Though the Carolina Hurricanes’ 2016-17 season did not end in snapping the team’s NHL-leading playoff drought as it had hoped, that does not mean there was no playoff hockey in North Carolina this year. The Canes’ farm team, the Charlotte Checkers, made a strong late charge to qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs in the AHL.
Though the team fell to the top-seeded Chicago Wolves in its first-round series, the experience will be beneficial to the “baby Canes” going forward. Several players on the team will hope to use their strong performances down the stretch and experience in the postseason as a springboard to compete for a job with the big club next fall. Chief among those are defenseman Haydn Fleury and forward Lucas Wallmark.
Fleury, the Hurricanes’ first-round draft pick at seventh overall in 2014, and the first draft choice of general manager Ron Francis’ tenure with the Canes, turned pro this season after spending his first two post-draft years with the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL. The blueliner had a strong second half after an adjustment period to the pro game, growing on both sides of the puck as he ended up posting 7 goals and 26 points in 69 games for the season.
“I think [my game has] grown in every area,” Fleury said after the Checkers’ game-one win over the Wolves at Bojangles coliseum in Charlotte. “I’ve started to excel towards the end of the season offensively. I think I owe a lot of that to my strong play defensively. I got better in the defensive zone, which means I wasn’t playing in there as much. I’d rather get my offensive rhythm going and play in the offensive zone.”
Fleury need not look far from Carolina for hope to translate his AHL success into production in the NHL. The Cleveland Monsters (formerly Lake Erie Monsters), the affiliate of one of the Canes’ Metropolitan Division opponents in the Columbus Blue Jackets, won the Calder Cup in 2016, with defenseman Zach Werenski making a big impact on that run. In his rookie season with the Blue Jackets this year, Werenski put up 47 points in 78 games, and was named one of the three finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy, given to the NHL’s rookie of the year.
“I think if you look at Cleveland last year, Werenski came in from college, got hot and made the big club the next year,” Fleury said. “You look at guys like that, and you want to have a good showing when the stage is at its highest.”
Joining Fleury as a rookie of sorts in Charlotte was the team’s head coach, Ulf Samuelsson, who spent his first year as a head coach in the AHL. Samuelsson saw his young defenseman grow as the Checkers’ season went along.
“He’s kind of taken a step each month, almost,” Samuelsson said. “Maybe the last month was the biggest step he’s taken. He’s taken over now using his size; he’s hard to play against. He’s always been good joining the rush and jumping up, but he’s turned into a really good two-way defenseman.”
Wallmark, another pick from Francis’ first draft class (fourth round), also made his mark in his first pro season, coming across the pond to join the Checkers this year. The rookie Swede led Charlotte with 24 goals and finished second in points with 46.
“I’d been playing professionally back home in Sweden for a couple years,” Wallmark said. “I think that helped me get into it and get a big role here. I played a lot. You get confidence when you do something good out there. Just keep going and try to work hard every day. It’s been a fun season so far.”
Wallmark’s strong play down on the farm earned him a cup of coffee with the Hurricanes this year, as he posted two assists during an eight-game callup. Wallmark worked to apply what he learned in his NHL stint to the AHL playoffs, and carry it forward towards trying to earn a job next year.
“It was fun to be up there,” Wallmark said. “It was just a couple of games, but that’s what you’re working for every day. When you come back here, you try to take advantage of that speed and skill up there and bring it into the games here. It helped me a lot when I was up there and then came back here.”
Wallmark impressed his coach as well in his first year playing in North America.
“He’s grown tremendously as a player,” Samuelsson said. “He came over and started playing on the small ice. This year was his first year. He had some learning curves there initially, but he is such a smart player. I’m so excited that he’s getting rewarded with some points there as well.”
Strong showings from rookies has been nothing new for the Hurricanes in recent years. Finnish forward Sebastian Aho enjoyed a banner campaign this year, while the defensive trio of Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Noah Hanifin made their mark a season ago. If the Canes are looking for contributions from first-year players once again next October, Fleury and Wallmark will be two to watch after their big year down on the farm.
