Speculation: Canes roster building thread

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Roboturner913

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I think you look at Murphy as an insurance policy of sorts against Wiz not coming back from his knee injury. You probably feel pretty OK about Murphy as your 6th guy in that situation whereas otherwise you're forcing Fleury or McKeown to make a jump they're potentially not ready for.
 

A Star is Burns

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If they have to keep Murphy as a seventh dman to start the year, so be it. But I think some decent trade will present itself that will hopefully be good for us and Murphy.
 

tarheelhockey

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I think you look at Murphy as an insurance policy of sorts against Wiz not coming back from his knee injury. You probably feel pretty OK about Murphy as your 6th guy in that situation whereas otherwise you're forcing Fleury or McKeown to make a jump they're potentially not ready for.

That's a good point, and a good reason to hold onto him through training camp unless a trade produces a defenseman coming back.
 

Finlandia WOAT

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Murphy isn't as bad defensively as he's been made out to be...his #fancystats indicate he was adequate against 3rd pairing competition, and I thought the eyetest corroborated that. It was night and day difference, last year he clearly couldn't keep up with NHL level speed (similar to Hanifin this year, who was not good).

Question is if Wiz can still be an average NHL'er. A guy who relied on skating and was never a stalwart defensive guy has a massive knee injury at 31....not a guarantee IMO.
 

Roboturner913

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How good is slavin? Top 4 quality?

He was the #1 after Faulk got hurt and looked the part. Often played 24-25 minutes and was easily the most reliable guy on the team in his own end.

If he continues to play like he did last year, he's a solid first-pair guy. If I had to make a comparison I'd say he reminds me of Adam Foote, a guy that most people would have pegged as pure stay-at-home D but won't let you down when it comes to making the right breakout pass or coming up into the play when he needs to.
 
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GoldiFox

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How good is slavin? Top 4 quality?

He has the skill set to be the best of all Carolina's defensemen, IMO. If he can get more comfortable locking down his assignments in the D-zone he is almost there. Faulk has a better shot but I think Slavin has the better vision and puck handling. Slavin was better on both offensive and defensive transitions. His gap control is outstanding and he has an active stick on defense. On offense you know when Slavin has the puck. He's a big man that carries the puck up the ice well with a lot of confidence, often weaving in and out of opponents on his way into the O-zone. Very effortless feeling to his transition game.
 
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AD Skinner

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Oh man, Adam Foote.

kdzw08x.jpg


Dude was money in NHL 2k5. That whole Avs team was.
 

StormCast

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I would argue that all three of Slavin, Pesce, and especially Hanifin are equal to and/or superior to Murphy in offensive zone entries. All three demonstrated better decision-making on those entries and at least equivalent skill. I agree that Murphy's main issue is confidence which manifests itself in seemingly poor or slow decision-making. He was confident in juniors and he lost that against the higher level of competition in the NHL.
Pesce isn't on par with Murphy in that regard. Slavin and Hanifan have shown good potential there but my point was especially focused on zone entries on the PP where the PK is often stacking the blue line. Nobody has the consistent elusive skating and puck-handling skills as Murhpy. They all make good entries in space, as they're all good skaters, but Murphy is a level above them. In fact, the second best guy in those instances was Liles. You are right about decision-making though.
 

Finlandia WOAT

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How good is slavin? Top 4 quality?

He's getting massively hyped on Carolinas board, but completely deserving IMO. Be better than Faulk or Hanifin in long run.

Murphy can make people back off when he's in transition because one misstep means an odd man rusg the other way. But when he has the puck in the offensive zone there are still issues to be worked out.
 

geehaad

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Pesce isn't on par with Murphy in that regard. Slavin and Hanifan have shown good potential there but my point was especially focused on zone entries on the PP where the PK is often stacking the blue line. Nobody has the consistent elusive skating and puck-handling skills as Murhpy. They all make good entries in space, as they're all good skaters, but Murphy is a level above them. In fact, the second best guy in those instances was Liles. You are right about decision-making though.

Hard for me to take an "article" like this seriously when the writer misspells names multiple times.

Sorry, couldn't resist.
 

Boom Boom Apathy

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He's getting massively hyped on Carolinas board, but completely deserving IMO. Be better than Faulk or Hanifin in long run.

Maybe, but I wouldn't go that far yet. Slavin is almost 3 years older than Hanifin and has had that much more time to develop, mature and have his body fill out. You could see how much stronger he was than Hanifin down low. The difference between entering the NHL as an 18 year old and a 21 year old, particularly on D is huge. I think we have only seen Hanifin scratch the surface and can't wait to see him in 2-3 years.

