Eastside's Hockey Elite Collide

despite not having overly many true team needs, the Hurricanes were focused on adding some serious talent for the future in this years draft.

They started off adding much maligned Russian winger Kirill Kabanov with the #21 pick. And while he wasn't at the top of their board after the #15 pick, he still ranked highly. When reached for comment Jim Rutherford had this to say "we, uh, are rather strong at all positions so we were looking for the best player available. That was Kirill at that point He doesn't bring much defense but he's not exactly incompetent there, and his offense is good enough to see him on our top line alongside Staal eventually. We'll see if he's good enough to make the team in camp but we don't have a lot of holes in this lineup."

In the second they were without a pick heading into the draft. Instead they picked up a 2nd and an early 3rd in exchange for their first next season. With as strong as this draft is they felt that the gamble is likely to pay off in a big way. With the newly acquired 52nd overall pick they added St Cloud standout defenseman Kevin Gravel who they felt was one of the best pure defensive defensemen in the draft. At #66 with the acquired 3rd, Teemu Pulkkinen who is without a doubt one of the best snipers in this draft.

At #81 they added Bohumil Jank who while a bit of a gamble is one of the highest upside defensemen in this draft. If everything turns out right he has a chance to be better then Gravel. He's not as good positionally as Gravel, but he's a better hitter and better offensively. This guy has #1 defenseman written all over him, but he's a project to say the least.

In addition to those 4, 4th round pick playmaking centerman Artem Voronin, 5th round goalie Benjamin Conz and 5th round two-way centerman Andreas Dahlstrom all have a shot to eventually make the league. Forwards Arvid Stromberg and Stephen McCauley add some nice AHL depth up front which the team really struggled with beyond their elite first line last season.

part two, the late rounds:

Artem Voronin is a necessary cog for the Canes long term success. While it's uncertain if he will ever make the NHL level he projects to be a top AHL playmaker at worst. Good at distributing and with acceptable skills with the puck on his stick, his two-way game is also a bit underrated. In fact if he overdevelops his shot at all he's a good bet to be a 3rd liner at worst.

Benjamin Conz was the surprise of the last WJC, a strong but undersized goaltender he has potential backup written all over him. That said, the Hurricanes have a very strong goaltending pipeline as is and will likely have him rather feature as their goalie of the future for the AHL. As is the Canes will have no problem locking him up long term and keeping him for as long as they'll need him.

Andreas Dahlstrom may be able to make a career for himself as a 4th liner in the long run. He's a good enough defensive play to make his way to the league but he'll have to do a bit of growing. He may not be able to make the most of his potential physicality to make it if he doesn't. But at the worst he's a good AHLer for the long run.

Arvid Stromberg is a pure AHL caliber sniper, but a bit more then that. He's a solid two-way player for the AHL as well and should feature on the 2nd or 3rd line in the long run. Don't count on him to be anything special or to make the NHL though. That's just not who he is or ever will be.

Stephen Macaulay provides some nice depth at the AHL level in the long run. There's nothing to say that he won't play in the AHL at some point, but with the way things are likely to play out he's no likely to stick long term. His shooting is his best attribute to be sure. But he's soft and doesn't have much of a defensive game at all.

Voronin's a quality pick that late... I might have ranked him only a few spots below Filippi and Howden.

thanks man. To be honest he was one of my best on the board after the 4th round started and I'm amazed he fell that far.




ceiling points for Stromberg: +10 playmaking, +10 stickhandling