The 2018-19 edition of the Carolina Hurricanes will look very different from previous versions. Gone are forwards Jeff Skinner, Elias Lindholm and Derek Ryan, defenseman Noah Hanifin, goalie Cam Ward and several others.
In order to snap a nine-year playoff drought, Carolina will be looking to several younger players for significant contributions. Chief among them will be the team’s past two first-round draft picks, rookie forwards Martin Necas (2017) and Andrei Svechnikov (second overall, 2018). If the Canes are going to take a leap forward, those two will have to step in and be able to score right away.
As they transition to full-time NHL players, Necas and Svechnikov will look to the Canes’ returning veteran leaders in forwards Jordan Staal and Justin Williams along with defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Justin Faulk, among others.
“I think I will look [to them] a lot,” Svechnikov said. “Those guys know everything here. I will try to just look to them.”
Staal in particular knows what it’s like to come in as a young player, making the leap after being drafted second overall by Pittsburgh in 2006. He scored 29 goals and was finalist for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year in 2006-07.
Staal will draw on his experience of being helped by Penguins veterans during his first season while he tries to do the same for Canes’ rookies.
“What I did was just watch the older guys do what they do and learn from them as best I can,” Staal said. “It’s not really what you say, I think. Obviously it is at times, but it’s your day-to-day stuff that you do to become a pro and make sure that you’re ready for every game. That’s what those guys are going to be watching. I think we have a good group of guys that are willing to put in the work every day to help the team get better.”
While Canes’ vets are helping the rookies transition to big roles, they will also try to make sure they don’t feel any unnecessary pressure to do so before they’re ready.
“I’m excited,” Williams said, “but if they’re not great players this year, I know they’re going to be good players down the road. So you don’t put any extra pressure on them. For us to be a great team, they’re going to have to be good players for us. We know that. So to say ‘We need them to do this, we need them to score this many goals, we need them to be our best players,’ it would be great if they are. But we don’t need that yet and if it happens, it happens. As of right now, we know they’re going to be good players and we know they’re young. And we’ll see where it takes us.”
Necas and Svechnikov won’t be the only people on the Canes’ bench making big transitions, as Rod Brind’Amour begins his first stint as a head coach at any level of professional hockey.
Part of his task in his first year as the bench boss will be facilitating a smooth transition for his young players. He’ll be able to lean on his 21 years’ experience playing in the NHL for that, but will also place a large onus on his returning veterans.
“They have to,” Brind’Amour said. “I think the biggest challenge when you have young players and you have a bunch of new faces is getting everybody to feel comfortable in that locker room. You don’t want an 18 year old coming into a locker room and not being confident, because he’s never going to perform on the ice. He’s got to feel like he belongs in that room, and that’s where leadership comes in. That’s where those older guys make them feel like they’re brothers and like they’re taking care of them and they can be who they are. That’s the only way they’re going to succeed.
“I know coming into the locker room as an 18 year old in the NHL, I remember that. It was really tough. It’s changed now a little bit, but I remember just being so nervous. I couldn’t even play because I was so nervous. I was kind of freaked out about what was going on. We can’t have that. We’ve got to get these guys to feel like they’re the superstars, they’re as good as the guys sitting beside them. And then we’ll know by the end of camp, hopefully, do they belong here?”
