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Thoughts on draft day for Canes

July 1, 2013, 12:20 AM ET [16 Comments]
Matt Karash
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
When we look back in 6-7 years this draft has the potential for even more coulda, woulda, shoulda's than even a regular draft. With another loss in the last week of the season, might the Canes have landed a perennial Norris Trophy candidate in Jones at #4? Did the Canes (and then 4 more teams) let the next Malkin or Ovechkin slide when they passed on Nichushkin? And so on...

But that is all for sometime in the future.

Here are my quick thoughts on today for the nearer future:

Elias Lindholm
Given the options, I like the pick. The only player I rated higher was Nichuskin. Just maybe the fact that 4 more teams passed on him says something about the vibe teams were getting via interviews and from his agent? Who knows for sure. I am also real pleased that the Canes used the pick versus packaging it to get anything less than a real solid top 4 dman and replacement 1st round pick. He is not the bigger, more rugged version of a 3rd center that Barkov would have been. But he should pretty quickly become a roster forward and has upside from there. He can skate and create which offers potential to pair with Skinner on a scoring-capable 3rd line. He is a good 2-way player.

I think the best reference point for Lindholm is Brandon Sutter. Lindholm is similar in size and similarly a heady 2-way center. Lindholm has 2 plusses over Sutter: 1) His scoring/offensive upside is much higher, 2) At this early stage he is a much better skater. The plusses of Sutter are also twofold: 1) He is a proven NHLer not a kid who looks like he can become one, 2) He did incredibly well developing including the incredible improvement he made skating-wise in only a couple of years.

The optimistic path sees Lindholm being good enough defensively to hold down the 3rd-line center spot in 2013-14, and quickly growing into a top 6 forward level forward in the 50-60 point range soon after.

Andrej Sekera for McBain + 2nd round pick
People are going to jump all over this move as an attempt to finalize the defense. That is premature until we see what else happens. The math is that Sekera adds $1M of salary cap at $2.75M but only really costs $1.75M out of pocket. So it is possible that Sekera ultimately becomes a 3rd pairing upgrade, a more defense-oriented depth option and at least the possibility for a better fit in the Canes system (as compared to McBain and Corvo who struggled). So I like the general idea of a new/theoretically better dman in McBain's old slot. I do see a couple negatives. First, a 2nd round pick feels a bit steep for a depth defenseman swap even if it is an upgrade. Second, being up against the cap means even an extra $1M further squeezes budget for other needs. Third, it uses a couple assets without addressing the real need adequately.

The other direction on this is worse. Is it possible that Rutherford does not want to trade a roster forward in which case an unsuccessful free agent chase makes Sekera a fallback top 4? That is a scary possibility. Remember that this is the same GM who took a flyer on subtracting Bryan Allen and adding Joe Corvo to defense that was below average the year before. If you had 3 rock sold anchors for your top for maybe a borderline option like Sekera would do. But the Canes have Pitkanen coming off an unpredictable injury, Gleason coming off a down year and Faulk who should be gradually working his way into a top role with some help rather than trying drag his pairing forward by himself.

So that gets to my biggest short-term gripe about the Sekera deal which is the order. If you consider it to be a depth deal I think Rutherford should have waited. With this deal he spent 2 trade assets and $1M of cap room that could be needed as the hunt continues to add another defenseman. I know sometimes you have to strike while the iron is hot, but this felt more like a mid-July deal after getting a look at the free agent situation a working out the bigger part of the puzzle first. But again, I think it is premature to make a final assessment on the Andrej Sekera deal until we see how the rest of the summer plays out.

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Go Canes!
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