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2019-20 Hurricanes Prospects and Checkers Thread

jeffbear

jeffbear

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I'm just housekeeping here. CMaleski2 is responsible for this content and will continue to drive this thread ... I assume ... and hope. All content below the +++++ is his. Oh, also note that now that the Checkers have won the Calder Cup I'm going to stick with the correct spelling of the team name. Respect.

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Just getting this set up. Liiga starts in mid-September

Canes draft picks and prospect List 19-20
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Ryan Suzuki C (1st round 2019 OHL Barrie)

Jamieson Rees C (2nd round 2019 OHL Sarnia)

Patrik Puistola F (3rd round 2019 Liiga Tappara)

Anttoni Honda RHD (3rd round 2019 Liiga JYP)

Domenick Fensore LHD (3rd round 2019 Hockey East Boston U. Fr.)

Cade Webber LHD (4th round 2019 BCHL Penticton)

Tuukka Tieksola RW (4th round 2019 Liiga Karpat)

Kirill Slepets W (5th round 2019 KHL Lokomotiv)

Kevin Wall RW (6th round 2019 Big 10 Penn St. Fr.)

Blake Murray C (7th round 2019 OHL Sudbury)

Massimo Rizzo C (7th round 2019 BCHL Coquitlam)

Jack Drury C (2nd round 2018 ECAC Harvard So.)

Luke Henman C (4th round 2018 QMJHL Blainville-Boisbriand)

Lenni Killinen RW (4th round 2018 Liiga Assat)

Luke Martin RHD (2nd round 2017 Big 10 Michigan Sr.)

Ville Rasanen LHD (7th round 2017 Slovakia HC Banska Bystrica)

Matt Filipe LW (3rd round 2016 Hockey East Northeastern Sr.)

Max Zimmer LW (4th round 2016 Big 10 Wisconsin Sr.)

Luke Stevens LW (5th round 2015 ECAC Yale Sr.)

David Cotton C (6th round 2015 Hockey East Boston College Sr.)



Pyotr Kochetkov G (2nd round 2019 KHL SKA St. Petersburg/VHL SKA-Neva St. Petersburgh)

Jacob Kucharski G (7th round 2018 Hockey East Providence Fr.)

Eetu Makiniemi G (4th round 2017 Liiga Ilves)

Jack LaFontaine G (3rd round 2016 Big 10 Minnesota Jr.?)

**** Removed from the prospect list ****

Jesper Sellgren LHD (6th round 2018 SweHL Lulea) – Will play with the Checkers in 19-20
Eetu Luostarinen C (2nd round 2017 Liiga KalPa) – Scheduled to play for Checkers in 19-20, if that doesn't work out he might end up back on the prospect list
Stelio Mattheos RW (3rd round 2017 WHL Brandon) – Will play with Checkers in 19-20
Brendan De Jong LHD (6th round 2017 WHL Portland) – Unsigned by Canes, undrafted in re-entry draft (no idea where he ends up but the Canes have no rights to him)
Adam Fox RHD (trade ECAC Harvard Jr – Lying sack of SH%!@#
 
Thanks JB! andyt is a huge contributor on the prospects as well.

To put some perspective on how far out some of these 2019 draft picks are, those 2 BCHL kids, Cade Webber and Massimo Rizzo are both committed to start their college careers in 20-21. Webber is committed to Boston U and Rizzo is committed to North Dakota. But for this season they are both supposed be playing in the BCHL. Apparently the BCHL keeps them college eligible (where as playing in the QMJHL, OHL or WHL makes you ineligible for NCAA play).

We also get to watch old man David Cotton play out his situation as a Senior and captain of the BC squad this coming season. He's indicated that is intention is to play out his senior year at BC and then tell the Canes "too bad" while he waits until August 2020 to try to sign with Dallas or the Rangers or whatever team he really wants to play with.
 
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cmaleski2 said:
Thanks JB! andyt is a huge contributor on the prospects as well.

To put some perspective on how far out some of these 2019 draft picks are, those 2 BCHL kids, Cade Webber and Massimo Rizzo are both committed to start their college careers in 20-21. Webber is committed to Boston U and Rizzo is committed to North Dakota. But for this season they are both supposed be playing in the BCHL. Apparently the BCHL keeps them college eligible (where as playing in the QMJHL, OHL or WHL makes you ineligible for NCAA play).

We also get to watch old man David Cotton play out his situation as a Senior and captain of the BC squad this coming season. He's indicated that is intention is to play out his senior year at BC and then tell the Canes "too bad" while he waits until August 2020 to try to sign with Dallas or the Rangers or whatever team he really wants to play with.
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The BCHL, like all the provincial junior leagues, is the equivalent of the USHL and NAHL. Every province has a junior league but the BCHL seems to be first among equals. Players retain their college eligibility. LaFontaine spent last season in the BCHL after a season at Michigan.

