1: Adam Fox – Harvard, NCAA
A lot has been written about Adam Fox over the last nine months. Ever since the Carolina Hurricanes acquired his rights as part of the Dougie Hamilton/Micheal Ferland acquisition, there have been all sorts of rumors surrounding the talented young defenseman. Will he sign with the Canes? Will he wait out his rights and pull a Jimmy Vesey, to sign for a team of his choosing?
We’re about to find out the answer to that. Fox’s Harvard team is not considered to be among the favorites to make the NCAA’s Forzen Four, despite his incredible efforts over the course of the season. He will almost certainly be able to sign professional terms with the Carolina Hurricanes at some point during the last few weeks of the regular season – if he wants to sign, Don Waddell needs to sign him. Just look at this Justin Faulkian wrister on the power play:
#NTDP Alumni Update. Adam Fox and the Crimson PP are having a big night in their game vs. Union.
— Stars n’ Stripes Hockey (@StarsStripesHKY) February 9, 2019
Here Fox tallies the 1st of 4 PP markers for Harvard, a shot thru traffic to give the Crimson the early lead. It's the 8th goal and 28th point of the season for Fox. #TakeWarning pic.twitter.com/K5smesqnyT
Fox isn’t just a puck-moving, puck-shooting, offensive defenseman – he plays the defensive side of the game well too. Playing on this Carolina Hurricanes team, he’s likely to need skill like this to keep chances to a minimum:
Rasmus Dahlin (#8) will be the 1st pick of NHL Draft next June. He was set for tap in goal to make it 1-0 Sweden, but what a play by Harvard’s Adam Fox (@NHLFlames pick) to save goal. 0-0 after 1. pic.twitter.com/pk0I1nXs23
— BucciOT.Com (@Buccigross) January 4, 2018
Adam Fox has set the NCAA alight this season with 8-32-40 in just 29 games, beating last season’s production and matching his production from 2016/17 in six less games. He leads all NCAA defensemen in points-per-game, is fourth amongst all skaters, and has upstaged both Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes this season. Both of those are considered prime top-pair prospects, and we should be looking at Adam Fox in much the same way.
The Carolina Hurricanes have many talented players in the system – and our rankings chop and change as seasons progress. Consider that players like Janne Kuokkanen, Julien Gauthier and Callum Booth haven’t been included, and Caniacs will recognize that the prospect base of this team is very promising.
We hope to see Adam Fox and Martin Necas make the Canes roster next season, and Stelio Mattheos could be a real wildcard at camp – could there be a real possibility of the Carolina Hurricanes having too many talented young players and not enough spaces on their NHL roster for them? It promises to be a very exciting summer for Canes fans – make sure you follow the progress of our Canes of the Future as they make their own bids for playoff hockey!