May 17 2011
Hurricanes end of season report. Forwards part 2 #NHL , #Hurricanes
Today as the Stanley Cup playoffs start to get to the nitty gritty, being down to the final four, I will finish the end of season grading for the Carolina Hurricanes forwards. This includes the new stud on the block Jeff Skinner, and the captain himself Eric Staal. But why wait let’s hop right in!
Ever since LaRose put up a Chad high 31 points and 19 goals 2 years ago, as well as being a force in the playoffs, big things have been expected of him. The organization and media have been all about Chad’s come out party and each year has been “THE YEAR” for LaRose to do big things. Last year was an injury fest for him, and this year he officially fizzled for much of the year. Too much has been expected of him and he hasn’t been able to live up to what they hope for production wise. Most of the year Maurice tried to get him ice time with the top 2 lines and get some chemistry going with those guys, and at first glance it appeared to work. Chad netted 6 goals and 12 points in the first 24 games. Not great for a top 6 forward but then again not bad by LaRose’s standards. At one point he seemed to be picking up that spark the team needed. Yet, once the meaty part of the schedule came in Dec- Feb he started to disappear. Gone was the spark-plug that was the normal LaRose style, and he just faded into the scenery. It wasn’t til the end of the year, during the stretch run where we started to see Chad back on his familiar 3rd line spot that he became the LaRose of old. He menaced opposing teams with hard hitting ferocious play and was a real force in the last 2 months. Back was that spark-plug and it really gave the team a fighting chance to make the playoffs.
Grade– C I really want to give Chad higher b/c in many ways this season wasn’t his fault. He’s not a top 2 line player. He needs to stick to the 3rd or 4th line where he stands out and can be the player he is meant to be. A rough tumble guy who hits anything that moves and gets the crowd going and the occasional breakaway. He wasn’t very good most of the year but earned my praise late in the year for the superb hustle. I am sure seeing occasional time this year with Jeff Skinner helped his point totals, but even then they weren’t good enough to make me smile. Hopefully, some of that chemistry can lead to good things next year. However that brings me to….
Outlook–> The only bad thing about that occasional chemistry with Skinner, is that there is no way Skinner will be on the 3rd line much next year and as I keep saying, no way LaRose can be on the 1st or 2nd line regularly. If he can manage to slide up there when hes hot and contribute, or fill in on some injury time that’s all well and good. But, to be successful for this team he needs to stick on the 3rd/4th line. Of course all of this is a moot point if they don’t re-sign him as he is an unrestricted free agent this year. I suspect they will have no problem re-signing him, b/c he wasn’t great this year so the market won’t be too high on him so if the Canes throw 1 to 1.5 million at him, he should stay home pretty easy.
I completely called this trade happening to the Canes 24 hours before it happened. It was simply a no-brainer. The Panthers were trading away EVERYONE, and Stillman was on that list. His family still lived here in Raleigh and he fit exactly what the Canes needed. So with a nice small, easy deal Stillman found himself in the familiar red and white with the #61 intact. Stillman was good and did exactly what the team needed. He was a weapon on the PP and played hard nosed even strength. The perfect team guy and a great vet to have in the locker room, I am sure his presence is part of what helped the team go on the big run in the final 2 months of the season.
Grade– A- I am grading Cory solely on his time with the Canes. In the 21 games he spent on the team he notched 5 goals and 11 assists, with a +2 rating and 6 PP points. He wasn’t the flashiest guy on the ice but he still did his thing, was productive and hit some guys in the process. I only wish he was around all season, as the team really needed a sniper on the power play and Stillman can still bring it with the big slap shot.
Outlook–> I would love to say quickly re-sign him but I am not 100% sure he will play this year. He’s 38 years old and has has some slight nagging injuries the last 2 years. Yet, if he wants to play and will play for significantly less then what he made last year (3.5 mil! Wow), say if he would sign for 1-1.5 then sure I would love to see him play on the 2nd or 3rd line and be mainly a PP specialist. But, if I am a betting man I say he retires.
Do we really need to say much about Skinner? The kid was just amazing. He came out of the box flying netting 3 goals and 4 assists in his first 10 games and also winning the 2nd game of the season in a shoot out, all earning himself a permanent spot on the team and avoiding the trip to juniors or the minors. What he did from then on was become a national and league phenom. Skinner was the kid everyone was watching. Not just scoring goals, but hustling on every play, drawing a league high penalties drawn by a single player, and scoring highlight reel goals every time. He managed to get a spot on the all-star team and every time he touched the puck the whole arena went crazy hoping he would do something amazing or score. He continued that high ride all through the season to the end. He was nearly single handedly responsible for keeping the fans coming to the building all year to see what he will do next and for helping the team even be in contention for the playoffs. A great first round pick up last year in the draft and he should be a staple in the RBC center for the next 10-15 years.
Grade- A+++ You don’t have the year Skinner had an not be at the top of the class. Skinner notched 31 goals 32 assists and even was a +3. What I love going forward is that he only scored 6 of his 31 goals on the PP so the kid can bring it even strength. He’s going to win rookie of the year pretty easily as he was the most consistent rookie all year and he is also the youngest player in the league. As long as he keeps his hustle up and brings that smile he has to the rink every day I don’t think we will see a sophomore slump any time soon.
