Carolina Hurricanes: Why To Be Keen On Joey Keane

Why?

Why. “Why” is the question that flooded through my mentions on Twitter in the moments following the announcement of the trade. Why? Why would they trade a 22-year old forward who they’ve developed since 2016, who’s looking like he’s about to blossom?

Why exactly, we’ll never know. But there is some valuable explanations that clear things up. First off, according to Hurricanes reporter Cory Lavalette, the Carolina Hurricanes had questions about Gauthier’s hockey sense, and his ability “to process the game at NHL speeds”.

In a situation like this, I think it’s also fairly important to note that Gauthier was a Ron Francis-regime pick, so it’s safe to assume that the new committee didn’t rate him as highly.

It’s also quite an eye-opening fact that Carolina, who’s been long thought of to need a big, goal-scoring power forward type of player in their lineup, went out and traded the one guy in their prospect system who best fit that description. Obviously, Canes management saw something that we as fans didn’t.

And yes, the Hurricanes are definitely deep on defense and their prospect pool in that regard looks good as well, but the narrative that they don’t need to be adding any more defensemen is false.

The right-side of their D prospect group is led by Anttoni Honka, who is years away from the NHL. Chase Priskie is there, but he has questionable foot speed and sense. Roland McKeown has been in the organization since early 2015 and, while he looks to deserve a chance, has yet to distinguish himself and seems like a soon-to-be cast-off.

Their two top guys – Jake Bean and Jesper Sellgren – play on the left-side, so Keane definitely fills a huge hole at the top of the right-side list.

As far as the deal goes, Gauthier will just about turn 23 when the 2020-21 season gets underway, and he looked to have an uphill battle to find a spot in Carolina’s top-9. Keane, who’s much younger at 20, has a potentially clearer path to the roster with Trevor van Riemsdyk likely on his way out and a (let’s be honest) uncertain future regarding Dougie Hamilton. Keane gives the team insurance in both situations.

Gauthier was a formidable prospect, but the argument can be made that he’d fallen down the rankings in the Canes’ organization, and with no real role or direction set in stone for him, the Canes made the wise move to trade him while his value was at his highest.

It’s a tough pill to swallow for Canes fans, but the team added depth to a position where they really did lack it, and it gives Gauthier a chance in another organization where he might have an easier path to top-9 ice-time than he did in the future for Carolina.

Who is Joey Keane?

It goes without saying, but the decision for Carolina to move a pretty highly thought-of prospect in Gauthier in a straight swap for another prospect speaks highly of what the organization sees in Joey Keane.

The run-down is as follows. Keane is an American-born right-shot defenseman (WHICH ARE EXTREMELY VALUABLE). He’s got OK size at 6’0″ 190lbs, and at just 20-years old he still has a lot of growth and room for development as a player.

Keane is, by all accounts, a late bloomer. He was initially undrafted in his first year of eligibility in 2017 – before he came back and impressed scouts with formidable two-way play with the Barrie Colts of the OHL. He fantastic 12-goal, 44-point season in 2017-18 led him to being picked 88th overall by the Rangers in 2018, which is quite high for a guy who was originally snubbed.

That spoke volumes to his talent level, and scouts have raved about his overall game. Scott Wheeler, who recently ranked Keane as the 5th-best prospect in the Rangers organization (he had Gauthier ranked 9th for Carolina) said this about Keane:

“[Keane is] a physical presence who has borderline elite skating ability and just continues to prove he can be productive, join the rush, slide down the wall in the offensive zone, and play with toughness. I’m not sure he’s going to drive offence at the NHL level, but he can make plays here and there…”

His junior team’s assistant coach, Todd Miller, said the following:

“He can defend so well that you rarely, rarely ever saw him get burned one-on-one, and if he did jump into the rush he was always the first guy back. His skating ability alone was so good that he can recover so well. That’s one thing that I really noticed with him and that will help him along the way in pro hockey.”

Colts general manager Jason Ford, also raved about Keane’s game:

“I think for the gameplay, it’s like any new player coming in and it will take him a bit of time [to adapt], but he’s got the speed, he’s got the strength, he defends really well, and he can chip in on offense.”

Keane will definitely add a bit of a stingy presence to the Canes D when he arrives. He had 103 penalty minutes in his final year of junior, and he made it a focal point of his to add strength last summer before turning pro. He trained with Ben Prentiss, a training-guru of sorts, during the summer to be ready for pro hockey.

“My biggest thing this summer was to get stronger. Going to pro, you’re going to be going against men. These guys have wives and kids so you’ve got to be willing to compete with them and be as strong as them. I definitely got stronger,” Keane said. Next: Keane In The Pros

His Pro Development

On the ice, Keane has been an extremely effective player with the Hartford Wolf Pack, which is the Rangers’ AHL affiliate. Keane, who’s an AHL rookie at age 20, was voted into the All-Star Game and has an impressive 8 goals (which leads AHL rookie defensemen!) and 30 points in 49 games thus far.

A Rangers writer, Adam Herman, had made an argument that Keane was maybe the most important skater for the team, and had “anchored” Hartford’s defense. Obviously, that’s quite high praise for a 20-year old rookie.

Herman offered the following on Keane’s progression:

“…it’s Keane’s defensive game that has been [most] impressive. He’s been a stalwart, defending some of the better AHL players in a manner beyond his years. His in-stride speed is phenomenal, making him an asset on backchecks and transition plays. And while he’s not the biggest defenseman, he is strong and knows how to leverage his body to steer puck carriers out of danger.”

Seeing reports like that make me extremely excited about Keane, as he seems to be able to offer a brand of physicality and ruggedness that the Hurricanes D core lacks, while not sacrificing anything offensively nor defensively in the process. He’s a good prospect, and if he continues to blossom could be a real key piece for the Hurricanes.

He’s still got some developing to do, but Keane was actually re-called by the Rangers last week and was slated to potentially make his NHL debut at some point. At 20, he’s arguably already on the verge of breaking into the NHL, and with poise far beyond his age, he’s a guy that seems closer to contributing for Carolina than Julien Gauthier was.

As far his role at the NHL level, scouts have pegged Keane as a potential #4 or #5 defenseman, which would make him a perfect fit behind Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Dougie Hamilton, and potentially a partner for one of Haydn Fleury or Jake Bean (imagine a Bean-Keane pairing!!!!) in the not-so-distant future.

Keane is definitely on the edge of breaking into the highest level of hockey, and should Trevor van Riemsdyk continue to struggle, we could see Keane sooner rather than later.

Recap

To conclude, we obviously won’t know whether the Hurricanes are the winners or losers of this trade until both Keane and Gauthier have proven what they can do at the NHL level, but on the surface it seems like this is a move that benefits both sides currently.

The Hurricanes add a close-to NHL ready right-shot defender and fill a big need in their organization, while the Rangers dealt from a position of strength (they are LOADED with young D prospects) and add a guy in Gauthier who has some untapped potential at the NHL level, should he be able to translate his game.

Overall, it seems like a move that could both pay off or fail for both sides, but when the dust fully settles and Hurricanes fans take their hearts out of it, I think it’ll be looked at as a deal that does benefit the team in the long-term.

For now, all we can do is monitor the development and arrival of Joey Keane, who’ll definitely become a real focus in the Hurricanes system. And on the other hand, we thank and wave goodbye to Julien Gauthier, who brought excitement to Caniacs for years, and wish him the absolute best of luck with his career.

Question for CC readers: How do you feel about the trade?