Carolina Hurricanes: 5 players who will benefit from coaching change

The time for the former head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, Bill Peters, to help out the organization is over. Who could benefit from that?

Looming on the horizon for the Carolina Hurricanes is more changes in a single off-season than possibly the franchise has ever seen since moving to Raleigh, or North Carolina altogether. Since the turn of the calendar year, the Canes now have a new majority owner, head coaching vacancy, general manager vacancy, new president of hockey operations and vice president of hockey operations too.

The whole Peters coaching debacle is now over, with him officially signing a deal to become the head man at the helm with the Calgary Flames. This move for Peters could benefit some players more than others, as there was an obvious disconnect between him and at least a good portion of the locker room.

The off-season definitely started off with a bang for the Canes, with a new look front office poised to be within the next two months. Carolina needs something to put in place before free agency begins starting on July 1.

It’s a guarantee that the Canes will have a different result in 2018-19 than they’ve had in recent seasons under Peters. Whether that change be good or bad for the upcoming years, it’s much needed nonetheless. It’s also up to Tom Dundon to make the right moves to fill the head coach and general manager vacancies.

Carolina has nearly the most cap room available of any team in the NHL this off-season. Some new faces could make their way to Raleigh before the start of next season.

Here’s 5 current players that the Carolina Hurricanes could see benefitting from a coaching change next season.

Both goalies for the Canes had a rough time between the pipes in 2017-18. Although, Cam Ward was the better of the two, and got slightly more starts because of it. If Ward had gotten 10 or 15 more starts this season, the Canes might have a different result on their hands after the regular season.

However, that statement that Ward should have got more starts could go either way. Ward played much better in net when he was coming off the bench the previous game. His days as a quality starting goalie in the league seem to be over. But, his days as a quality backup could just be getting started.

The conversation pertaining to what the Canes should do with their goaltending situation is not the focus here. Ward definitely benefitted from his role as the backup goalie at some moments during the regular season. If the other goalie for the Canes sees massive improvement next season, it’s worth keeping Ward in the fold.

Peters’s system seems to benefit the defensive stats more so than the goalies. Ward had some rough outings where he was left out to dry by his defense. A new head coach could prevent that from happening as often. If a new head coach is a good fit with Ward, he’s worth keeping around in Raleigh for another year.

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Few forwards for the Canes were as disappointing last season as the skilled center Victor Rask. There was even a small stretch of games in the second half of the season in which Peters had Rask scratched. That seemed to benefit him for a game or two, but didn’t do anything in terms of a permanent solution.

In a perfect world, the Canes can utilize the best of Rask’s potential and make him a genuine top six or top nine forward in the league. At the point he’s at now, Rask is a third line or fourth line center at best.

Only a year or two remains before Rask should be entering his best seasons as a scorer. He does have the natural nose for the net, and quality ability to finish scoring chances when he’s on. That needs to be done on a consistent basis before the Canes can trust him among their best forwards again.

Rask has a similar situation to that of Ward where he could be a member of a different team at some point next season. However, Canes fans know that he’s worth keeping around if it means better production under a new head coach and new scheme.

Unlike Rask, talented Canes center Elias Lindholm is pretty much guaranteed to be back with the team next season, and hopefully for many more years to come. However, similar to Rask, he had a rough time finding the back of the net in Peters’ last year at the helm with the Canes.

Lindholm has way too much skill to let it falter as he moves into his mid-20’s. The good news for Lindholm is that he saw a rise in his goal scoring to his best total since the 2014-15 season, with 16 markers in 2017-18.

On the other hand, Lindholm had a lower point total in 2017-18 than he did in the previous season. Since the Canes needed Lindholm especially to take that next step offensively this season, seeing a drop in his scoring totals is a bad sign. He does still have time to fix that trend.

All the line shuffling could have had a bigger effect on Lindholm than it did the rest of the forwards. Lindholm jumped between the team’s top line, all the way down to the third line at times. Most of his time was spent with the second line, but the next head coach needs to find one place for him to stay and get comfortable.

Among all the non-goalies for the Canes, star forward Jeff Skinner needed a coaching change more than anyone else. Placing him on the third line after he had his best goal total in the league makes no sense, and that’s one of the big reasons the Canes missed the postseason again.

This season, Skinner saw his goal total drop by 13, down to 24. Not to say that 24 goals is a down season by usual standards for an NHL forward, but Canes fans know that we can get much more out of Skinner given he’s put in the right situation.

By season’s end, Skinner was the fourth leading point getter for the Canes, behind Justin Williams, Sebastian Aho, and Teuvo Teravainen. He capped off the 2017-18 campaign with 49 points total. He’ll be expected to see that point total rise in 2018-19.

The thought of just how Peters treated Skinner’s roster situation game after game is one of the reasons also why the fans got so impatient with him. Skinner is a fan favorite and with good reason. He needs to get his first playoff appearance with the organization here soon.