Besides Cotton, we’ll see what happens with Filipe, Stevens and Zimmer, seniors all. Zimmer really hasn’t been that impressive, scoring 13 goals in 94 career games. Stevens has some size at 6’4”
 
On Cotton ... wise to go ahead and assume he's going to bail on the Canes after college. He finally broke out for BC last season after sniffing around the edges of being a legit prospect but by the time you get through 4 full years of college hockey you need to be NHL ready out of the gate and I've honestly never seen that in his game when I've watched BC. He's good at that level, but I've seen so many big-ish do-it-all college centers crash and burn in the NHL that I'm over being too optimistic about guys who don't dominate in one aspect of the game or another at that level. He's from Texas (Stars), played age group development hockey in Colorado (Avs), played Cawledge Hawkey and prep hockey in Boston (Bruins). He also played one year of USHL in Iowa, so that probably makes him a fan of the Blues too ... at least in the fever dreams of some prospect website jockey or another, I'm sure. Bottom line ... the rumor jerks are going to tie him to half a dozen NHL teams not named Carolina, so ... let 'em. If the Canes end up signing him, fine. If not, also fine.
 
Oh ... also. Do we KNOW that Sellgren is going to play in Charlotte this coming season? I thought his contract in Sweden called for him to go back there if he didn't make the Canes roster ... which he won't. Anybody know anything on that front?
 
jeffbear said:
Oh ... also. Do we KNOW that Sellgren is going to play in Charlotte this coming season? I thought his contract in Sweden called for him to go back there if he didn't make the Canes roster ... which he won't. Anybody know anything on that front?
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I also thought his Swedish contract had a clause that stated he needed to play the 2019/20 season back in Sweden if he did not make the Canes NHL roster. That was the last year of his Swedish commitment to his current team in Europe.
 
CanadaCanes said:
I also thought his Swedish contract had a clause that stated he needed to play the 2019/20 season back in Sweden if he did not make the Canes NHL roster. That was the last year of his Swedish commitment to his current team in Europe.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I haven't seen anything to contradict that information yet. He'll be in camp and maybe we can get clarification from one of our intrepid web-based reporter friends.

I just checked and Sellgren is shown on the Checkers' current roster but so if basically everyone under contract who played with them last season along with new signings likely to play with them next season. That's more of a running count than a roster right now.
 
Yeah, sorry, its not a sure thing that Sellgren will be in Charlotte this season. I'll add him back to the prospect list once he fails to makes the Canes roster and heads back to Sweden.
 
Corey Pronman, who is the resident prospects expert at The Athletic, rates the Canes system 8th, down from 4th last year. It looks like the reason for the drop is that Foegele and Svech don’t qualify as prospects anymore and Fox was traded.

He gave the Canes draft a A- and rates Puistola, Kochetkov, Rees and Honka as at least legit prospects.

theathletic.com

2019 NHL farm system rankings: No. 8 Carolina Hurricanes

Corey Pronman breaks down the Hurricanes organization, ranking their best prospects and examining the impact they could have in the NHL.
theathletic.com theathletic.com
 
I read that over lunch, and generally I think Pronman is really solid so I'm not arguing with him too much. I would say that if he's got a blind spot it's for college kids who aren't today's hotness like Fox was. Cotton, Priskie and even Drury are fairly low on his list when I've seen plenty of other evaluators who consider all three to be pretty well locks to be NHL roster players in the next season or two. None are star material, probably, but he's got all of them slotted in the teens in the Canes prospect ranking and I'm not sure that really computes. Either way, at least Pronman shows his work and doesn't just chuck listicles at the wall to spur comments.
 
I would love to see that Drury pick pan out. If he has any semblance of compete level matching his genetic make up, he's gonna be a good one.
 
brassbonanza said:
I would love to see that Drury pick pan out. If he has any semblance of compete level matching his genetic make up, he's gonna be a good one.
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The book on Drury so far is that he's a great leader and a savvy defensive forward with limited offensive upside. So ... just another Drury, really. You need guys like that in the system, you just don't need them in your top 6. He's the kind of guy that in another regime I'd be worried about. You know ... the kind of guy that Carolina loves to over-slot for years and years while they wonder why they don't score enough. Hopefully this era of management won't fall into that trap. Otherwise the kid seems a lot like a shorter Brandon Sutter to me.
 
Roland McKeown signed a 1 year, 2 way contract. He gets $700k in the NHL, $70k in the AHL and has a $90k guarantee. He was probably holding out for a 1 way deal but at least he got a guarantee.

That leaves Maenalanen as the only unsigned player. The Canes extended a QO so they’ll retain his rights if he goes back to Finland.

www.nhl.com

Canes Re-Sign McKeown to One-Year, Two-Way Deal | Carolina Hurricanes

Defenseman tallied 25 points in 70 AHL games last season
www.nhl.com www.nhl.com
 
It's ok if McKeown was holding out for a 1 way but he was never going to get it. He needs to hope he doesn't follow Trevor Carrick's path where other dmen pass him on the organizational depth chart frequently.
 
cmaleski2 said:
It's ok if McKeown was holding out for a 1 way but he was never going to get it. He needs to hope he doesn't follow Trevor Carrick's path where other dmen pass him on the organizational depth chart frequently.
Click to expand...

We’ll see which righty plays on the top pair and top PP unit in Charlotte, him or Priskie.
 
McKeown has really rounded out his game in the past two years. He's solid in all respects, but never really stands out. That's a good thing, kind of ... but in order to take the next step it would help to be truly good at something. Chances are very good that this will be his last contract with the Canes.
 
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