Carolina Hurricanes: Where Are They Now? This Week, Where’s Zach Boychuk?
For the 8th straight season, the Carolina Hurricanes will miss the Playoffs, so we at Cardiac Cane thought it would be fun to stroll down memory lane.
Sadly, the Carolina Hurricanes won’t be participating the NHL Playoffs this year. This is nothing new though. For now 8 years, Canes fans have seen their team miss the postseason. In an effort to cheer up everyone, we will take a look at some former Canes players who were part of those bad teams.
Hopefully, this will a way to remember that we got through the bad times. Also, it will serve as a reminder that this team truly is getting better, both collectively and individually. So when the bandwagon starts to grow, these are the names that only the true fans will know. To start, we look at a player who sort of symbolized Carolina’s decade of struggles, Zach Boychuk.
Drafted number 14 overall in 2008, dubiously right before Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson, Boychuk went on to play 127 NHL games. 115 of those were with the Carolina Hurricanes. Originally thought to be a great secondary scoring option behind Eric Staal, Boychuk’s game never quite developed in the NHL.
Related Story: Prospect Aleksi Saarela is Lighting Up the AHL for Charlotte
In those 115 Carolina games, Boychuk managed only 11 goals and 28 points over the course of 7 seven seasons. That was a far cry from his junior hockey production. In the Western Hockey League, he was a two time 30 goal scorer, and was a key piece in Canada’s World Junior team in 2009.
For whatever reasons, skating and physicality being the main focus, Boychuk never caught fire for Carolina. Every time he was called up, he failed to be as effective as he was in the AHL or WHL. Because of that, Boychuk became a symbol of the bad drafting years under Jim Rutherford.
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Boychuk has since moved on from the state of North Carolina entirely. After a bad year with the Checkers last season, he is out of North American hockey. This year, he has plied his craft in Russia, playing for Sibir Novosibirsk of the KHL. That team just barely missed out on the KHL playoffs this season.
It is definitely possible for Boychuk to return to North American hockey though. A good season in Europe next year could attract some interest from AHL clubs. Safe to say the Hurricanes won’t be in that discussion though.
Former GM Jim Rutherford had a stretch of terrible 1st round draft picks from 2008 to 2012 (except Jeff Skinner). Boychuk was the first of that crop that just never panned out. Carolina was left in shambles with no depth anywhere. Luckily, that looks to be changing.
Next: End of Year Scouting Report on Prospect Warren Foegele
With the season wrapping up, we might try to make this a weekly thing we post. Should we? Let us know. Feel free to comment any player from this era you’d like us to look at next. The more obscure the better.