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.

The Value of Playoff Experience

The most immediate value the team will receive as they play their first playoff series in almost a decade is playoff experience. When you break down the current roster, you’ll find that playoff experience is very short. I was going to talk more about who needed playoff experience on this roster, however as I compiled my list, I realized that it was easier to discuss who actually had playoff experience.

Starting from the top down, the man with the most experience is the captain Justin Williams. Having made the playoffs with four separate teams, winning the Stanley Cup with two of them (including our own Carolina Hurricanes in 2006), his experience has translated to leadership. Of the rest of the offense, only Micheal Ferland, Jordan Staal, and Teuvo Teravainen have any NHL playoff experience; the most recent being Ferland in the 2017 playoffs with Calgary. That’s a total of only four of the eighteen forwards the Carolina Hurricanes have put on the ice this year – only 22%.

Defense looks a lot better thanks to trades and free agency pickups. Calvin de Haan, Dougie Hamilton, and Trevor van Riemsdyk all have playoff experience with their former teams. That makes it three of the nine defensemen that have played this year. Problem is that two of them just showed up to replace Noah Hanifin and Klas Dahlbeck, neither of whom had any playoff experience.

All three goaltenders, funny enough, have playoff experience. Whats even funnier is that of the three, it’s only Scott Darling that has had the pleasure of lifting the Stanley Cup when he won it with the Chicago Blackhawks.  While it may not have translated to better performances from Scott Darling, Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney have both played really well in recent games. Both played at least one playoff game last season.

The biggest thing to notice is that our biggest and best players on both sides of the puck do not have any playoff experience. Players like Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin, arguably the best players on this team, have zero playoff experience. Justin Faulk, multiple All-Star, former co-captain, and current alternate captain has zero playoff experience. Simply making the playoffs will elevate their game, and elevate their value.

The expectations of their performance will be that of a player with playoff experience. They would know it and we would know it. Suddenly the playoffs aren’t a mythical beast for them to conquer, it’s a been there, done that situation where the expectations are to make a deep run.

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.

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.