Carolina Hurricanes Prospect Primer: College Edition
The Carolina Hurricanes have an absolute wealth of prospects all over the world. There’s a multitude of them in Canadian junior to keep an eye on.
After previewing the Carolina Hurricanes’ prospects in Europe as well as their prospects in the Canadian junior leagues, today we head toward another developmental region; college hockey. The U.S. College ranks are an interesting case for young players. The Carolina Hurricanes have a lot of promise here.
Teams have 30 days after a player leaves college to sign the player, before that player becomes a free agent. If a player stays in college through his senior season, he becomes a UFA on August 15th after the season ends. Understood?
It’s a complicated process. But let me clear it up. Of the 10 players the Hurricanes have playing college hockey (6 forwards, 2 defenseman and 2 goaltenders) 5 of them – David Cotton, Matt Filipe, Max Zimmer, Luke Stevens and Luke Martin, are entering their senior seasons and will need to be signed to NHL entry-level contracts by August 15th of 2020 or the Hurricanes will lose them to free agency.
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In this article, I’ll do my best to outline each player’s individual progress, their long-term outlook with the Canes, and in some cases, what they need to do in order to even earn an entry-level deal.
Don Waddell and company will have 5 big decisions to make on their impending college FAs next summer, so I’ll try to give frequent updates throughout the season to summarize how those guys are progressing. Stay tuned.
The Hurricanes have had some mixed results with courting college players recently. Recently, they landed F Andrew Poturalski and G Rasmus Tirronen, neither of whom panned out. Jacob Pritchard is another one with potential, but he’s buried on the depth chart.
Then there’s the big names: after *almost guaranteeing the team would sign Adam Fox*, they obviously couldn’t, and traded him to New York. They then went out and landed the top college FA on the market August 15th – defenseman Chase Priskie.
Anyways, with the recent memory in the past, the Hurricanes have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to keep their own drafted guys in the fold. Starting off, let’s take a look at the six Hurricanes forwards in the college ranks.
Forwards
Currently the cream of the crop of the Carolina Hurricanes college group, center David Cotton is surrounded by mystery. Drafted in the 6th round way back in 2015, Cotton has developed better than anyone could’ve expected, and has become the leader of the Boston College hockey squad. Last season, he scored 23 goals and 13 assists in 39 games – with his 23 goals leading the entire H-East college division.
After that splendid season, there was word Cotton would turn pro, and sign with the Carolina Hurricanes. However, at some point he decided against it, and opted to return for his senior season at BC.
Cotton said that the team has underachieved since he got there, and wants to help turn the team around. He has since been appointed Captain, and is primed for a huge year, which, may be bad for the Hurricanes.
With such an impressive college career, Cotton will have countless amounts of suitors should he become a free agent on August 15th of 2020. In the NHL, he’ll probably fit in as a middle-six player – he’s strong and plays a 200-foot game.
The Hurricanes will have from the day Boston College’s season ends (at the end of March) to convince Cotton to sign an ELC with them. If he doesn’t, the Hurricanes will lose him for no compensation. If they feel they can’t sign him, they could look to trade him where he wants to go (similar to the Adam Fox situation) to avoid losing him for nothing.
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A guy the Carolina Hurricanes don’t have to worry about losing yet, center Jack Drury is a wonderful prospect. He plays the type of game that’ll almost surely get him to the NHL.
He does lack the high-end speed that the Carolina Hurricanes covet, but the new regime picked him, so they must be happy with his overall game. Drury plays a responsible two-way game – he’s a pass first guy, with great vision and slick hands. In an ideal world, he’s probably best cast as a 3C.
Drury is embarking on his second season at Harvard, where he’s taken the reigns as their 1C. He also skated on Team USA’s 4th line at the World Juniors last year, and figures to play a bigger role for that team this coming December.
Beyond that, Drury will continue developing in school, until he and the Carolina Hurricanes decide that his next career step is to turn pro. When that may be is anybody’s guess, but the Hurricanes hold his rights until August of 2022, so it’s no rush.
Filipe and Zimmer
At Northeastern University, Matt Filipe looks to take a step in his senior season in hopes to earn a contract. The 67th overall pick in 2016, he hasn’t quite developed the way the Carolina Hurricanes had hoped. After a great 9-goal, 21-point junior season, Filipe has been rather stagnant in his progression since, and those totals remain his career highs.
He was a Captain at the Carolina Hurricanes development camp this past summer, so he’s a guy the team still has some confidence in. He’s 6’2″, 200lbs and a strong skater for a kid that size. He plays a hard-working two-way game, and can contribute off the score sheet when his offense is lacking.
Filipe, now a senior, will need a big season to prove worth of an entry-level contract. He’ll hope to breakout offensively, and get a chance to prove himself in the AHL with Charlotte. His NHL upside is likely in the bottom-six, but it’s anyone’s guess at this point if Filipe can make it to the big league. He’s still a ways away, and buried in a deep group of forward prospects.
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Another prospect in desperate hopes of proving his worth for an entry-level deal, Max Zimmer is a guy who might already see the writing on the wall. For unknown reasons, he wasn’t at Carolina Hurricanes prospects camp this summer. He also hasn’t been overly impressive in college. He did manage to double his career high in points at Wisconsin last year, but still only finished with 18 points.
The X-factor of Zimmer’s game is his skating ability. He’s got absolutely blazing speed, and could be as fast as anybody in the Carolina Hurricanes organization. But aside from that, his game is void of any real defining aspects. He’s a hard worker, but has limited offensive upside and probably projects as a fourth line energy guy if he makes it to the NHL. Which is a big ‘if’.
