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The Training Camp Thread

So, 19 forwards still in camp for 12 (maybe 13...but I doubt it) spots.

There are at least 10 NHL locks, which fill the top-6 and all but one or two of the bottom six.


So the line-up (acknowledging that the top-6 could shuffle between the top two lines) reveals holes here:

E. Staal / J. Staal / Versteeg
Skinner / Rask / Lindholm
Gerbe / *HOLE* / Nestrasil or *HOLE*
Malone / McClement / Nestrasil or *HOLE*


And the 9 forward candidates to fill the two holes are:

Di Giuseppe, McGinn, Nash, Nordstrom, Ryan, Sutter, Terry, Tolchinsky, and Woods


Third-line center hole is probably Nash's...but Ryan is hanging around to at least make him sweat for it...and to see just what we got.

Nestrasil would be a dandy fourth-line RW, if we can afford to slot him that low, leaving the third line RW for an offensive skill player. If so, that third-line RW might be Ryan again (he has a right shot).

Di Guiseppe, McGinn, and Tolchinsky would all be on their off-side in the RW slot and doubt they're ready anyway. Just getting a better look as they are likely injury/trade call-ups later in the season.


Other way to go might be to let Nestrasil be the third-line RW he played often last season and look for a fourth-line RW among the candidates. In which case my guess might be that right-shot Sutter gets the nod, as an apprenticeship for eventually replacing McClement as the fourth line center down the line.


But, hey, notice no one is dreadfully over-slotted in any of the above scenarios. And it's been a while since we could say that.
 
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EDIT: Here's a better photo of those two line-ups, courtesy of Michael Smith.
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SOmeone might want to tell Bill Peters he has one less day until the first game of the season than he thinks he does. Today is the 25th (not tomorrow).
 
JFG said:
Interesting to see Skinner on RW.
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If he can handle the around-the-boards from his off-hand side, I've often thought his left-shot on the right hand side (hence closer to the center ice area) might be a formidable scoring threat.

However, better to try such stuff in preseason games than on-the-fly during the season. Might be an interesting PP unit slot for him, if nothing else.
 
Yeah ... Peters talked before about putting E Staal on a wing with Rask and Linholm. It might be a good fir, who knows? I do like the idea of keeping Eric on wing but separating him from Jordan. I think it might do them both a world of good to carve out their own turf on this team rather than being constantly joined at the hip, and thus judged as a single entity.

Oh ... and in the second slot with those wingers, freaking Nash better at least show up if he wants that 3rd line center job.
 
Nice to see Jacob Slavin survive the first round of cuts. He is making a nice case for himself. The numbers game may ultimately put him in Charlotte, but I really like what I've seen.
 
Skinner on the right wing rang a resonant bell with me, as I was pretty sure he saw some time there during his Kitchener Rangers days.

Didn't look too deep, but found a reference to him as being a "natural right winger" in this Bleacher Report post-draft profile of the top-30 2010 draftees.

From Jeff Skinner's profile:

Next up, the Carolina Hurricanes , who, with the seventh overall pick, selected Kitchener Rangers forward Jeff Skinner .

Here’s what I wrote about the Carolina Hurricanes in my Eastern Conference Preview:

"For my liking, the Hurricanes need to add some offensive depth—and the perfect fit here would be Jeff Skinner, who scored 50 goals in 64 games as a member of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers last season.

"Skinner, a natural Right Winger, would be a tremendous fit alongside Staal, where the two could feed off each other’s creativity and Skinner’s shot could be utilized best.

"As a resident of Kitchener, Ontario, I watched Skinner play on numerous occasions—he's the 'real deal' and is undervalued with many scouting services ranking him anywhere from 10th-25th overall."
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So, maybe he's comfortable on his off-side, like Erik Cole was. If so, it could definitely help his offensive game.
 
Elsker said:
Skinner on the right wing rang a resonant bell with me, as I was pretty sure he saw some time there during his Kitchener Rangers days.
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You don't have to go that far back. He's played some on the right side during his Canes career. People get WAY too fixated on which side the winger plays on IMO. In most systems, they follow patterns that land them pretty much anywhere. It's just not that big a deal for the vast majority of guys.

