NHL training camps are right around the corner. Players are trickling back into town, and informal skates have begun. Even with pro camp so close, there is another taste of hockey even closer, with the annual Traverse City Prospect Tournament kicking off this week. The Carolina Hurricanes will be looking to repeat their performance in last year’s tournament.
The Canes’ young guns captured the title in 2016, and this group brings back a number of players from last year. Canes assistant general manager and Charlotte Checkers head coach Mike Vellucci, who will be the bench boss for the Canes in the Detroit Red Wings-hosted tourney, will lean on that experience.
Carolina will look for returners such as defensemen Haydn Fleury, Roland McKeown, Josh Wesley and Noah Carroll, forwards Julien Gauthier, Nicolas Roy, Warren Foegele, Hudson Elynuik, Spencer Smallman and Steven Lorentz and both goaltenders in Jeremy Helvig and Callum Booth to lead the way for the newcomers, 2017 first-rounder Martin Necas chief among them.
“Hopefully not overconfident, but we do have a few guys that have been to this tournament before, for more than one year,” Vellucci said via phone interview. “I think they’re obviously going to be really familiar with it and hopefully they’ll be able to help the guys that are playing in their first one. It’s a great tournament; they know it’s a short one, anything can happen and you’ve got to be ready right from the first game.”
For the future Canes competing in this tournament, the benefits are manifold. It allows them to get a jump on the pro game, and gives them a strong dose of competition against a group of their equals.
“One, it gets them a start at the NHL camp,” Vellucci said. “They’ve already had a full practice; they’ve already had pregame skates. They’ve already played in game-like situations. When they do go to NHL camp, I think they’re ahead of everybody else, at least the NHL guys, because they have not had full practices or played in a full scrimmage. It’s a big difference from just going out and skating and playing summer hockey to actually getting in there, battling and competing.
“That’s the first thing. The second thing, I think it helps them because they’re playing against their own age, or their own guys that they were drafted with, so relatively close in age. Their own peers from that standpoint so they can measure themselves up and see what they have to improve on and how to get better.”
The team’s upper management will have its eyes on the tournament as well, both to evaluate its own prospects and keep an eye on the competition.
“It’s a great tournament, because there’s eight different NHL organizations there with their prospects,” Canes general manager Ron Francis said. “… You get to see your guys, roughly at the same age level, playing against other teams’ prospects. It gives you a pretty good indication of what you have. It also gives you a pretty good indication of what other teams have, so it’s good to get knowledge moving forward if you’re looking at possible trades.”
In Traverse City tournaments past, the Canes have seen under-the-radar prospects use the tournament as a springboard to a surprising training camp and grabbing an NHL job. In 2014, it was forward Victor Rask, now a productive top-six center for the Canes. The next year, it was defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce, who can now be found playing 20+ minutes per game and shutting down the opposition’s top players.
For a prospect group put together over the past three years by a front office that has turned its focus to drafting and developing, there are several candidates for a similar rise this year.
“There’s several guys,” Vellucci said. “Fleury and McKeown are two guys that I would say could end up on the big club if they come in and have a good camp in Traverse City. Roy, [defenseman Jake] Bean and Gauthier are some of those younger guys. There’s a lot of guys that have an opportunity to impress.”
This is an important year for the Canes’ prospects. Several of the team’s top young guns, including Gauthier, Roy and forward James Kuokkanen, will end their junior careers and turn pro, either with the Hurricanes or, more likely, Vellucci and the Checkers. This will be their first step on the professional hockey ladder.
“It’s a very big step for those guys to come in and get familiar with being a professional and what it takes to be a professional,” Vellucci said. “Now you’re playing with guys that have a wife and kids, and they’re making a living at it. It’s a big step up for them all of the sudden. They’re on the same team with some guys that are 10 years older than them. They need to get accustomed to the travel, to all the games. There’s so many times around the ice, how much master, how big everybody is. It’s a big year for them to develop and learn what it is to be a pro.”
As an assistant general manager for the Canes, Vellucci has scouted and watched all of these players extensively. What will be new to him, however, is stepping into the role of their bench boss, a challenge he is looking forward to.
“I’ve seen all these guys in game action, but not as their coach,” Vellucci said. “I’ve watched all these guys in World Juniors, their junior leagues, college, wherever they came from. I’ve seen them at their best and at their worst at times. I understand what they need to improve, and that’s going to be my job to help them do that. As far as that, and seeing them as their coach, I’m excited to coach them and help them develop. My job is to get them to the National Hockey League as fast as possible. If I can do that, I’m doing my job.”
With the Canes, looking to recapture their title, they know what it takes to find success up north. In a short tournament, being ready to roll right out of the gate will be vital.
“Getting off to a good start is the key,” Vellucci said. “If you start winning, it’s going to snowball in positive ways. If you lose, you snowball the other way. You’ve got to make sure you stay on top of it, get ready to go right from the start. With us, we’re going to be as prepared as possible. I just got off the phone working on some video and practice plan. We’re going to make sure it’s very detail-oriented, and there’s not going to be any surprises for them. They’re going to be ready to go.”
The Canes will start round robin play of the tournament Friday against the Red Wings. The team will then face the New York Rangers Saturday, before taking on the Chicago Blackhawks Monday. Carolina’s finish in its group will dictate its matchup Tuesday to determine its finish in the tournament.
