With just a 9.9 percent chance to finish in the top three, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the odds Saturday when they moved up from a team with the 11th-worst record in the league and were awarded the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft. While that gives the franchise lots of new options that they weren’t expecting, it also makes their general manager and coaching openings much more attractive, according to Chip Alexander of the News & Observer.
The general manager position, which has been open since the team transitioned former general manager Ron Francis to President of Hockey Operations on Mar. 7, was not a popular destination after new owner Tom Dundon ousted Francis and multiple candidates declined to interview, forcing to team to announce they would wait until the offseason to address their needs. On top of that, the team then lost head coach Bill Peters when he triggered an out-clause in his contract and took the head coaching position with the Calgary Flames.
However, Alexander writes both openings are now more intriguing with the No. 2 pick as adding an impact player immediately after they take the job is always a positive. Adding a winger like Andrei Svechnikov could change the team dramatically as he would likely be the No. 1 overall pick if Rasmus Dahlin not been there.
- NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer writes the Philadelphia Flyers have a lot of work ahead of them this offseason. To start with, the team must depend on the continued development of their youth, including Nolan Patrick, Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Travis Sanheim, Robert Hagg and Samuel Morin. However, general manager Ron Hextall intends to make many roster changes to improve the team with the idea of adding more speed, especially to the special teams. Hextall, who is known for making offseason trades, is likely to be active again on the trade market and could attempt to move winger Wayne Simmonds. While Simmonds has said he wants to stay, the team could get a good return as the 30-year-old will enter the final year of a reasonable $3.975MM deal. With plenty of youth in their system working their way up, it would seem unlikely the Flyers would extend his contract.
- With two picks in the lottery, the New York Islanders have multiple options in front of them, writes Arthur Staple of The Athletic (subscription required). While the team could use the 11th and 12th picks in the 2018 NHL Draft to trade down and pick up a top forward, the team could also stay where they are and rebuild the team’s prospect pool, which isn’t as strong as it once was. The scribe also adds that the team could use one of the picks in a package to acquire a veteran defenseman who could help fix their leaky blueline.
Carolina has the longest playoff drought in the NHL. Why not take a big swing and see if there’s anyway that you can get Buffalo to trade the number 1 overall pick.
never going to happen
The Canes don’t have a problem on the blue line. The issue is scoring, which we can get at #2.
I’d trade Faulk to the Islanders for one of those picks they’ve got!
More likely that Green Bay trades Aaron Rodgers for Jamarcus Russell.
I’m talking about from a Carolina standpoint needing a star. Hey struggle to get people into PNC Arena and if they could go get someone like Dahlin somehow why not swing for it
Simmonds should’ve been traded last year. Coming off of back to back 30 goal seasons,with 2 years at a team friendly rate. After this season,his value is as low as it’s been at any point since he came to Philly. Should hold onto him,let him get healthy,and hope he can rebuild his value by the deadline.
That’s part of the reason why I don’t believe in Hextalls plan. He does everything safe. Definitely ain’t maximizing value,trading players after down years.Did the same thing last year with Schenn. Voracek should’ve been traded before getting a new deal. Now he’s gonna be a passed his prime, untradable player when it’s time to start paying the young players. The whole cleaning up the salary cap situation is a mirage.
Simmonds is one of the hardest working players in the league and Voracek just had a 65 assist season spending only half the year on the top line. Plus they got 2 first rounders for Schenn. How is any of this negative?
We also got dead weight along with those draft picks. We got a 1st for Schenn,and a 1st for taking Lehtera off the Blues books. And I’m saying it would be dumb to trade Simmonds while his value is in question. And what I’m saying about Voracek is he’s what 28,29, with 6 more years at over 8mil. He’s gonna end up being dead weight when it comes time to pay the players Hextall is developing. Alot of his assists come off of plays Giroux makes. Hextall has done nothing that really stands out. His best move to this point was a 4th line center in Bellemare. Let’s draft 15th every year and assume we’ll become cup contenders. The 2nd pick last year was luck, or the NHL trying to get the Devils/Flyers rivalry energized.
Also, Timonen,Coburn,Lecavalier,and Pronger would all be off the books at this point, in the same offseason the team finally has cap space. So all the talk that he cleaned up the salary mess, is very overblown. Hartnell would have 1 year left at 3m,so he would’ve been a easy buyout at this point.
Flyers records the last 10 years,strictly from a win-loss standpoint.
42-40…39-43…41-41…33-49…
42-40…23-25…47-35…47-35…41-41…44-38
Luckily they get saved by those ot losses. 107 of them in those 10 years, 56 over the last 4.