
2. Draft Pick Stockpile
Sure we mentioned in Part One of this how the Carolina Hurricanes lack a true top three pick which helps accelerate any rebuild. The next best strategy is to horde as many draft picks as a team possibly can and beat the odds with sheer brute force. Over the next two drafts, the Hurricanes have sixteen picks with an extra second and third round this year. Given Ron Francis’s ability to rustle up picks this number will most likely grow. And while they aren’t top three picks they have a lot of value. There’s been many a battle in history won on just sheer numbers rather than any discernible talent by the army’s commander.
Just look at all the great players on the current roster picked after the first round. Justin Faulk (2nd), Sebastian Aho (2nd), Brett Pesce (3rd), Jaccob Slavin (4th), Victor Rask (2nd). Over half the players of the youth movement mentioned earlier were found after the first round. The guys over at Hockey Graphs also think that the Carolina Hurricanes have the best outlook for the future in regards to draft picks as well.
Basically what it means is that not only do the Hurricanes have a great youth movement, but the franchise’s focus on stockpiling means the pipeline won’t be drying up anytime soon either. Compare this to years past when the Hurricanes would trade picks in order to get that one extra player to push the team into the playoffs. How many times did that work? So far this system seems to be doing a great job of getting talent onto the Hurricanes’ roster.