The Carolina Hurricanes have finally returned to full strength which means that the last of the call ups from Charlotte, Brian Gibbons, was put on waivers.
Yesterday saw the activation of Carolina Hurricanes alternate captain Jordan Martinook off of the injury reserve to feature a fully healthy roster for the first time this season. With that final forward ready for the team, the Hurricanes went ahead and placed Brian Gibbons onto waivers. 24 hours later Gibbons passed through waivers, and assigned him back to Charlotte.
This reset’s Gibbons 10 game limit where he can be sent up and down to and from the Charlotte Checkers without needing to be placed on waivers. He was originally placed on waivers on the first of October before the start of the season and send down. He only played a handful of games before being called up to replace the injured Martinook.
He only played two games however before being sent back down as the Hurricanes attempted to play with only 11 forwards which yielded terrible results. Which resulted in him being called back up to fill in the fourth line role for another nine games which placed him over the 10 game limit. With Martinook back, the Hurricanes felt it was a safe risk to place Gibbons through waivers.
To be honest I was originally a little concerned with Gibbons going through Waivers a second time after playing 11 NHL games. While he has a zeroed out scoresheet through those games, no goals, no assists, a single two minute penalty, and a -4 rating, he has been very noticeable for this team, especially filling in on a fourth line that Rod Brind’amour trusts to compete like everyone else.
That said, the deeper analytics show that he simply didn’t generate enough offense to validate his presence in the NHL. Only eight shots through eleven games averaging 10:32 per game simply isn’t worth the squeeze, even if the squeeze is only $725,000 cap hit for the rest of the season.
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Like I said, originally I thought he would be picked up by any of the injury ridden teams as a quick band-aid before being returned to waivers where Carolina could scoop him back up and tuck him in back in Charlotte. But simply put, I doubt we will see him in Raleigh any time soon. Already in the last 11 games he has been showed up by other prospects that were called up.
None more impressive than Eetu Luostarinen who in three games played has an assist, 5 shots on goal, and a +1 rating. It’s not hard to think that he might see playing time in Raleigh should another Hurricane require time off. Gibbons was a veteran presence that was brought in to fill exactly the role he has so far, but it might have already been taken from him. Who knows, he might get better with more ice time down in Charlotte.
Question for CC Readers: Does Brian Gibbons deserve another shot with the Carolina Hurricanes in the event someone is hurt or should Luostarinen be the new go-to?