Carolina Hurricanes: Why the Playoffs Should be Priority Number One

We are now almost halfway through the 2018/19 NHL season and the Carolina Hurricanes are dangerously flirting with the concept of missing the playoffs for a full decade. Just how important is it to this franchise to make the playoffs, even if it means getting swept in the first round?

The current record for consecutive years missing the playoffs is ten years, held jointly by the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. The Carolina Hurricanes, who hold the active record, are at very serious risk of making it a trio if they fail to make the playoffs. They are currently only a few points outside of a playoff spot in a Metro division that has been terrible all round. The question becomes: how much should they risk to get those extra points to ensure they get into the playoffs this season?

For many, the perceived reward of making the playoffs only to be knocked out early are minimal. After all, you aren’t included in the draft lottery the following year. There are many unknowns in regards to the rental players you collected to make it that far. The worst loss would be in whatever picks or prospects you traded away to get those rentals as you skate away will nothing from the playoffs.

While these are all true for a larger market where making the playoffs isn’t a foreign concept and the concern is lifting 35 lbs of silver in ultimate victory, for a smaller market like Carolina, the rewards outweigh the risks. The rewards that the Carolina Hurricanes can attain will bring benefits that can change the entire culture revolving around the sport in Raleigh for generations to come.

So how much of the Carolina Hurricanes’ future should Tom Dundon and Don Waddell risk to achieve something that hasn’t been achieved in almost a decade? Here are a few massive reasons why sacrificing some future potential is worth playoff hockey returning to the Carolinas – even if the playoffs end on a sweep in the very first round.

Future Free Agent and Trade Pick-ups

Making the playoffs doesn’t only mean experience for those who don’t have any, but drawing in those good players who want to experience it. Its no secret that most free agents are not drawn to Carolina. Calvin de Haan was probably the first in a long time to look at Raleigh and say “this is where I want to play hockey for the next several years”. Petr Mrazek saw it as an opportunity to reinvent himself and potentially steal a starting role. Justin Williams saw it as returning to the team he won his first Stanley Cup with. But outside of those three, free agents aren’t flocking to North Carolina.

The biggest reason for that is that free agents want to win. They want to go to the team they see the best opportunity of hoisting the Cup with. It’s why John Tavares signed with the Maple Leafs. It’s why Riley Nash signed with the Blue Jackets. Both were teams that made the playoffs last season. There is a huge difference to a free agent in joining a team that is looking for one or two more pieces to just make the playoffs, and a team that is looking for one or two more pieces to make a deep run into the playoffs.

Even with a stellar roster and high aspirations, a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in several years isn’t going to draw players that want to win. While calling up developed players and shaping them into the roles that this team needs is great, without that veteran leadership to help guide them to a championship, its almost pointless.

Its not only free agents from other teams that will find it easier to sign with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes would find it easier to negotiate with their own impending free agents already on the roster with the promise of playoff hockey. There are currently 23 future free agents (both restricted and unrestricted) for this team between the Hurricanes roster and the pipeline. Making the playoffs this year will help ensure that star players like Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen don’t end up wearing different jerseys in the years to come.

So what about trades? That shouldn’t matter right? Players have very limited say in where they get traded to. This is somewhat true. No-Trade or No-Move clauses in their various forms give players some control over who a trade partner might be. It’s how the Carolina Hurricanes received such a poor return for star forward Jeff Skinner. Being known as a team that doesn’t make the playoffs removes you from virtually all lists of places players wouldn’t mind being traded to. By simply breaking that mold and returning to the playoffs, suddenly getting traded to Carolina isn’t a career death sentence.

But even if Carolina landed a player in a trade that did not have a NTC or NMC of any type, there comes the concept of their attitude and fortitude about being here. Players are people after all. Take for example, Scott Darling. After finishing a stellar year as a backup with his hometown team the Chicago Blackhawks, the rights to signing him were traded to Carolina. Leaving his hometown team in order to attempt to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a playoff drought-ending season proved too much for Darling, who showed up out of shape and couldn’t bring himself together well enough to survive the competition from Petr Mrazek or Curtis McElhinney. The end result was sending him on waivers and ultimately the Checkers.

Even a single playoff series will change the perception of this team across the league. Players will be more likely to consider answering when Don Waddell calls, more likely to include Carolina in their shortlist of teams they wouldn’t mind being traded to, and more likely to be excited to join a Carolina team that looks ready to steamroll its way though the playoffs and lift a Stanley Cup.

Winning the Fanbase Back

Players aren’t the only ones that need convincing that the Carolina Hurricanes are a team worth being a part of. Fans of all types need that convincing as well. A decade of missing the playoffs can put a dent into even an Original Six fanbase. Even the most hardcore of Carolina Hurricanes fans are having their patience tested. The fair-weather fans are definitely not hanging around. The fans outside of the immediate vicinity of Raleigh are finding less and less reason to make the trip once, let alone purchase season tickets. Implant fans have no reason to switch allegiances from their hometown team.

