left this team for Francis. Right now I can't be mad at GMRF, if in two seasons we are not pushing hard at the playoffs then I'll start to question him. But as of right now I'm pretty darn satisfied with what has been done with this team.

 

[What the Faulk]

Personally, I don't understand the impatience and wanting to get rid of everyone yesterday. That's going to be magnitudes easier next season, or even at the trade deadline in some cases. NHLers Signed in 2016-17: Semin, Jordan, Skinner, McClement, Nestrasil, Wisniewski, Faulk, Hainsey for a total of $31.875, or an average of less than 4 million per player. That's it. They could easily afford to buyout/trade Semin with salary retained if they decide to go down that road at that point to further increase their room.

 

[Revenge of the Sieve]

We're still embarrassingly overpaying five guys to do very little and we still have the worst defense in the league.

I really don't see how GMRF could solve these problems in one draft weekend. No one is taking Semin's contract after last season at this point. We know what hes capable of so heres hoping he bounces back. EStaal isn't going anywhere, and hopefully he resigns at a discount. Ward and Liles? They each have a year left before UFA right? Either they contribute this year, or they are chips at the trade deadline. And at the very least they are off the books next year. Next year is when the financial flexibility really comes back.

Adding Wiz, and possibly Hanifin if he makes the team, improves the defense from the end of last year. McKeown and Fleury aren't too far away. This defense is going to be very good in a couple of years.

I think we all know that while we can hope for this season, the real changes are about a year away.

 

[Joe McGrath]

If anything, I think the trade for Lack signals that Francis isn't exactly thrilled with Cam's extension demands. Khudobin is what he is at this point and really didn't prove to be a long term threat. Lack might be able to be that guy. Long story short, I don't think Cam is getting an extension before the season starts.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

I'm pretty happy. I was thrilled when Khudobin showed up and I hate to see him go, but Lack is a lateral move at worst and we got him for basically nothing.

Turning a competent backup + near-worthless picks into a competent backup + top-four d-man alone makes it a good weekend. The fact that Hanifin fell makes it even sweeter. Don't know enough about our later round picks to have an opinion, but it's rare for them to work out so I'm not holding my breath anyway.

 

[Novacane]

If anything, I think the trade for Lack signals that Francis isn't exactly thrilled with Cam's extension demands. Khudobin is what he is at this point and really didn't prove to be a long term threat. Lack might be able to be that guy. Long story short, I don't think Cam is getting an extension before the season starts.

Yeah. Make Cam sweat it out a little and hope Lack sets the world on fire. Hopefully the incentive of playing for a new contract and staying the starter propels Cam to a great season and Lack pushes him enough to make that happen.

 

[My Special Purpose]

If anything, I think the trade for Lack signals that Francis isn't exactly thrilled with Cam's extension demands. Khudobin is what he is at this point and really didn't prove to be a long term threat. Lack might be able to be that guy. Long story short, I don't think Cam is getting an extension before the season starts.

Yeah. Make Cam sweat it out a little and hope Lack sets the world on fire. Hopefully the incentive of playing for a new contract and staying the starter propels Cam to a great season and Lack pushes him enough to make that happen.

If RF does anything *other* than extend Cam while making it clear he's the starter, I'll be on board. But is there *anything* that makes *anyone* legitimately think Cam is going anywhere? And as long as he's here, we're going to suck. I actually feel the same way about Eric Staal. He'll be back, too, and we'll suck.

Even if they both sign for less money, we'll suck. Sometimes, it's not about the money, it's about "time to move on."

 

[A Star is Burns]

I'm hoping the Lack trade means a few things. I think part of the reason they were talking about extending Cam is they probably didn't feel comfortable with the thought of Khudobin as the starter going forward either, so Cam was the easy answer. I don't think Francis is blindly in love with Cam, or he wouldn't have tried to move him last year. At this point, hopefully he'll use Lack to push Cam into a much cheaper extension, or just let it play out and see if Lack can take the job and give him the money instead. I definitely wouldn't give Cam an extension this summer now unless it was an unbelievable steal.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

People either get incredibly upset over passing on higher ranked players in the draft or they boast nonstop about how they got a guy ranked in the second round all the way in the 5th. How often do these fallers turn into good players?

I've given up saying anything in the draft steal threads anymore. There's a reason 29 other teams passed on these guys and they were available where they were or they went undrafted altogether.

I guess what I'm saying in regards to the hurricanes is I'll trust GMRF and be patient.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

kev u probably wouldve traded skinner and the 5th pick for the 3rd pick then just drafted hanifin anyway lol

 

[Blueline Bomber]

If RF does anything *other* than extend Cam while making it clear he's the starter, I'll be on board. But is there *anything* that makes *anyone* legitimately think Cam is going anywhere? And as long as he's here, we're going to suck. I actually feel the same way about Eric Staal. He'll be back, too, and we'll suck.

Even if they both sign for less money, we'll suck. Sometimes, it's not about the money, it's about "time to move on."

This should just about sum up Kev's viewpoint on the Canes.

"No matter what they do, they'll suck. Not because of anything tangible, but because I said so. And if they do the right move, they'll suck because it wasn't the move I wanted them to do or they should have done it sooner."

 

[Sens1Canes2]

This should just about sum up Kev's viewpoint on the Canes.

"No matter what they do, they'll suck. Not because of anything tangible, but because I said so. And if they do the right move, they'll suck because it wasn't the move I wanted them to do or they should have done it sooner."

I'm actually with Kev on this one. What exactly gives the impression that an Eric Staal-Cam Ward (current salaries equalling $15+ million) combo will suddenly yield even a modicum of success? I share the opinion that it's time to move on.

However, I do understand that for at least one of them (Staal) the reward will most likely be greatest at the '16 trade deadline.

 

[AD Skinner]

we will be tenuously in reach of the last wild card spot at the deadline, staal stays put, we miss by one point

 

[DaveG]

Just gotta say Kev, we DID get a guy later in the draft that was very highly ranked most of the season in Nicolas Roy. Even in the THN draft preview they had him in their top 20, but said he needs to work on his skating. Heading into the year he was expected to be a top 15 pick. I realize he was in the 40s in most publications but he's an outstanding value pick at 96. Could be this years Rask pick for us.

Wiz isn't a world beater but he's still a good second pairing guy and all that cost us is the 66 and a 7th next year, no problem with that.

We still need to get Faulk some help, but that's what Wednesday-rest of this summer is for.

I just don't see the pessimism right now. We're a much better team now then we were heading in to the draft, and we quite literally gave up what can be best described as nothing to do it.

Won't disagree with you too much re: Staal and Ward. The question is what's the situation going to be with them long-term? I don't have a problem with us keeping Staal long-term... at something reasonable. That's going to be the issue with him.

 

[What the Faulk]

^^^But who really cares that they're still on the team. They haven't been extended. Ward is worthless now and later. Staal's value will only increase as we get closer to the TD. Trading Skinner apparently didn't yield the required value, and it's not so much of a need anymore. Really the only argument you can make is Semin, and with the complete *****fest regarding him really over the last year, why exactly would anyone else want to take that on at any price? They added a top 4 defender, a top defensive prospect, and upgraded in goal (potentially a post-Ward starter at that). You yourself have said you don't understand why anyone cares about next year. This weekend wasn't even about next year, and somehow they've got a shot at being better because of it.