Defense? Now THAT's a bigger deal.
 
brassbonanza said:
Nice to see Jacob Slavin survive the first round of cuts. He is making a nice case for himself. The numbers game may ultimately put him in Charlotte, but I really like what I've seen.
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Not only that, but he's now got a goal and has gotten strong reviews from the coaches. Look ... if the guy can handle NHL play then I say keep him up and figure out how to get one of our more useless vets out of the lineup. I'm looking at you Liles.
 
jeffbear said:
You don't have to go that far back. He's played some on the right side during his Canes career. People get WAY too fixated on which side the winger plays on IMO. In most systems, they follow patterns that land them pretty much anywhere. It's just not that big a deal for the vast majority of guys.

Defense? Now THAT's a bigger deal.
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It affects more your starting spot, obviously, from face-offs and this determines generally your ensuing types of roles, directions you will go. But yeah, outside of a goalie, who stays in a crease, and after a faceoff, players go everywhere on the ice.
 
I would love for the Canes to use Liles spot to try out any of Carrick, Pesce or Slavin. We know what Liles will bring and its not much of anything on either side of the puck. You can't even go to the staple of 'veteran presence' excuse with Liles because he isn't any sort of 'presence' out there at all.

The thing is though, right now Liles' spot is probably a rotation with Jordan and Ryan Murphy for our 3rd pair (I'm assuming Hanifin is on the NHL team). Certainly you don't want to have Slavin or Pesce or Carrick or any of these other kids sitting around the press box. They all need to be playing somewhere every night. You could argue that Ryan Murphy should be the odd man out in that trio. But given the fact that Liles spot is probably a 7th Dman who is going to be scratched, possibly quite a bit, if Hanifin makes the team and everyone else is healthy, we might not be best served by having any of our kids is that type of rotation situation.

Or put another way, if Slavin somehow forces his way onto the Canes roster, it has to be a situation where he plays 90% of the time as the kid has zero pro experience and not playing games is definitely not what we want him doing. Slavin making the team means 2 of Liles, Jordan and Murphy are sitting (or Murphy is in the AHL and Jordan or Liles sits). I can't see that happening to open the season no matter how great Slavin looks.

---Looks towards next year when Slavin and Pesce and Hanifin have a full season of pro experience and McKeown and Fluery are ready to start their pro careers and smiles about how much deeper the the DMan cupboard is than it ever has been in franchise history---
 
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cmaleski2 said:
I would love for the Canes to use Liles spot to try out any of Carrick, Pesce or Slavin. We know what Liles will bring and its not much of anything on either side of the puck. You can't even go to the staple of 'veteran presence' excuse with Liles because he isn't any sort of 'presence' out there at all.

The thing is though, right now Liles' spot is probably a rotation with Jordan and Ryan Murphy for our 3rd pair (I'm assuming Hanifin is on the NHL team). Certainly you don't want to have Slavin or Pesce or Carrick or any of these other kids sitting around the press box. They all need to be playing somewhere every night. You could argue that Ryan Murphy should be the odd man out in that trio. But given the fact that Liles spot is probably a 7th Dman who is going to be scratched, possibly quite a bit, if Hanifin makes the team and everyone else is healthy, we might not be best served by having any of our kids is that type of rotation situation.

Or put another way, if Slavin somehow forces his way onto the Canes roster, it has to be a situation where he plays 90% of the time as the kid has zero pro experience and not playing games is definitely not what we want him doing. Slavin making the team means 2 of Liles, Jordan and Murphy are sitting (or Murphy is in the AHL and Jordan or Liles sits). I can't see that happening to open the season no matter how great Slavin looks.

---Looks towards next year when Slavin and Pesce and Hanifin have a full season of pro experience and McKeown and Fluery are ready to start their pro careers and smiles about how much deeper the the DMan cupboard is than it ever has been in franchise history---
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I almost wish Liles was a bit more useful to some other team wanting a PMD and then just swap him out for another Liles-like contract forward body up front...addition by subtraction.

Jordan is on a one-way deal but it's cheap enough that the Canes can afford to have him sit in the press box. Murphy is really at a make or break time this year as an NHL defenseman and really needs to see NHL quality minutes for the Canes to truly assess if he is worth keeping. Murphy is about to be passed on the depth chart by all these young kids on D coming up soon.
 