Once upon a time PNC Arena was the loudest, most obnoxious place to play in. Now it consistently ranks towards the bottom of the league in attendance. The drop didn’t actually start to happen until the 2013-2014 season, five years into the playoff drought. Funny enough, the year before that saw the Carolina Hurricanes set its own personal record for average attendance, beating out half the league including Original Six teams like the New York Rangers. This season and last has seen attendance pick back up with promising seasons that looked and is looking like a playoff berth might actually happen.

The 2012-2013 season saw 17,500 fans on average fill PNC Arena. That alone is evidence that the fan base is out there. With over 20 years under their belt the fanbase should have grown from there. The playoff drought put a huge dent into an already-questionable market. So, what if the drought were to end? How soon can the Carolina Hurricanes at the very least return to league average attendance numbers?

The answer to that question lies more in the marketing abilities of the team’s front office than anywhere else. They have been doing an incredible job of it over the last two seasons. My first article here on Cardiac Cane was about how attendance improved on-ice performance and vice versa. Much of what I spoke about then has come to fruition in various forms. Tom Dundon, the new owner, has been a huge part of why attendance is already picking back up. They have had so many exciting things to market. New rookie Andrei Svechnikov, the new post-win traditions, new third jerseys, and new slogan have been beneficial to their efforts.

However the most marketable concept, the true breadwinner, is a playoff run. That is something everyone wants to be a part of. With the Carolina Hurricanes, it is something everyone will want to witness first-hand. The magical 2006 run that lead to the Stanley Cup had moments that fans who were in the stands will cherish forever. Magical moments that are constantly used to bring back happy memories. Even if the Carolina Hurricanes were to be swept in the first round, that is still two home games that can give the fans a “taste” of the future.

Let’s be completely honest about something. No one wants to be a fan of the team that gets the rude end of the jokes in the league. Having to constantly have to defend their support for their team though a decade of mediocrity. The “we have a Cup” clause can only carry a fanbase so far. Simply making the playoffs can erase all of that and give people a reason to be a proud to be a Carolina Hurricanes fan. Even if they have only a concept of what the rules of the sport are.

There is a chance for something incredible to happen in Raleigh with the Carolina Hurricanes. They can be the symbol of the city in sports. No other major league sport exists for the Capitol City. The swirl of red, black, and white can grow to represent the identity of the city the same way the Carolina Panthers represents the Queen City of Charlotte. The fanbase isn’t only the amount of seats sold. Its the amount of merchandise sold across the state as people proudly rock the Red, Black, and White. That starts with a playoff berth. Sooner rather than later, or else all the other exciting marketable things about this team just become gimmicks.

The True Change in Culture

The biggest and, in my humble opinion, most important gain from making the playoffs regardless of how deep a run we make, is the change of culture that surrounds this team. That comes from all the other things I spoke to earlier in this article. Culture is not something that changes overnight. Nor is it something can can make a full transition from one season to another. But one thing for sure with the Carolina Hurricanes is that it needs to change.

The team has already taken steps toward this. Ownership has traded hands, as have the General Manager and Head Coach positions, albeit it both those positions were taken over by individuals already within the organization. However, captain Justin Williams has taken it as his personal mission to force a cultural change that has threatened to rock the entire league. Of course I am speaking to the post-win celebrations that has had old-timers breaking down in anguish.

The Carolina Hurricanes have also broken an unspoken rule set by former majority owner Peter Karmanos, and broken the seal on the Whalers history, selling Whalers merchandise and even playing a few games in throwback Whalers jerseys against their old nemesis the Boston Bruins. But how does making the playoffs play into the change in culture?

The culture of the Carolina Hurricanes doesn’t start and end with the front office and their actions. It includes the players. How do they go into the game? What is the expectation of them? What keeps them up at night? Same goes for the coaching staff. Is the expectation just a “well-played” game? Is losing in overtime or by shootout an acceptable loss of a specialty point?

Or is the expectation a win? That no matter how many goals they are down and no matter how much time is left, they will at least tie it to force overtime? And is the expectation in overtime that they will be the ones that force the mistakes and take full advantage of them to bring home two points? That culture starts with the mentality of winning for the sake of winning, not for the sake of trying to make the playoffs, which should be a given side effect of winning.

That kind of mentality and culture comes from better players. Players who are not worried about the playoffs because they have no doubt that come April, there will be more hockey to play. It comes from having made the playoffs. Where players are no longer worried about the proverbial “monkey” on their backs and can play with the sheer purpose of dominating the opposing team.

It comes from a more engaged fanbase. The kind that runs opposing teams out of PNC Arena night after night. There are no opposing fans, because there is no room for opposing fans. Fans aren’t counting points between themselves and a playoff spot, they are counting on a team that will give them the entertainment they paid for. Tickets are near impossible to secure. Parents put their newborn children on the waitlist for season tickets in hopes that when they grow up their number will finally be called.

This culture change will definitely not happen overnight. A single playoff berth will definitely not make all of this happen overnight. But it will definitely be the first massive step in the right direction. The longer it takes to make this step, the more work will have to be done in order to set things right. So let’s delay it no longer. Tom Dundon and Don Waddell have to do everything in their power to get this team to the playoffs come April. The costs of doing so might be high, but the costs of doing nothing will grow exponentially with each missed opportunity.