Carolina Hurricanes Return Patrick Brown to Charlotte Checkers

Mar 23, 2017; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Carolina Hurricanes right wing Lee Stempniak (21) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against Montreal Canadiens during the third period at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 23, 2017; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Carolina Hurricanes right wing Lee Stempniak (21) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against Montreal Canadiens during the third period at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports /
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Today the Carolina Hurricanes announced the return of forward Patrick Brown to the Charlotte Checkers

Patrick Brown’s run on the Carolina Hurricanes seems to be at an end for now.  At 11:30 this morning, Ron Francis announced that the 24-year-old winger would return to the Hurricanes’ AHL team in time to play in their 1:00 pm game.

Brown signed as a free agent with the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2014 offseason.  Before signing with the Hurricanes, Brown played four years with Boston College.  In his fourteen games with the Hurricanes this season, Brown failed to register a goal or point for the team in his limited role as a fourth line winger.

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Looking at the Numbers

Brown may have failed to make an impact on the scoresheet, but did he actually have a positive impact on the team?  A quick look at Brown’s numbers on Corsica should determine the quality of his play.

Brown’s Corsi For percentage (CF%) wasn’t great at a 46.20% score and venue adjusted.  That number doesn’t tell the whole story though if you look at his moving average of his CF% it looks that after a horrible start Brown was starting to settle in around a 50 CF% player.  For a fourth line winger/center those numbers are excellent.  Just take a look at the graph below from Corsica as well.

Perhaps most importantly Brown was better than the player he replaced: Jay McClement. McClement is one of the worst players on the Carolina Hurricanes at a 45.76 CF%.  Even as bad as Brown was he was still better than regular Jay McClement which made the team better overall.

Brown most likely won’t be an NHL regular but as a depth fourth liner he did just fine.  That’s not even included great hits like these:

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What Does the Move Mean?

Most likely Brown’s return to Charlotte signals the return of Valentin Zykov to the Hurricanes lineup.  The Russian winger will definitely bring some size back to the Carolina Hurricanes with his 6’5″ frame.  The thing is Zykov has only played one NHL game.  While that game was an immense success it remains to be seen if Zykov can keep it up long term in the NHL.  If Zykov does that makes the Hurricanes much more dangerous down the stretch to the teams ahead of them in the standings.

UPDATE: It appears that Patrick Brown went down in order to return Lucas Wallmark to the Carolina Hurricanes.  The Hurricanes released an announcement late this afternoon