Carolina Hurricanes: Who to take in the NHL Draft 1st Round?

Now that the Cup has been lifted one more time, this time for the first time in St. Louis, we are truly in offseason mode. Free agency begins in a couple of weeks, the Draft begins this Friday, and we have already seen a handful of trades and signings.

For the first time in a decade, the Carolina Hurricanes are not a lottery team (They traded the 2012 first round pick to the Penguins, so they didn’t draft in the top 14, but they were a lottery team). As as been well documented, the Hurricanes made the playoffs for the first time since 2009 and went pretty far. You all know this already, obviously, but the run to the Eastern Conference Finals gives the Hurricanes their first bad drafting position in a while.

Last year, the Canes drafted Andrei Svechnikov with the second overall pick. This time, they’ll draft someone you probably haven’t heard of with the 28th overall pick. Quite the difference.

This article will break down some possibilities for that 28th overall pick on Friday night, but I want to get some things out of the way first.

We almost assuredly won’t draft a defenseman or a goalie. Goalies rarely get drafted high anyway and I don’t think the Canes are that interested in drafting a goalie as Ned is considered the future (and Don Waddell said he wants to re-sign Petr and Curtis anyway), and we really don’t need any defensemen. Our defense is uncomfortably deep and owner, Tom Dundon, has already stated his intention to go in with an offensive mindset. So this conversation will be limited to forwards.

Additionally, it is difficult to decide who the team should pick when you don’t know who will be available when they are picking. So naturally, this members of the following list could all be gone by the time Pick 28 rolls around but we’ll see.