This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the Carolina Hurricanes this season. This article will focus on Nino Niederreiter.
When Niederreiter was brought over from Minnesota last year, he got off to a hot start with the Hurricanes. He scored 14 goals and 30 points in 36 games and seemed to be worthy of taking over a spot in the top-six full-time.
Unfortunately, Niedderreiter struggled early on this year, scoring just three goals and 11 points in his first 30 games of the season. His ice time dropped by about a minute per game after that point and he averaged just 1.72 shots per game this year, a steep drop from his 2.86 shots per game from the time he joined the Hurricanes last season.
He did recover a bit but his production this season never really hit the levels we expected from him after his strong start with the Hurricanes last season. Niederreiter was part of Carolina’s secondary scoring problem, where the team often lacked offensive contributions from forwards outside of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen.
Next season, Carolina will need more out of Niederreiter. He needs to be an effective middle-six player and should be reaching the 40-point mark at minimum. While I think he’s probably best suited to play on the third line, I’d love to see him come out of the gate strong next season and take over the left wing spot on second-line, as the Hurricanes still lack a true left-shot top-six winger.
Here’s today’s poll (discussion and results will be posted in an article every Saturday):
Which is the best recent trade the Hurricanes have made?
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