Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Preview: Restricted Free Agents
By Brett Finger
Dec 12, 2013; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Carolina Hurricanes left wing Drayson Bowman (21) passes the puck against the Calgary Flames during the second period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary Flames won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
The Drayson Bowman experiment has lasted far too long for the Carolina Hurricanes. The former 3rd round draft pick has played 170 NHL/Carolina Hurricanes games, and he has put up 15 goals and 17 assists (32 points) in that time. He is also a minus player.
Drayson Bowman is usually unnoticeable on the ice. He doesn’t really contribute to any area consistently. In juniors, he was a star scorer, but that has yet to translate to the NHL. At 25-years-old, Bowman may be running out of time with the Carolina Hurricanes organization.
The Carolina Hurricanes don’t play Drayson Bowman nearly at all. To prove my point, here are Drayson Bowman’s game logs over the past three game.
| Game | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | S | S% | Shifts | TOI | FO% |
| Mar 25 ’14 NYI @ CAR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 10 | 5:58 | |
| Mar 22 ’14 CAR @ WPG | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3:08 | ||
| Mar 21 ’14 CAR @ CHI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3:56 | 50.0 |
To sum that up, Drayson Bowman has struggled to get more than 4 minutes of ice time over the past few games. He has also taken just one shot in that time period while not getting over 10 shifts in a game.
I think Drayson Bowman could turn into a Patrick Dwyer type player at some point in his career, but he isn’t even there yet. I don’t think it is worth it to keep Drayson Bowman any more.
Verdict: Release