Hurricanes Top Prospects Review

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DaveG-Canes
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Hurricanes Top Prospects Review

Post by DaveG-Canes »

The Hurricanes have a number of young pieces making the move to the league over the next season or two. After a few seasons where the teams draft strategy revolved around rebuilding a blueline in major need of a retooling, adding some physicality, and finding a long-term solution in net, the Hurricanes have moved toward drafting for skill and upside. So as such, we'll look at some of the more interesting ones the team has to offer:

1 - Cole Caufield
2 - Nick Suzuki
3 - Kale Clague
4 - Joel Farabee
5 - Evgeni Zakurin

Caufield is the blue chip scoring prospect of all blue chip scoring prospects out there right now. A season spent back in juniors last year simply due to contract limits, Caufield will spend the first part of this season in the A rounding out his game before he makes the jump full-time. A productive first half of pre-season play, ending with a goal and an assist in his 4 appearances on a team that decided to throw its prospects into the fray, allowed him his first true taste of the show.

To get a sense for how Caufield's development could go, look no farther than the first round pick of two years ago: Nick Suzuki. A healthy dose of first-line ice time in the AHL led to an absolutely dominant season at that level and his first 8 games of experience at the top level due to injuries and an exorbitant suspension that may have cost the Canes the Cup. His development and showing there was good enough to earn him a shot at the 3rd line this season and some PP time with the big club.

Clague needed two full seasons in the A to really be ready for his shot. But now that he's ready he's going to jump right into the mix with PP icetime and a spot as the offensive side of a pairing with Diaby. How that will pan out is the question, but his rookie season should bring some fireworks to the team from the back end, something that was missed with Pitkanen's departure in free agency a few years back

Farabee, like Caufield, spent the past couple seasons in juniors until a spot in the A could be found. It's there this year and if his development goes as planned this will be his only year at that level. Joel's in need of a bit more development than the others on this list, but long-term he should project as a solid offensive forward for the team with good enough defense to hold his own

Zakurin has long been the Canes forgotten man, but he's finally getting a chance to take a shot at the roster. 5 years in the AHL is a long time, but it took that long for him to really show his stuff and get to the level he needed to get much of a chance at the big teams roster. More consistent prospects such as Suzuki, Burke, and Yan have passed him over the years, but he remains one of the more dynamic options out there in the organization if he can put things together.
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