In three of the last four years, the Carolina Hurricanes have had at least five picks in the first three rounds of the NHL draft. As a result, they’ve been able to develop more quality prospects in each draft than the average team.
In 2016, the Hurricanes selected Jake Bean and then Julien Gauthier (who they then flipped for another quality prospect in Joey Keane) as well as Janne Kuokkanen. In 2017, the Hurricanes drafted Martin Necas, Eetu Luostarinen and Morgan Geekie. They may not have had a surplus in picks in 2018, but in 2019, the team had two second-round picks, three third-round picks and two fourth-round picks. At the moment, Carolina also has two second-round picks and two third-round picks for this year’s draft.
When you’re able to get three prospects in each draft who end up making the NHL (or look to be NHL-caliber), you have a lot more options. Many teams who have extra picks will use them to move up in the draft but instead, the Hurricanes have used them to create a large quantity of quality prospects. Obviously, there’s not going to be room for all of them in the NHL, but by continuing to keep their picks, the Hurricanes are able to develop players that they can use in packages for trades.
Carolina was able to deal both Kuokkanen and Luostarinen in packages at the trade deadline for Vincent Trocheck and Sami Vatanen, without really making much of a dent in their prospect pool (even though I personally think dealing Kuokkanen was a mistake). By developing these prospects, the Hurricanes also have a steady stream of prospects to make the jump to the NHL, which is key in the salary cap era.
This season was really the first time that we saw the extra draft picks making a difference for the Hurricanes and it certainly gave the team an advantage at the trade deadline. If Carolina is able to continue this going forward, it's hard to imagine the team not being competitive in the foreseeable future.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Hurricanes Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Canes for updates on articles, Hurricanes news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted tomorrow):
Are you happy with Carolina's management of their draft picks over the last few years?
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