2015
'Canes Draft A Little Ruff
The word in the hockey world was that the 2015 CPHL Draft was a deep. Just the type of draft the Carolina Hurricanes needed, a struggling franchise that just can’t seem to find it’s way out of the CPHL basement. Having sold a huge part of their future before the season started in a fialed attempt to ensure the Hurricanes fans would see playoff hockey in spring the ‘Canes found themselves drafting 7th overall… far from the playoff birth they hped for
Not so bad, this is a deep draft right? If you are going to suck this is the year to do it they say. Well not in Carolina, the Hurricanes continued to trade off picks in hopes to better the organization in the long run… even till the last minute the Canes were desperately shopping their 7th overall in hopes to find that piece to the puzzled the franchise needed. At the expense of the Draft the Hurricanes fought and bettered their team to put themselves to be a contender for the post season in 2016.But with the sudden collapse of their Defensive core, Ladislav Smid and Jay Harrison regression to non NHL players and the future retirement of Robyn Regehr, added to that the uncertainty of the GRID’s The Hurricanes were now facing the reality that if they would have packed it in last season and rode it out ,rather then improving their team, they would be in a much better position and be drafting in one of the top 2 spots and a better team as well depth wise
The Draft broke down into 3 separate plans
A – 7th Overall
The Hurricanes were not able to move the pick for many different reason. Our value was too high in some, GRID’s in other and flat out differences in player evaluations.. at the end of the day, Smid and Harrison 5M cap were trying up too much wiggle room and the ‘Canes chose to hold the pick
With the 7th pick the Carolina Hurricanes select C, Mathew Barzal
“Strong with the puck and exudes a great confidence when he has it. He’s quick but never hurried in his approach and because of his patience and poise he can break down defences and create grade ‘A’ scoring chances. With an improved willingness to shoot, he becomes that much more dangerous.” TSN
2016 Draft Review
The Carolina Hurricanes started the 2016 draft by trading away veteran defender Denis Wiideman to the New York Rangers a 2nd Round Pick (Wade Allison). The move Free's up 5M in cap space and allows the Hurricanes some wiggle room with the accountancy of the upcoming GRIDS. Wideman was slotted to be in the 3rd paring and the 'Canes just weren't interested in allotting that amount of cap space for that roles.
RD 1 PK 15 LW Keiffer Bellows
NHL RD 1 PK 19 New York Islanders
The Hurricanes were looking to select either Bellows or 6th overall selection Clayton Keller. With Keller quickly eliminated by the penguins the 'Canes were hoping for Bellows name not be called. As Jakob Chychrun began to drop in the draft the Canes started getting worried that the rearguard would be available by the 15th pick. The Canes scouting staff have been ripping apart the defenseman all year and ironically it was looking like they were going to end up drafting him. Thankfully he was picked 3 selections before and Bellows once again became the number one target. Canes got lucky here and very happy about the section
2017 - No 1st Round Pick