In my blog yesterday, I identified 4 forwards who were rising up the depth chart so far in training camp. They were Derek Ryan, Sergey Tolchinsky, Phil Di Giuseppe and Brendan Woods. Yesterday's practice validated 2 of the 4 when Coach Bill Peters split the Canes into pretty distinct NHL and AHL groups. The NHL group included both Derek Ryan and Brendan Woods.
Though it was just 1 practice on a non-game day, we also got a bit of an update about where Peters' head is in terms of lines. We saw: EStaal/Rask/Lindholm Gerbe/JStaal/Nordstrom Skinner/Nash/Versteeg Terry/Ryan/Woods Malone/McClement/Nestrasil
Few comments: --It is still early in preseason. --Derek Ryan and Brendan Woods stand out as the players who moved up who logically started in the other group at the beginning of camp. --I like Skinner with a playmaker (Versteeg) on his line. Ideally it would be a center, but except the Ryan wildcard, the Canes really do not have that skill set at center.
On defense, the pairs were: --Faulk/Hainsey --Liles/Wisniewski --Hanifin/Jordan --Slavin/Murphy
Few comments: --The "who was not expected to be here from this group is Jaccob Slavin who seems to have played his up near the top of a large collection of good young Canes defensemen. --Notable by his absence is Haydn Fleury who I think has had a good training camp. --At least yesterday in practice, Peters went the route of building a top 4 from the veterans and then a bottom pair (2 actually for practice anyway) from the kids. --Notable for his inclusion is Ryan Murphy. He would have been expected to be in this group at the beginning of camp, but I thought he had a real rough time of it in Monday's exhibition game. Looks like for now, he got a mulligan and credit for past work.
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