Carolina Hurricanes: Andrej Nestrasil Rebounding After Slow Start
By Brett Finger
After a slow and concerning start to the 2015-2016 season, Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrej Nestrasil has started to turn it around in a big way.
It’s not often that you find a quality young player that could make a big impact for a long time via the waiver wire, but that’s what the Carolina Hurricanes did back on November 20, 2014 with forward Andrej Nestrasil.
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While fighting through injuries, Nestrasil, 24, showed his upside a season ago when he came to Raleigh. Playing in 41 games with the Canes, he netted 7 goals and tallied 18 points in depth role. He showed off many facets of his game – his offense, his physicality, his defensive responsibility, and his hockey smarts.
An impressive, albeit short, run with the Canes last season gave the fan base a lot of confidence in him entering his first full season with the club.
The 2015-2016 season got off to a slow crawl for Nestrasil. In his first 14 games, he had just 1 goal and was a -7. He struggled to get acclimated on this team, and while his physical nature continued to be apparent, he couldn’t use that to create points.
After a slow start, however; the young Prague native started to turn things around in a big way. A 2-point night against the Edmonton Oilers on November 25 was the spark he needed, and from there, he has continued to make an impact.
Carolina Hurricanes
Since November 25, Nestrasil has 4 goals and 13 points in 25 games. In the process, he has seen a big jump in ice time, going from 11:45 time on ice per game in his first 14 games to 15:37 per game over his last 25 games. A big factor in his big increase in ice time can be accredited to him being placed in a bigger role on Carolina’s checking line, one which features him, Jordan Staal, and Joakim Nordstrom.
Since this line’s formation, it has been the club’s most consistent and powerful line. They have gone up against every team’s top line and they have found ways to shut them down and wear them down with tough play, physicality, and their defensive skill.
Surprisingly, this line hasn’t just been a shutdown line, it has been a line that just dominates in the offensive zone in terms of possession and zone time.
Nestrasil has been an integral part of this line’s success, and he has just enough offense to make it a dangerous scoring threat every time they hit the ice.
As of late, Nestrasil has become a key part of Carolina’s powerplay unit, and he has been successful in that role. He picked up an important powerplay assist on Friday night against the Vancouver Canucks.
His advanced role has been much deserved. In all situations, Nestrasil sports a 58.99 corsi for percentage, which ranks 5th among Carolina forwards. His fenwick/60 is 10.70, which ranks 4th amongst all Canes forwards. That indicates that he is becoming more comfortable with putting the puck on net, and being featured on a line with Jordan Staal, a player that drives the net and can pick up rebounds, means that he is creating scoring opportunities for his line mates on the doorstep.
Andrej Nestrasil isn’t a player that will dazzle you, but he is a player that plays the game right and understands his identity. He will use his size (6’3″, 200lbs.) to wear down and tire out his opponents along the wall in the offensive zone, and he will do the same thing in his own end and make it tough to generate quality scoring opportunities.
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It’s important for organizations to have key, young players to make big plays and become stars, especially when it’s a rebuilding team, but it’s just as important to have young role players who do the little things that don’t always make a highlight reel. Andrej Nestrasil is that player for the Carolina Hurricanes, and the organization hopes he can continue to be that guy for a long time.