Carolina Hurricanes: Five Bold Predictions for 2019-20
The Carolina Hurricanes may have fallen short in the Eastern Conference Finals this postseason, but this has set the stage for what I believe will be an insanely successful season starting this October.
The Hurricanes surprised the entire league after making the playoffs for the first time in a decade in a postseason campaign that carried the team all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.
This past season was an absolute rollercoaster for all of us. After starting off the first few months of the season in a relatively lukewarm fashion, the Hurricanes found a whole new gear, and shifted directly to it for the rest of the season. The Canes had one of the best records in the league after January 1st, second only to the President’s Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning.
Various factors played into the Hurricanes becoming a relevant, Cup-contending team again; all of these factors not only brought relevancy back to Raleigh, but also united the fanbase in a manner that I personally haven’t seen since 2006.
Looking forward to next season, what can we expect from the Hurricanes? GM Don Waddell plans on focusing his efforts to keep the team’s core group together, and plans on trying to bring both Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney back into the fold to hopefully provide more consistent, high-level goaltending.
I have a feeling the 2019-20 season is going to be an even more impressive season for the Hurricanes; the team has given me the confidence to make quite a few (potentially) bold predictions about the upcoming season. Keep in mind that these predictions are my own opinion, and in now way reflect a Universal Objective Truth™. What are these outrageous predictions, you ask? Read on to find out.
Multiple Checkers Called Up to Full-time NHL Roster
The Charlotte Checkers are currently tied with the Chicago Wolves in the Calder Cup Finals (at the time of writing) at one game apiece. The Checkers have been absolutely stellar this season on multiple fronts.
A huge part of the Checkers’ success is their elite prospect talent, most of which have a solid shot at making the Hurricanes’ roster full-time next season. A few names that come directly to mind are Alex Nedeljkovic, Jake Bean, Aleksi Saarela, Patrick Brown, Julien Gauthier, and Martin Necas.
This isn’t to say these players are the only ones that have a shot at making the NHL next year. These are just a few names out of many that come to mind when contemplating future NHL talent. As seen below, the Checkers have a plethora of solid young players waiting in the wings.
Quite a few of these players have seen time with the Hurricanes, most notably Alex Nedeljkovic and Patrick Brown. Nedeljkovic won his first ever NHL start, and is widely considered to be one of the most NHL-ready goaltenders in the AHL. Alongside Nedeljkovic is Patrick Brown, who was called up to the Canes’ roster for a good chunk of the postseason.
The offseason development of the Checkers players that are close to making the transition as well as preseason performance will ultimately determine who gets the call for good, but I have no doubt that even if Waddell does keep the Hurricanes’ core together, quite a few Checkers will see solid ice-time in the NHL next season.
The Hurricanes Will Make Moves in Free Agency
A large part of the frustration Hurricanes fans have experienced with this team in the past is the refusal to make moves that could make the team better. I can remember quite a few seasons in a row in which the Hurricanes either made smaller deals, or refused to trade for players that would help make the team a solid contender.
As Tom Dundon and Don Waddell have shown us, management is no longer afraid to make moves as needed. The acquisition of Nino Niederreiter is still, in my opinion, one of the biggest trades of the season; alongside the acquisition of Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland in last year’s offseason, the Hurricanes were able to put together a solid, contending team.
This year’s free agency market is set to be one of the most drastic free agency pool’s in recent memory. Various teams (looking at you, Las Vegas and Toronto) have cap issues looming overhead, meaning trades are bound to happen and players are bound to be released to both restricted and unrestricted free agency as their contracts deem.
A few names of note that will more than likely end up a part of the free agency pool are Artemi Panarin, Erik Karlsson, Matt Duchene, and Sergei Bobrovsky. I recently wrote about this in a previous piece, so feel free to check out my thoughts on each player specifically; as for this discussion, I’d like to focus on players not mentioned in that article.
While the Hurricanes have upcoming UFA’s to focus on for the time being, it couldn’t hurt to approach players like Alexander Edler and Marcus Johansson; these players could still potentially return to their current teams, but could make quite the impact on the Hurricanes’ roster, and definitely wouldn’t be detrimental to pursue.
