[gvitaly]

21. Canes ▾5

Spoiler!

The Carolina Hurricanes have always given themselves a lot of lottery balls. They haven’t drafted high, but they’ve tended to collect mid-round picks, haven’t shied away from smaller players as the consensus has swung away from them and have drafted their fair share of Russians. All of those things come with mixed results, but the Canes have shown they’re willing to play in the margins.

Their 18 ranked players are the most so far in the countdown, despite having just one first-rounder among them. I considered ranking big Russian defensemen Alexander Siryatsky and Roman Bausov here as well, but I just want to see a little more of both first.

Tier 1: Nadeau(LW/RW, 23' #30), Frolov(G, 25' #41)

Tier 2: Unger Sörum(RW, 23' #62), Badinka(RD, 24' #34), Cerrato(C, 25' #49), Ryabkin(C, 25' #62), Poirier(RW, 24' #156), Artamonov(LW/RW, 24' #50), Robidas(C, 21' #147)

Tier 3: Fransén(LD, 24' #69), Limatov(LD, 25' #67), Kol(LD, 24' 168), Rykov(LW/RW, 23' #100), Nordlund(LW, 25' #183), Trikozov(LW/RW, 22' #60)

HM: Ekberg(LW, 25' #221), Vuollet(LW, 24' #133), Perron(RW, 23' #94)

Carolina sure love their Russians. I think if some of those swings for the fences will pay out similar to Nikishin, so IMO they're a bit too low.