I can buy that Slavin may be better than Faulk defensively, but he would really need to develop his shot, his offensive game, board play, and other aspects that Faulk excels at before I would conclude that Slavin would be better. We also have to see how he responds and adapts as teams get the book on him. He was pretty much under the radar and I'm sure an afterthought for most teams when they faced the Canes. Not so for Faulk where he was a focal point. I'm not saying Slavin can't get there, but I'm not willing to conclude that yet.

The good news is that we are even having this discussion and it's not a totally unreasonable discussion to have.
 

StormCast

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Maybe, but I wouldn't go that far yet. Slavin is almost 3 years older than Hanifin and has had that much more time to develop, mature and have his body fill out. You could see how much stronger he was than Hanifin down low. The difference between entering the NHL as an 18 year old and a 21 year old, particularly on D is huge. I think we have only seen Hanifin scratch the surface and can't wait to see him in 2-3 years.

I can buy that Slavin may be better than Faulk defensively, but he would really need to develop his shot, his offensive game, board play, and other aspects that Faulk excels at before I would conclude that Slavin would be better. We also have to see how he responds and adapts as teams get the book on him. He was pretty much under the radar and I'm sure an afterthought for most teams when they faced the Canes. Not so for Faulk where he was a focal point. I'm not saying Slavin can't get there, but I'm not willing to conclude that yet.

The good news is that we are even having this discussion and it's not a totally unreasonable discussion to have.
I see it much the same way. When both Slavin and Pesce had their stretches of struggles, it coincided with teams deciding to forecheck them relentlessly. To their credit, they by and large stayed relatively poised, Slavin more so than Pesce, but the tactic took its toll on them and their play. Slavin will see a steady dose of heavy forechecking into the boards this season to slow him down.
 

tarheelhockey

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I'd put Slavin 3rd among those three players in terms of projected ceiling. To me he looks like a guy who is taking full advantage of his skill set, which is something quite different than a raw rookie who could still move up the ladder a couple more tiers before we find out who he really is. The thing that impressed and surprised me the most about him this year was precisely that he didn't look like a rookie.

That being said, he's clearly a solid 2nd pairing guy right now and could very well grow into a prototypical #2 if he develops on a normal track. That's not a bad thing at all, and I freakin' love that we seem to have stumbled across him almost out of nowhere.
 

bleedgreen

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They both (Slavin/ Pesce) have promise but both weren't ready to be the focus of the other teams for an extended period. They both did struggle at times down the stretch with the pressure teams applied. We asked a lot of them for their first year. They both are better than Murphy at skating out of the zone and hitting the good first pass. Murphy may be a great skater but he still tries to use his raw skills to get out of trouble without feeling the play in front of him.
 

geehaad

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When both Slavin and Pesce had their stretches of struggles, it coincided with teams deciding to forecheck them relentlessly. To their credit, they by and large stayed relatively poised, Slavin more so than Pesce, but the tactic took its toll on them and their play.

But wait...didn't they "hit a wall"...?

:sarcasm: (but not really :sarcasm:)
 

RodTheBawd

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I don't agree with SC there. I thought Pesce's struggles were more injury/exhaustion related than anything else. Sure, other teams realizing these weren't ordinary rookies and actually had to be accounted for played some part. He had incredible board play until he got worn down. Many people were more enamored by him than they were Slavin. I don't recall Slavin having poor stretches at any point in the season though.
 

GoldiFox

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I don't agree with SC there. I thought Pesce's struggles were more injury/exhaustion related than anything else. Sure, other teams realizing these weren't ordinary rookies and actually had to be accounted for played some part. He had incredible board play until he got worn down. Many people were more enamored by him than they were Slavin. I don't recall Slavin having poor stretches at any point in the season though.

This is the most incredible part to me. Slavin transitioned from ~35 NCAA games a year to a full NHL schedule and played 25+ minutes a night for the last two months of the season.

That speaks volumes to me about his drive and conditioning. He is a winner.
 

DougieSmash

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There's no way in the world that Slavin going to be better than Fleury and Hanifin.
 

Novacane

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Hanifin, no. Fleury, yeah. But it may be close between Hanifin and Slavin at times. I think Hanifin will eventually consistently be a bigger presence while Slavin is just a steady entity.
 

Boom Boom Apathy

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Given Hanifin has 79 games as an 18/19 YO, Slavin has 63 games and Fleury has never stepped foot in the NHL, how are we concluding with certainty which one is going to be the best (particularly, since I doubt many have seen Fleury play much, I know I haven't).

Shea Weber didn't even play in the NHL full time until 4 season's after his draft. Roman Josi was 5 seasons. Karlsson was 3 seasons after his draft before being full time. PK Subban was 4 seasons after his draft, Ryan Suter 3 seasons. OEL 3 seasons later. Pietrangelo, 3 seasons later. TJ Brodie didn't become a full time NHLr until 4-5 years after his draft, Mark Giordano didn't become a full time NHLr until he was 26. etc... I looked at those quickly so could be off be off by a year here or there, but you get the point.
 
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