Carolina Hurricanes: Warren Foegele Continues his Stellar Play

The Carolina Hurricanes have evened the series at 3-3 against the Washington Capitals. Foegele proves to be a key piece in canes surprise playoff success.

Warren Foegele was drafted 67th overall in the third round of the 2014 NHL entry draft by the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canadian born winger has been extremely underrated and not praised  enough for his skill. Foegele should surprise nobody with the success he has had so far in the first round of the Stanley cup playoffs.

Foegele’s accomplishments speak for itself. In the 2016-2017 season, Warren earned the “Wayne Gretzky 99 award”, which is an honor given to the most valuable player in the OHL playoffs. In Foegele’s first season with the Charlotte Checkers, he made the AHL all star game by leading all rookies in goals scored.

Carolina Hurricanes

Foegele was named the “Checkers rookie of the year” in the 2017-2018 season after amassing 46 points in just 73 games. Foegele made a tremendous NHL debut in march of 2018, by recording three points in his lone two games for the canes.

There is no question that Warren has been successful at all levels that he has played for. So why are fans surprised at this sudden outburst of scoring? During the regular season, Warren only produced 15 points in 77 games played. Those are not eye popping numbers for a forward to be considered as a “high end prospect”.

Foegele was dead last on the Hurricanes with a plus/minus of -17 when he was on the ice. Not only has his scoring suffered this season but he had the fewest amount of blocked shots (19) of any canes forward to play more than 51 games.

However, Warren did prove to be productive in other areas during the regular season. He was 7th on the team in total hits on the season with 126. He was also 11th on the team in shooting percentage with a percentage of 9.4.

Foegele may not have been as productive as he would have liked to be this season but he played mostly with 4th line teammates. Warren was inconsistent throughout the season which led to a decrease in minutes but he stayed on the roster due to his high work ethic.

That work ethic seems to have been finally been rewarded with the playoffs. With injuries occurring to two key forwards in Andrei Svechnikov and Micheal Ferland, somebody had to step up. Foegele was waiting on his opportunity and has not looked back.

In the 6 games played so far, Warren leads the Hurricanes in goals scored (4) and points (6) as well as maintains a plus/minus of +6. The canes have a 6 goal advantage with Warren on the ice during these playoffs. In comparison the canes best player Sebastian Aho has a plus/minus of -2.

Warren is outplaying the canes best forward and that should be exciting for canes fans considering how good Aho is. “Playoff Foegele” has been phenomenal for the canes and will likely earn himself a top 9 role going into next season.

Watch Foegele score an insane Spin-O-Rama goal against the caps:

https://twitter.com/NHLCanes/status/1120671159886868480

Let’s hope he can bring more of that into game seven tonight and hopefully beyond as well!

CC Readers: What do you think about Warren Foegele’s playoff performance for the Carolina Hurricanes?