Five pressing questions as Carolina Hurricanes begin NHL preseason training camp
Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes will be taking the ice Thursday to begin his 17th NHL preseason training camp.
The first was in 2006 and Staal a rookie with the Pittsburgh Penguins after being the No. 2 pick of the 2006 NHL Draft. His oldest brother, Eric, was with the Hurricanes, who were making plans to raise a banner celebrating their 2006 Stanley Cup championship.
All these years later, Jordan Staal is the captain of the Hurricanes. They go into the 2022-23 season believing they can be good enough to put up another banner, raise the Cup again.
Like all camps, there are questions to be answered and some tough roster moves to be made. A year ago, rookie forward Seth Jarvis made the team out of camp, proving himself, going from junior hockey to the NHL. Now, it’s a new year and he has a new goal.
“I’m trying to reach new levels and really assert myself as someone to look out for in the league,” Jarvis said recently.
The Canes will have 53 players — all looking to assert themselves — to begin camp when the first on-ice session begins Thursday at 9 a.m.
Here are five pressing training-camp questions:
Who’s the second-line center?
An easy answer is Jesperi Kotkaniemi. But that might be too easy.
The Canes grabbed the Finn away from Montreal last year with an offer sheet worth $6.1 million, then signed him to an eight-year extension paying $4.82 million a year. That’s a big investment and his role could be much bigger this season.
Is he ready? He had 12 goals and 29 points in 66 games last season, often centering the fourth line. His shooting percentage, 14.8%, was the best in his four years in the league.
Somebody has to replace Vincent Trocheck, who left in free agency to sign with the New York Rangers. The Canes signed Paul Stastny as a free agent. That might have gotten Kotkaniemi’s attention.
Who’s the third D pair?
This should produce the best competition in camp. The top four defensive slots are filled: Jaccob Slavin, Brent Burns, Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce. But the fifth and sixth D …
Despite the offseason social-media buzz about the Canes possibly parting with Ethan Bear, he’s back. Covid-19 and conditioning were setbacks last season but Bear appears ready and also can quarterback a power play unit.
Jalen Chatfield played well when called up last year from Chicago, showing toughness. Dylan Coghlan came in the trade with Vegas that brought in forward Max Pacioretty. The Canes also signed Calvin de Haan, a member of the 2018-19 team that ended Carolina’s playoff drought, and there are others in the mix.
Gentlemen, start your engines Let the competition begin.
Who replaces Nino?
There was one constant on Rod Brind’Amour’s lineup sheet last season — 21-11-71. That was the line of Nino Niederreiter, Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast and it would be the Canes’ most consistent.
Niederreiter, who left in free agency to sign with Nashville, had 24 goals last season, one shy of his career high. His physical presence, especially on a line with Staal, helped shut down a lot of the league’s best lines — ask the Bruins.
Stastny can play the wing and may wind up in Niederreiter’s spot. Or Ondrej Kase, another free-agent signing.
Will a rookie make the team?
The prevailing thought is that Jack Drury is ready to make the jump from the AHL to the NHL this season, and he could emerge as the fourth-line center.
Drury, a 2018 second-round draft pick by Carolina, spent two years at Harvard and a season in Sweden. He made a dream debut with the Canes last season: two games, scoring a goal in each. He then played a key role in the Chicago Wolves making their run to the Calder Cup championship, with nine goals and 24 points in 18 playoff games.
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Who might be the surprise in camp?
Brock Sheahan, who coached the Canes team in the NHL prospect showcase, said Jamieson Rees and Vasily Ponomarev were two players who stood out over the three games. Both now have another chance to shine in the big camp.
Rees is a crash-and-banger who could make his case for replacing Steven Lorentz — traded to San Jose — as a fourth-line winger with energy and grit. Ponomarev, a second-round draft pick in 2020, is a playmaker whose combination of speed and skill could make things interesting in camp.
“I think Vasily is a big-time player,” said Sheahan, who will coach the Wolves this season. “He’s got a lot of really good to his game.”
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 6:10 AM with the headline "Five pressing questions as Carolina Hurricanes begin NHL preseason training camp."
