The Carolina Hurricanes made quite a few additions to their defense group early in the offseason, in order to offset the loss of other members of their blue line heading elsewhere.
The team acquired Ethan Bear in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers, then proceeded to sign Ian Cole and Tony DeAngelo, as well as Brendan Smith. So with a new-look defense heading into next season, here’s what to expect from each player.
Bear is certainly the most exciting addition. He’s still just 24 years old but does have 132 games of NHL experience. While his ice time did drop last year, he averaged nearly 22 minutes per game as a 22-year-old with the Oilers in the 2019-20 season, which ranked third amongst the team’s defenders.
While he saw a drop in production this past season, Bear could rebound to post 20 points or more next year. Given there’s an open spot remaining on the right side of the top-four group, he’s probably the most likely to be called on to fill it. He’s also capable of killing penalties, considering he averaged 1:48 per game on Edmonton’s penalty kill last season.
Ian Cole, on the other hand, is 32 years old and joins the Hurricanes with 595 games of NHL experience. He averaged under 16 minutes per game with the Minnesota Wild last season, while facing a lower quality of competition than other defenders on the team (according to Hockey Abstract). He was also used in an extremely defensive role, with the highest defensive zone start percentage of any defenseman on the team (according to Hockey Reference) and he too can kill penalties.
It’s highly likely that Cole will be used in a very defensive role with the Hurricanes as well and should be expected to start the year on the bottom pairing. He probably won’t be up against overly tough matchups but should be a decent depth defender who could potentially contribute 15-20 points.
Tony DeAngelo was the last notable addition. The defender is 25 years old and played only six games this past season, so we have to go off his 2019-20 season when evaluating him.
Just looking at his on-ice game, DeAngelo is able to add a lot of offense and is a likely bet to get power play time with the Hurricanes. However, he’ll need to be sheltered and is basically the exact opposite of Cole, his potential partner, given that he had the highest offensive zone start percentage of any player on the Rangers in the 2019-20 season (according to Hockey Reference). While he’s likely to get less ice time with the Hurricanes than he did with the Rangers, he could still score as many as 40-45 points next season.
Brendan Smith is likely to be a spare for the Hurricanes, simply based on the team having many other options. When he does draw into action, however, he can be expected to be used in a defensive role. You can also include Jalen Chatfield to the list of defensive signings, given that he did play 18 games with the Vancouver Canucks last season. Based on how many other defenders will be competing for spots though, he’s unlikely to win one.
It’ll be interesting to see how things play out with a new-look defense group next season. Bear, Cole and DeAngelo are all very different players and should each be used in a fairly different role from one another.
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Do you expect Ethan Bear to take the final spot in the Hurricanes' top-four group?
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