First, he needs to prove worthy of one of the Carolina Hurricanes 50 contract slots, which means he needs a huge season at Wisconsin. Because of his aforementioned speed, Zimmer has been a fun prospect to keep track of, but this could be the end of the road for him. We’ll learn of his fate this coming spring.
Stevens and Wall
At Yale University, forward Luke Stevens is trying to follow in the footsteps of his father Kevin Stevens, a two-time 50-goal scorer for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1980s. Drafted way back in 2015 (5th round), Stevens likely intrigued the Carolina Hurricanes with his 6’5, 205lb frame and his strong two-way game.
Unfortunately, things haven’t gone well for Stevens since. He hasn’t been able to muster up much offensively at Yale, and hasn’t done much to earn more ice time. He had just 7 points last season. Now, entering his senior year, Stevens is in a tough spot.
Likely a longshot to amount to an NHLer at this point, I would be shocked if the Carolina Hurricanes offered him an ELC. But, the Hurricanes will have 30 days after his season ends to decide that.
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Finishing up at forward with Kevin Wall, a kid the Hurricanes just selected in the 6th round of the 2019 draft. Wall played at a prep school in 2017-18, which led to him being undrafted in 2018. After breaking out in the BCHL, the Canes took Wall as an overager, and he’s now set to start his college career at Penn State University.
He’s good decent size (6’0, 187lbs), he’s a smooth skater and has a lethal shot. He scored 31 goals in 49 games with Chilliwack last year, and will now have ample time to develop his game with the solid Penn State hockey program.
It’ll likely be a few years before we see Wall turn pro, but he’s got some promising tools and, if he can put them all together, has a chance to fit in with the Carolina Hurricanes in the future.
Defense
Another kid the Carolina Hurricanes will have to make a decision on next spring, Luke Martin could be looked at as the most questionable in the bunch. Martin was a second-round pick by the Ron Francis regime in 2017, and has been at Michigan for the past 3 seasons. Unfortunately, he hasn’t quite developed the way the team had envisioned.
His offensive game is almost non-existent, but his saving grace is that he’s a rock defensively. He plays as his 6’2, 220lb frame would suggest, a strong and physical presence in his own end. But as renowned scout Grant McCagg put it, Martin “dominated until he got to college because he was more physically mature, not more skilled”.
That analysis holds true to Martin, who has just 2 goals and 21 points in 103 college games. If he can make it to the NHL, it’ll be as a 3rd pairing, stay-at-home defenseman, potentially comparable to current Carolina Hurricane Joel Edmundson. Due to his lofty draft position, he’ll likely earn an entry-level deal, but Martin still has a lot to prove if he plans to be an NHL regular one day.
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Their other defenseman at the college level, Domenick Fensore is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Unlike Martin, Fensore is a gifted offensive talent from the blue-line, and, unlike Martin, he isn’t physically imposing at 5’7, 150lbs. Obviously, the kid is a string bean, and with size like that red flags fly at his chances of being an NHLer.
But Fensore is an absolutely relentless hard worker, and his raw talents separate him from the pack. This is a kid who’s a dynamic skater, swift and explosive. He’s got phenomenal vision, and he can make all the passes you’d want from a powerplay quarterback. If he was even average size, this kid would be a top prospect in the NHL.
Understandably, his size sets a divide among NHL scouts, and Fensore will have a lot of doubters to prove wrong. His size will always limit him defensively, but he has all the tools to flourish as an offensively gifted defender in the NHL one day. For now, he’s starting his college career at Boston University, and is one of the funner Carolina Hurricanes prospects to track.
Goaltenders
Now a member of the Providence crease, Jacob Kucharski looks to build on the ability that made him a 7th round draft choice in 2018. He’s got prototypical size for a goaltender, at 6’4, 216lbs, and has great lateral and athletic ability. But whatever reason, that hasn’t amounted to much for him.
He had a .881 save percentage in 26 games during his draft year, which obviously isn’t good. However, he actually managed to regress last season. He was traded in the USHL, and only played 9 games with a sub-.860 save percentage.
He’s got a lot of time to develop at Providence, so maybe he’ll turn it around. But at the end of the day he was a seventh rounder, so expectations should reflect that.
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Last but not least of the Carolina Hurricanes college prospects, goaltender Jack LaFontaine has had a rocky ride since his drafting in the 3rd round of the 2016 draft. He had 2 disappointing seasons at Michigan, before opting to leave school in 2018. He played last season with the Penticton Vees of the BCHL, where he was stellar, sporting a .923 save percentage in 45 games.
His transfer to Minnesota University is now complete, and he’s underway in his quest to win the starting job for them. There’s a 3-way battle for playing time in the crease there, with all 3 candidates in their first year with the program.
Ideally, LaFontaine will win the job, and continue on his rightened development path. However, with the logjam of goalie prospects in the Carolina Hurricanes organization, it’s hard to envision where he’ll fit in the future.
Carolina Hurricanes
Recap
The Carolina Hurricanes have some high-end upside prospects in college, and also have some worthy of being cautiously optimistic on. The team obviously has some decisions to make next spring, especially with their forwards, and a lot of questions will hopefully be answered.
Will Cotton decide to sign with the Carolina Hurricanes despite their prospect depth in Charlotte? Can Zimmer, Stevens or Filipe turn the corner and earn themselves contracts? And what’s the verdict with Luke Martin? These are all interesting storylines to follow throughout the year, and their endings with come to light.
And on the other hand, guys like Domenick Fensore and Jack Drury look to take the next step, Jack LaFontaine hopes to continue his career renaissance and Kevin Wall embarks on his college journey.
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My question for Canes fans: which college prospect are you most intrigued by?