Canes reduce preseason training camp roster
A week before the start of the regular season, the Carolina Hurricanes have trimmed their training camp roster to 29.
The Canes on Thursday announced they had assigned forwards Morgan Geekie, Janne Kuokkanen, Steven Lorentz, Eetu Luostarinen and Stelio Mattheos; defensemen Jake Bean and Kyle Wood, and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic to the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League.
Defenseman Jesper Sellgren has been assigned to Lulea HF of the Swedish Hockey League and forward Ryan Suzuki has been assigned to the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Suzuki was the Canes’ first-round pick this year in the NHL Draft. Forward Colin Markison will report to Charlotte’s training camp.
“It’s time,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said to the media Thursday. “We’ve been saying we’ve got to get closer to where our group looks like. Obviously we’ve got to get the chemistry kind of rolling with the whole group. It’s inevitable we got to this point and now we’ve got to refine it even more, but that was the first step.”
The Canes, who open the season Oct. 3 against the Montreal Canadiens, held one practice session Thursday at PNC Arena. Forward Ryan Dzingel, who suffered a lower-body injury Wednesday in the preseason road game against Nashville, did not practice. Defenseman Jake Gardiner also was off the ice.
Brind’Amour said Dzingel, injured on a faceoff, said he “felt better” Thursday but said his status could not be called “day to day” -- “I think it’s probably longer than that,” Brind’Amour said.
Brind’Amour said Gardiner “had something he didn’t want to risk making it worse” physically, without being more specific.
Among those still in camp are former first-round picks Julien Gauthier and Martin Necas, both competing for forward spots on the Canes’ opening-night roster. The Canes had three goalies at practice: Petr Mrazek, James Reimer and Anton Forsberg, who started against the Predators and played the full game in a 3-0 loss.
Nedeljkovic, the AHL goalie of the year in 2018-19, was the only one of the four with a two-way contract and is waivers exempt. Forsberg, who has NHL experience but played in the AHL last season, was awarded a one-year, one-way contract for 2019-20 after going through an arbitration hearing.
“You want to come in and say we’ve got competition and everybody’s got a crack, but there are other factors that play into it,” Brind’Amour said of sending Nedeljkovic down. “It’s just the business of the game. He really didn’t get a fair shake in my opinion, as far as that goes, but you only play six games and the numbers are what they are.”
Necas took a hard fall Thursday in practice, as did defenseman Brett Pesce, who was in the bottom of a pileup along the boards with Gauthier and Warren Foegele. Neither Necas nor Pesce were injured.
“Every time something like that happens you just take a deep breath,” Brind’Amour said. “We practice hard. I like it. There’s a give and take on that, right? You want to make sure you’re healthy but you’ve got to practice the way you’re going to play.”
The Canes have two preseason games remaining, both at PNC Arena -- Friday against the Predators (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday against the Washington Capitals (1:30 p.m.).
This story was originally published September 26, 2019 at 12:32 PM.
