I can summarize my Carolina Hurricanes draft review pretty well with a couple of my Twitter posts over the weekend, so I will start with that and then get to a few more details below those. I will also post at least 1 or possibly 2 more blogs between Monday and early Tuesday heading into the free agent frenzy, so check back if you are Canes-inclined and cannot wait until September.
Posted a few minutes after the Canes took Haydn Fleury #7 overall:
And there is Ronnie Francis' first break from the way JR did it...picking a defenseman real early. #Canes
— Matt Karash (@CarolinaMatt63) June 27, 2014I really liked this pick not because I track junior hockey closely enough to think Fleury was by far and away the best choice, but rather because of 2 things it means for the Canes at a higher level:
1) Ron Francis is his own man breaking a bit from Jim Rutherford's recent tact of rarely taking defensemen that high.
2) I also like this general approach. I actually agree with Jim Rutherford's anti-defenaeman bias, but I also think there needs to be a balance to it. Top 4 defensemen do not grow on trees are arguably the hardest thing to add via free agency, so having the potential to develop at least a few internally is crucial to filling out the lineup.
Next up is a tweet and a retweet both related to the Canes Josh Wesley pick which was the highlight of the draft for me:
#1 coolest thing of the entire draft is seeing the picture card for Josh Wesley with hometown #Raleigh, NC. #Canes
— Matt Karash (@CarolinaMatt63) June 28, 2014Here's a quick look at the stats/profile on #CanesDraft pick Josh Wesley (@JoshyWeso). Welcome to the #Canes Josh! pic.twitter.com/mxOe9fTY3l
— Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) June 28, 2014I guess technically I am supposed to evaluate the Canes draft picks, but to be completely honest I know only what I read for the most part about the 18-year-old kids picked, so I will leave that to the experts. I guess the 1 thing that jumps out at me as the Canes picked up 2 defensemen and a goalie in the 1st 4 rounds when I think expectations were to look for power forward type wings.
The other big news to emerge this weekend were a couple different data points that provide direction for the trade and free agent market over the rest of the summer:
1) The new salary cap came in at $69M which is about $2M less than most expected. This puts an even greater squeeze on some teams trying to build out their team and get under the cap.
2) A couple trades suggest that there will be some overpaid players available for very inexpensive trade prices, as teams try to cut salary. I think the best example of this was Jason Garrison being traded for a 2nd round pick. He had 1 really really good year in Florida and then parlayed it into a pretty expensive $4.6M/year contract and followed it up with less than stellar play in Vancouver. So they dumped his salary for about nothing in trade value. I get that he had a rough season last year, but he is still a big, mobile defenseman with a decent shot for the power play and at a minimum he is a borderline #4 defenseman with upside if he can refind his form. Tampa trading Teddy Purcell to get Sam Gagner only to immediately ship Gagner out to Phoenix is another example of a team going to great lengths to get the salary cap numbers to work how they want. In the end, they traded Teddy Purcell for very little other than a salary cap dump and even had to eat some of Gagner's contract in the process.
Oh how I wish it was the days of old when the Canes were way under budget and needing to do something just to reach the salary floor. I know it seems like ages ago, but that was exactly the case only 2 summers ago before the Canes went on a spending spree of sorts reupping Skinner, trading and re-signing JStaal and adding and then keeping Semin for a total of nearly $20M. But despite the fact that the Canes do not have a ton of money to spend, this situation still has the potential to make filling out the roster a little bit easier.
I picked Braydon Coburn as the most likely new player to join the Canes over the weekend. It obviously did not happen, but I still think a move like this could come to fruition. I do not think the current defensive corps is what the Canes will enter the regular season with and am hoping GM Ron Francis feels the same. I will cover the why of this when I detail my Canes shopping list for free agency before it officially opens.
What say you Canes fans? Are you happy with the draft? Did you too think the from Raleigh, NC was pretty cool? Do you agree that the Canes could use 1 more top 4 D? Or do you maybe think that the budget is too slim and the needs to great at forward for that to be possible?
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!