Who would have thunk two seasons ago that we'd have a logjam at defense...even if with barely qualified candidates for slots?

Barring trades, I see the D starting the season pretty much as cmaleski2 reasoned through it above. Prospects gotta play, so putting Liles into the sit slot, along with Jordan, on some kind of rotation gets Murphy the protected minutes he needs on third pairings and power play. Feels like more of an earned longer-look for Pesce, Slavin, and even Fleury, before being sent to their AHL (Pesce /Slavin) and WHL (Fleury) teams.

As for the forwards, appears that Nash, Ryan, and now McGinn are in contention for two open slots in the bottom-six: 3rd line center and 3rd/4th line RW, depending on where Nestrasil is slotted.


EDIT: Updated roster (reflects today's cuts)
 
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Six more sent to Charlotte today, including Tolchinsky. 4 more cuts to make it to 23. 10 of the remaining 27 are defensemen. Writing seems to be on the wall here, unless they can somehow shed themselves of Liles.
 
Malone to me is a wasted roster spot...other than a big body what exactly does he bring to the party? I would rather have a kid like McGinn in his spot. Fleury might be passed by one of Pesce or Slavin for a spot on D. It would be a miracle move by Francis to trade Liles and that albatross contract but that would help the logjam on D.
 
I agree on Brad Malone. I would rather have a kid in that spot full time. However, I slammed Malone big time over and over again the first half of last season and the guy busted out and turned into a useful NHL 4th liner in the 2nd half. The guy is just a 4th liner though, he doesn't kill penalties or do anything else really other than being our most likely fight candidate now that Bellemore is gone (that's not very important anymore, but I respect his willingness to do that in game situations).

I think Malone earned enough respect from Peters last year during the 2nd half that he would have to be severely outplayed by someone capable of full time 4th line minutes. But what I would like about McGinn in that role is that he has shown a willingness to be a royal PITA all over the ice AND I suspect that he is fully capable of killing penalties AND would provide that breakaway speed/danger on the PK that we actually lost when we let Pat Dwyer go. Not that your primary goal is to score goals when killing penalties, but I could see Brock McGinn using his speed effectively on the PK.
 
As for the forwards, appears that Nash, Ryan, and now McGinn are in contention for two open slots in the bottom-six: 3rd line center and 3rd/4th line RW, depending on where Nestrasil is slotted.
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I'm not quite sure I'm 100% confident on Nordstrom's roster spot being secure, at least not yet. I actually would be more willing to bet that Nash's spot is more secure than Nordstrom's at this point.

4 more cuts to make it to 23. 10 of the remaining 27 are defensemen. Writing seems to be on the wall here, unless they can somehow shed themselves of Liles.
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And of course the Canes are more than willing to go below 23, although they shocked me last year when we opened the season with 23 on the roster.

Fleury is the easiest of the remaining calls I suspect. I can't see any scenario where he sticks on the NHL roster all season so back to the WHL for him. Then you can probably easily see Slavin and Pesce in Charlotte knowing that either is a quick callup with no waivers away should you want them back....so that takes us to 24 and sets the 7 Dmen. From there, at least how I see it, its 2 out of Ryan, Nordstrom, McGinn heading to Charlotte. I think Riley Nash is already on the team. If McGinn makes it that mean Nash or Malone is a healthy scratch and McGinn is going to play, a lot. If its Ryan or Nordstrom making the team I think they will rotate with Nash and Malone.

If everyone is healthy I expect us to carry 22 players, including 7 Dmen and 13 forwards to open the season.
 
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Can anyone relay how McKeown, Pesce and Fleury are doing, not necessarily in that order? I remember at the start of camp, or was it the rookie camp, reading that Fleury was looking good but still a bit raw in terms of his positioning or something like that. What about the other two?

Any chance seeing these guys this year, for more than 10 games?
 
cmaleski2 said:
I'm not quite sure I'm 100% confident on Nordstrom's roster spot being secure, at least not yet. I actually would be more willing to bet that Nash's spot is more secure than Nordstrom's at this point.
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Agreed. Didn't mean to imply that Nordstrom was going to continue to make the cut.

Rather I had just dismissed even the thought that there was a chance...so didn't address him still being on the keeper list.

Just earned a longer look, I think...him being still new and all.
 
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