CANES DEAL TWO OF TOP PLAYERS IN ONE DEAL, PLAYOFF DREAM OVER?
Carolina
On a Saturday following another loss, the Carolina Hurricanes went into selling mode and auctioned up two of its highest profile players. Both Henrik Zetterberg, the Swedish sniper and Chris Pronger the man mountain on defense, were dealt together as part of a seven player swap.
“There is a lot of disappointment from an organizational perspective this season,” said Joel Quenneville, coach of the Carolina Hurricanes. “These were two high end players who we had hoped all along would spark this team and lead us to where we needed to be. I don’t want to make excuses for everyone else but when we picked up both of these guys, we did so to expect them to be stars. I think neither guy really demonstrated to me that they were untouchable.”
So while the Canes were upset at their seasonal outcome, the return on these two players could play a significant role in the future.
Firstly, the Canes picked up the rocket like speed and offensive creativity of Simon Gagne. Gagne who comes to the Canes as their new leading scorer is one of the most complete wingers in the game today. A possible drop off offensively from Zetterberg, Gagne makes up for that with the other aspects of his game. He is defensively sound, incredibly fast and could be a game breaker and the guy to finally spark some life into another fellow speedster, Tim Connolly.
Second, the Canes acquired a future lock on the Canes blueline in Ron Hainsey. Hainsey is already a steady defender and is surprisingly smart on the backend assessing the situation. He has an excellent first pass out of the zone and could easily find himself getting power play minutes in the future, but his real impact will be as a shutdown defenseman and will likely find himself patrolling the checking line alongside Jaroslav Spacek.
Alexander Polushin is also another young acquisition. The talented 24 year old has a powerful shot and a quick release and along with his above average speed, he has a feel for the offensive side of the game and should eventually evolve into a top 2 line winger.
Chris Clark was also brought in. A true story of hard work and determination should likely find this veteran in the lineup next season. A surprising offensive upside and a tenacious determination should compliment his apparent leadership skills and experience but it is not likely he will find himself seeing much ice time this year.
Finally, the Canes reacquired speedy Blake Comeau. Comeau is a young junior winger who has found his mark in the passing department with the help of additional camps. The Canes are hoping he can continue his development and are glad to have him back aboard.
Overall, the deal likely makes the Canes less of a threat this season but in reality, the season might be over sooner than one wanted. What they did bring in is hopefully the missing link to Tim Connolly’s game, depth up front and hopefully a decrease in excessive penalty minutes, Chris Pronger’s only real flaw to his game. Also, by moving Zetterberg, the Canes only have 3 players currently on their roster who will be in renegotiating mode this following offseason. Manny Legace will be franchised in Carolina while Varlamov and Fedoruk will be looking to add some wealth to their portfolios.
“We felt we needed to make this move now. Prong risn’t getting any younger and he wanted the playoffs as badly as anyone on this team. We wanted to make him happy and set us up better for the following year. As bad as this might sound, especially with the poor showing of this team this year but I really think this club is looking incredibly strong for next season. I guess disappointment may be inevitable, but at this moment, I am confident, but again, I was at the beginning oh this year. Oh expectations.”
On a Saturday following another loss, the Carolina Hurricanes went into selling mode and auctioned up two of its highest profile players. Both Henrik Zetterberg, the Swedish sniper and Chris Pronger the man mountain on defense, were dealt together as part of a seven player swap.
“There is a lot of disappointment from an organizational perspective this season,” said Joel Quenneville, coach of the Carolina Hurricanes. “These were two high end players who we had hoped all along would spark this team and lead us to where we needed to be. I don’t want to make excuses for everyone else but when we picked up both of these guys, we did so to expect them to be stars. I think neither guy really demonstrated to me that they were untouchable.”
So while the Canes were upset at their seasonal outcome, the return on these two players could play a significant role in the future.
Firstly, the Canes picked up the rocket like speed and offensive creativity of Simon Gagne. Gagne who comes to the Canes as their new leading scorer is one of the most complete wingers in the game today. A possible drop off offensively from Zetterberg, Gagne makes up for that with the other aspects of his game. He is defensively sound, incredibly fast and could be a game breaker and the guy to finally spark some life into another fellow speedster, Tim Connolly.
Second, the Canes acquired a future lock on the Canes blueline in Ron Hainsey. Hainsey is already a steady defender and is surprisingly smart on the backend assessing the situation. He has an excellent first pass out of the zone and could easily find himself getting power play minutes in the future, but his real impact will be as a shutdown defenseman and will likely find himself patrolling the checking line alongside Jaroslav Spacek.
Alexander Polushin is also another young acquisition. The talented 24 year old has a powerful shot and a quick release and along with his above average speed, he has a feel for the offensive side of the game and should eventually evolve into a top 2 line winger.
Chris Clark was also brought in. A true story of hard work and determination should likely find this veteran in the lineup next season. A surprising offensive upside and a tenacious determination should compliment his apparent leadership skills and experience but it is not likely he will find himself seeing much ice time this year.
Finally, the Canes reacquired speedy Blake Comeau. Comeau is a young junior winger who has found his mark in the passing department with the help of additional camps. The Canes are hoping he can continue his development and are glad to have him back aboard.
Overall, the deal likely makes the Canes less of a threat this season but in reality, the season might be over sooner than one wanted. What they did bring in is hopefully the missing link to Tim Connolly’s game, depth up front and hopefully a decrease in excessive penalty minutes, Chris Pronger’s only real flaw to his game. Also, by moving Zetterberg, the Canes only have 3 players currently on their roster who will be in renegotiating mode this following offseason. Manny Legace will be franchised in Carolina while Varlamov and Fedoruk will be looking to add some wealth to their portfolios.
“We felt we needed to make this move now. Prong risn’t getting any younger and he wanted the playoffs as badly as anyone on this team. We wanted to make him happy and set us up better for the following year. As bad as this might sound, especially with the poor showing of this team this year but I really think this club is looking incredibly strong for next season. I guess disappointment may be inevitable, but at this moment, I am confident, but again, I was at the beginning oh this year. Oh expectations.”
posted by Lohaus at 2:20 PM
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