Outlook–> I already said he’s going to be a staple here in Raleigh for a long time. Now, it’s just a matter of if he can continue to thrill and thrive, and if the other teams don’t catch on too much to him and shut him down. If he can keep fighting through all the attention he will get on the ice he will be in great shape. The Canes would help him and their cause if they can grab a nice winger or tough center who can feed him the puck and keep some eye away from him. You can’t throw him as the only player on a line and say go for it kid! It’s now up to the front office to build a line around him so he can keep doing what we have grown to love to watch him do. It will be interesting to see how he handles his second year, b/c no doubt his film has been circulated around the league, to see how he responds will both be interesting and fun. But I am 100% in his corner, and should have my # 53 jersey soon!
This year Sutter was rewarded for his hustle and tough 2-way play with being named an alternate captain. The new shiny A on his jersey was perfectly fitting even for a 22 year old. He’s bar none the best defensive forward on the team, one of the best faceoff men on the team and works harder on the ice then almost anyone on the team. Sutter has been and continues to be one of my favorite players on this team to watch mainly due to playing in every situation well. He’s out there 5 on 5, shorthanded, power play, late in games when you need to win a faceoff, just everything. And he does them well.
Grade– A- The only problem with Sutter on this team this year, is they never let him play with anyone at all. The team has no one else who can play shut down like he can. And having 1 good defensive forward late in the game just doesn’t work out. Occasionally you can put Ruutu and Jokinen in this boat but the team relies so much on those 2 on the 2nd line to score that they are not on the line with Sutter to help in the shut down capacity. This was another area I wanted to see the team address at the deadline, in getting a good defensive forward to help in late game situations. They simply lost too many games this season late in the 3rd and it cost them a shot at the playoffs. Instead the Canes traded away their only other real defensive first forward, Ryan Carter, in the Stillman deal. Which is fine b/c the team got Stillman, but they should have found a way to grab another defensive forward from someone else. The points for Sutter were also down a tad this year with only 14 goals and 15 assists. Yet, I am not worried about those totals at all. He was a team high +13 (8 higher then anyone else on the team) and also managed to score 3 GWG good enough for 3rd on the team. So he plays D well and makes his goals count. Good enough for me!
Outlook–> He’s a restricted free agent who I am sure will be back. Look for the Canes to try and lock him up long term or just get him signed for now and work on the long term details for an extension later. Again, the team needs to get 1 more good defensive forward and possibly a 2 way guy to throw with Sutter to help him out short handed and in late game situations. The kid just can’t stop the other team by himself! If they can then look for him to put up some better scoring numbers in the future as well. Don’t be surprised if we start to hear talks in the next few years about him being up for the Selke trophy (leagues top defensive forward). I think he’s got at least one of those in his future before it’s all said and done.
Staal had quite the up and down season this year. At times he was the usual saviour, putting the team on his back and almost single handedly winning games. At other times you forgot he was even on the team. For instance, November saw Staal score 9 goals and 12 assists for 21 points and the Staal-Skinner show started and the team was on a roll. He was unstoppable, winning games (3 GWG!) and playing effective forward as well (+1 for the month). But then he goes into hibernation for the month of December. Hard to believe the same player only managed 8 points and a -1 for the month. This up and down continued all year for Staal. And it seemed when he was good (Nov, Jan and mid March to April) so was the team. In wins Staal had 50 points (22G-28A) and a + 16, while in losses this year he only got 26 points (11-15) and -26. It’s this inconsistency we need to see go away in the coming years if we are going to keep seeing Staal as the chosen one for the team.
Grade – B- First the raw stats. Staal had a great season and was roughly tied for 10th in scoring. He got back to the 30 goal plateau getting 33Goals and 43 assists as well as a very impressive 8 GWGS. That being said there is a bit of a bad news side to this as well… He is my favorite player on the team, possibly in the whole league, and I wear his 12 proudly to games, but he needs to stop taking whole months off during the season. Sure he played 81 games but he cannot have weeks at a time where he sleep walks through games. We need to know he’s out there every game and need to feel his presence even if he’s not scoring. He’s going to be making 8 mil + the next 5 years, so now is the time to get back to the 40 goal scorer we all know he is and continue to improve on his growing assist total. A man of his ability should be a 90+ point man every season.
Outlook–> I am a little hard on Staal, for many reasons. He’s my favorite player, he’s done it before and he’s making a ton of cash. As I keep saying if the team can get that 1 or 2 more snipers on the team to take some pressure off Staal and Skinner then both will see 40 goal seasons in their future pretty easily. Look for Staal to continue to grow as a captain and lead by example. He’s gotten much better defensively as a whole, and we could see a good Staal/Sutter platooning late in games to shut down opponents. If he can get consistent production next year or any year, there is no reason he couldn’t be top 4-5 in the league in scoring and bring the team back to the latter rounds of the playoffs.
Next time in my final end of season Hurricane report will be the Goalies/coaches and my outlook for the whole team going forward.
Go CANES!
