5. Excellent Coaching Staff
I’ll be honest. I’ve definitely criticized Bill Peters here before in my writing on this site. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think he’s doing an excellent job. Travis Yost wrote an excellent article about Peters ability to influence the Canes shot rates last summer. I also took a look at the Canes metrics at the start of the year and they showed Bill Peters continuing to improve the team as well. It’s not just in the stats either, the team seems to have bought into Peters’s system as well and while there have been some setbacks recently overall the team has improved year to year.
Next: In Defense of Noah Hanifin
Not to say there still aren’t problems with the team. The power play still looks pretty pathetic no matter what they do with it, and the young team is prone to some really questionable decisions. But what coach is perfect? Even the greats like Bruce Boudreau and Mike Babcock make mistakes, and Bill Peters is no exception. Overall, though, Bill Peters has the team headed in the right direction and performing at its highest level in years. Once all those draft picks start coming through and improving the talent level on the roster it will be really fun to see what Peters can do with an actual playoff contender.