Hurricanes rookie wasn’t expected to make the NHL roster this season — until he did
After one drill at Wednesday’s practice, the opening of the season only two days away, Rod Brind’Amour pulled Jackson Blake aside. The conversation was so brief that neither actually came to a stop on the ice, just a quick correction as the coach pointed to indicate the way Blake should have gone. By the time the player nodded, they were already moving different directions.
The education of Jackson Blake will continue, but the mere presence of the 21-year-old rookie has moved the Carolina Hurricanes in a direction they weren’t expecting. There wasn’t really a roster spot open in training camp after a summer spent retooling the roster in free agency, but Blake made himself impossible to disregard.
He wasn’t on Tuesday’s official season-opening roster, going to the AHL on a paper transaction as the Hurricanes maximized their salary-cap space, but Blake was immediately recalled and will be in the building Friday night when the Hurricanes open the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Whether he plays remains uncertain — he’d fit on the right side with Jack Drury and free-agent signing Eric Robinson — but he’s here. He made it. Against long odds.
“You never really know what’s going on,” Blake said. “You just try to do everything you can to be in this posiition and give myself the best chance and give them a reason to keep me here.”
A year ago, he was getting ready for his sophomore season at North Dakota. Now he’s in the NHL, and not just for a one-game audition in a meaningless April game. This is for real. It’s also one of the most improbable training-camp stories in the Hurricanes’ 28 years here.
Other rookies have claimed a spot in their first training camp — Jeff Skinner most notably — or earlier than expected, but they’re predominantly first-round picks like Skinner and Seth Jarvis, top prospects the Hurricanes were hoping, if not expecting, to make that jump. Bradly Nadeau would have fit that bill this fall.
For Blake to come in and do it, as a fourth-round pick in his first camp, straight out of college hockey, with one game of late-season NHL experience — the only player from the second training-camp group still here — is the ultimate representation of the meritocracy of sports.
No spot reserved. No special treatment. Just a young player making himself indispensable, with his skill and movement and ability to mesh with established NHL players. His production — a preseason goal and assist — only sealed the deal.
“It’s all part of looking like you’re ready,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “He’s here, and rightfully so.”
His father Jason jumped straight from North Dakota to the NHL — as an undrafted free agent, no less — on his way to a 871-game, 271-goal career, but at age 25, after playing four years in Grand Forks. On Monday, Jackson was able to call home and tell his parents he’d been able to make the same leap on a much faster timetable.
There are still holes in Blake’s game, entirely expected and predictable ones, that would probably be better addressed as a 20-minute star player in the AHL. And that time may yet come. But Blake unquestionably earned the right to be here, no matter for how long.
His presence is also a tribute to the Hurricanes’ draft strategy since Tom Dundon bought the team in 2018, which has focused more on skill and less on size, more on traditionally overlooked leagues and less on Canada’s major-junior leagues. When he was drafted in 2021, Blake was still a year away from stepping on North Dakota’s campus and didn’t check many boxes at 5-foot-10 and less than 150 pounds.
But he could do things with the puck, even then, that others couldn’t, and by the time he turned pro was one of the best players in college hockey. He slipped to the fourth round, where the Hurricanes thought he was worth the gamble — and it was a gamble. A lot of high-skill players get shoved aside as they ascend the hockey ladder. Blake thrived. And earned this chance.
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This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Hurricanes rookie wasn’t expected to make the NHL roster this season — until he did."
