Carolina Hurricanes forward Chris Terry is playing at a high level at a crucial point in his professional hockey career.
Carolina Hurricanes forward Chris Terry has established himself as an elite AHL scorer through his seven-year professional hockey career, but if he wants to stick around with the team that drafted him in 2007, he needs to prove he can perform in the NHL.
As of late, Terry, a player who has seemed hopeless more times than not at the NHL level, has elevated his play and has been a key contributor for the Canes.
Terry, 26, is in the midst of a career-best five-game point streak, netting three goals and adding an additional two assists during his streak. His recent tear has resulted in more ice time, and it has been well deserved.
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For Chris Terry, this streak is coming at a crucial time. The final stretch of the season has been used by the coaching staff to see who is worthy of roster spot consideration going into the 2016-2017 season, and up to this point, he has not been worthy of even being in the conversation. This run has changed things.
Despite his hot streak, Terry doesn’t project to be any kind of significant difference maker at the NHL level, but depth goal scoring isn’t always easy to come by, so if the Hurricanes can get that on a consistent basis from the former fourth-round pick, it will make things much easier for the organization.
Carolina Hurricanes
Over the past five games, Terry has been hovering right around even in his Corsi numbers, if not well into the positive side of things. The only exception being last Saturday’s game in Minnesota, a game in which he posted a Corsi just a little better than -15. It is worth noting that the team, as a whole, was thumped in the Corsi department en route to a 3-2 shootout loss.
Where Terry comes up short, quite literally, is his size. He is an unimpressive 5’10”, 195 pounds, and he plays in a spot in the lineup where you’d look for more size and grit. He simply isn’t a player that will impress anyone in that regard, and he doesn’t make up for it with his skating ability.
For a smaller player, he has sub-par skating ability, which can make it difficult for him to get back on defense and get to the scoring areas at times.
He is one of several pending unrestricted free agents who are currently playing for their NHL lives. Nathan Gerbe and Brad Malone are others names that are in the same boat.
As an all-around player, Chris Terry is far from elite, but when he is playing in the right role, he can succeed. He gets to the scoring areas and has a shot that is accurate enough to beat any goalie in the league when he has time and space. He just needs to limit costly mistakes and take advantage of his scoring chances, like he has been doing over the past couple of weeks
Terry’s hot streak is likely just that, a hot streak, but if he can find a way to have sustained success and finish the season with a hot scoring hand, the organization will be more inclined to bringing him back for another year. Whether that is good or bad has yet to be seen.
He has still yet to prove that he can be a factor offensively through an 82-game schedule, which is something he has to prove in order to stick around long term. He has just eight goals and eleven points in 61 games this season, but he does sport an 11.6 shooting percentage, which ranks fourth on the team.
He has a lot a work to do, and he is till just 26, but maybe he’ll stick around longer than anyone thought.
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The longeAll Postsr he stays around, the more hummus-filled sandwiches he can provide us.