I’m not saying these two are the only two that the Canes should or would pursue, but I fully believe the time of standing pat just for the sake of standing pat are done in this franchise. Dundon and Waddell have proven that they are here to ensure that the Hurricanes are a force to be reckoned with, and that they stay that way for as long as possible.
Hurricanes Will Change Uniforms or Logos
By now, it has been all but confirmed that the Hurricanes will change either color schemes or logos by next season. This isn’t what is shocking about this prediction. Tom Dundon has been very clear about his preference for this year’s black alternate jerseys and his disdain for the current away jerseys.
That being said, I could fully see the Canes ditching the red home jerseys in favor of the black alternates that they wore during the entirety of home games in the postseason. This, again, isn’t shocking, but the changes may not stop here.
I believe Tom Dundon will steer the team’s main colors from predominantly red with black accents to predominantly black with grey and red accents. In keeping with the theme of the alternate jerseys this past year, I could see the Canes having a completely revamped away jersey alongside ditching the traditional ‘storm’ logo in favor of the increasingly popular ‘hurricane flag’ logo.
Many pundits around the league have criticized the flag logo as being ‘too large’, or ‘too long’ (most of them have apparently never laid eyes on the current Nashville Predators logo, but I digress). With a bit of tweaking, we could see a more refined version of the flag logo on a black home jersey and a white/black/grey away jersey with red trim or piping, and the red home jerseys relegated to a third or ‘throwback’ jersey.
https://twitter.com/NHLCanes/status/1045375309711839232
I’m also a huge fan of the Whalers jerseys from this season, and would love to see them pull out the absolutely beautiful navy blue and grey jerseys that were a huge hit with Whalers fans back in the day. That seems like more of a pipe dream than anything else listed in this category, so we will leave that where it lies. At the end of the day, I fully expect some aesthetic changes for the franchise are in the pipeline as we speak.
Hurricanes Will Make the Playoffs
This is obviously a no-brainer for most of us, but I felt that it needed a place in this list. As I’ve mentioned before, Don Waddell is focused on keeping the team’s core together. The very same core that endured chides from Don Cherry and banded together to become the Bunch of Jerks that cemented themselves firmly in team history.
If this core group made the playoffs once, they can absolutely do it again. This time, however, they will have a single goal to rally around. Last December, very few people believe the Hurricanes would make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, let alone make the playoffs. This group did.
Having come so close and having fallen short in the final round of the Eastern Conference Championship has done nothing but ignite a fire under each and every player on the roster, and they will have all summer to work on their own individual game(s), and to work together to build even more chemistry and playmaking ability between themselves.
This offseason is a chance for the Hurricanes to not only take a much-needed break, but also a chance to regroup, analyze what they could improve on (powerplay, powerplay, powerplay), and come back all the more intelligent, competitive, and determined next season.
Hurricanes Will Win the Stanley Cup
This won’t sit well with the more superstitious among us. As Michael Scott once said, “I’m not superstitious. I’m just a little-stitious.” Wise words indeed, as I am traditionally only a little-stitious, despite having been a goaltender for the better part of two decades. Call me crazy, but superstition has never really been something I’ve concerned myself with. That being said, proceed with caution, Caniacs.
Building on last season, I can see no other destination for the Hurricanes than Lord Stanley’s Cup. If the Canes can continue their upward momentum, and carry last season’s success into the 2019-20 season, I have no doubt that, in a year’s time, we will see our Hurricanes hoisting the best trophy in all of sports.
https://twitter.com/NHLCanes/status/1131354906076635136
This past season has been the best season I can recall in recent memory. The Canes seemed to be putting together yet another run-of-the-mill season of mediocrity. Just when a lot of us were ready to tuck into another season of disappointment, the Hurricanes surprised all of us and blew away the majority of the league for the last few months of the season and postseason.
https://twitter.com/NHLCanes/status/1130201559357382656
Like I’ve said countless times: we have a lot to look forward to, Caniacs. Next season is going to be a doozy, and I am more than excited to yet again be a part of it and witness it firsthand. The Bunch of Jerks may not have gone as far as we wanted, but they still went further this past season than in the previous 9 seasons past. October can’t come fast enough.
Question for CC Readers: Do you agree with this list? What predictions do you have for the upcoming season?