Carolina Hurricanes draft nine, sign valuable free agents

Following another year of missing the playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes began the offseason by selecting nine players in the 2016 NHL Draft in June, followed by adding multiple additions to the roster in hopes of improving enough to make the 2017 postseason.

While many expected the Canes would choose to trade one or two of their draft picks to obtain an immediate impact player in return, general manager Ron Francis elected instead to use all nine of the selections, adding even more talent to a vastly improved pool of prospects in the organization.

Thanks to the Andrej Sekera trade in 2015, Carolina had not one, but two, selections in the first round of the draft. With the 13th overall pick, the Canes selected defenseman Jake Bean from the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League, and with the 21st pick, took forward Julien Gauthier from the Val d’Or Foreurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

While it’s unlikely either of the two will play for Carolina this upcoming season, each are supremely talented prospects who have the ability to play an important role for the Canes a few years from now.

Bean, the third defenseman to be taken in the draft, led WHL defensemen in goals with 24, and added 40 assists this past season for the Hitmen. On top of his obvious offensive ability, Bean is strong in his own end and plays with a high hockey IQ.

“With the first pick, we think we got a real good puck-moving defenseman,” Francis said. “We think he has the potential to grow into a guy that can kind of quarterback your power play.”

Gauthier, who scored 41 goals and 16 assists in 54 games for Val d’Or, is a power forward with high-end skill. In addition to his willingness to get psychical and his great skating ability, Gauthier never takes a shift off, bringing intensity every second of every game.

“He’s 6-foot-3 1/2, he’s 231 pounds, he scores goals, he can skate well,” Francis said. “Start of the season, [he] was a top-five consensus pick. So to get him where we did at 21 (overall pick), we’re excited about that as well.”

The organization added four forwards, two netminders and one defenseman in the following rounds of the draft.

Francis also made some moves to bolster the team’s forward corps in free agency.

The team signed Swedish winger Viktor Stalberg, who should bring some solid depth scoring after scoring nine goals and 20 points in 75 games with the New York Rangers last season, for one year, $1.5 million to add to its bottom six.

Francis then grabbed Lee Stempniak, a journeyman winger who had the best season of his career at 33 years old last season, scoring 19 goals and 51 points in 82 games with the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins, for two years, at $2.5 million per season, to add a scoring option to the top six.

“He had 19 goals last year, 16 at even strength,” Francis said of Stempniak. “Of guys we looked at in conversations with our coaches, this is a guy that we felt kind of fit into the style we’re playing and what we’re looking to. He brings some veteran leadership — all reports are he’s a real good guy. I know he’s played for a lot of teams, but everybody speaks extremely highly of this guy … We think he’s a good addition into our locker room and on our team.”

Francis felt he was able to achieve his goals with the additions he made to his team this offseason, strengthening his team up front by acquiring Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell from Chicago and making the two July 1 signings.

“I think we’re pleased with today,” Francis said. “When we talked at the end of the season, we talked about trying to add some skill into our lineup. We talked about adding some size and leadership. We think from where we are today versus the end of the season with the addition of Teravainen, Stempniak and the possibility of [Finnish prospect Sebastian] Aho making our lineup we have some skill. With Bickell and Stalberg we have some size and leadership, we’ve brought some [Stanley] Cups into the room.”

Francis also felt it was important to avoid giving out any big terms and money, in order to protect the team from a scenario where it is not able to keep its promising young stars in the future.

“For me when I look at giving terms to somebody that’s in that range, my concern is, as we said from day one, we want to build this thing right from the ground up,” Francis said. “We potentially have Slavin, Pesce, Hanifin and Lindholm for sure coming off of either bridge deals or entry level deals in two years. We have Teravainen the year after that. Depending on what we do with Victor Rask, he could be in that group as well. My real concern is getting into a long-term deal with somebody that prohibits me from signing one of those younger guys moving forward.”

The day before free agency opened brought the surprising buyout of defenseman James Wisniewski, who played 47 seconds for the Hurricanes last season before tearing his ACL.

Francis said the team could look to add another veteran on defense.

The team did sign Matt Tennyson, who played for the Western Conference Champion San Jose Sharks last season, but he is likely going to be minor league depth defenseman. The situation will be one to monitor, as the Canes will need to add a veteran who either plays 40 games next year or played 70 combined last year and next to expose for the upcoming expansion draft in order to protect their young core. 

“We’re looking at some possibilities [on defense],” Francis said. “I don’t know if we’ll be running out and signing anybody in the next few days, but we still have a lot of [draft] picks and a lot of time between now and October to see if there’s something that makes sense.”