On April 12, just days after the Carolina Hurricanes regular season ended without a playoff berth, much like the seven seasons before it, general manager Ron Francis and head coach Bill Peters addressed the media at PNC Arena for their annual exit interviews.
Along with analyzing the past season, the third-year general manager and head coach tandem identified needs the team would need to fill externally to end the NHL’s longest postseason drought. Those needs were specific: upgrading a goaltending unit that had spent three years among the league’s worst, adding a third pairing defenseman and picking up some goal scoring and veteran leadership up front.
Three months later, the holes Francis identified in his team have been filled. Throughout the offseason, he acquired goaltender Scott Darling, defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk and forwards Justin Williams, Josh Jooris and Marcus Kruger.
“When we looked at things at the end of the season, we talked about doing something with your goaltending,” Francis said at his post-free agency press conference July 1. “We think we addressed that with the addition of Scott Darling. We talked about trying to tweak our five/six d-pair. Not to say Trevor van Riemsdyk is a five/six defenseman, but he’s certainly a guy that can fit into that mix in your group. It gives us a large group that we have and we feel comfortable with in that regard.
“We thought up front we wanted to kind of tweak a little bit and get a little bit more goalscoring; we think we’ve done that. When you look at the big picture, we got Justin Williams who’s won three cups, we got Trevor van Riemsdyk who won a cup, we got Scott Darling who won a cup. We’ve added five cups (seven now with Kruger) into our locker room of young players. We talked about leadership being something we wanted to continue to work on and improve… There’s a lot of guys that have won. That’s what you’re trying to build, that sort of character in your locker room.”
Francis got his first, and arguably most important, move out of the way early. Still in April, just weeks after the regular season, Francis sent a third-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the negotiating rights to Darling, and signed him to a four-year deal worth $4.15 million per season.
The hope is that Darling, who went 18-5-0 with a .924 save percentage and a 2.38 goals-against average for the Blackhawks last season, along with the swap of goaltending coach David Marcoux for Mike Bales, will upgrade a unit that has finished in the bottom five for team save percentage in each of the last three seasons. The Canes roster was whittled down to two goalies after the trade of Eddie Lack, along with defenseman Ryan Murphy, to the Calgary Flames. Darling will look to become a starting goalie for the first time in his NHL career, with longtime Hurricane Cam Ward as his probable backup.
“I think I’m confident because I’m excited about it,” Darling said the day after signing his contract with Carolina. “I’m going to do everything in my power to be the best starter I can be. I have a good network of goalie friends; I’m going to be picking their brains and asking for help. I’m just trying to do everything that I can do to be successful in that role.”
Next came a third-pairing defenseman. That part of the defense was not up to par for the Canes next season, with promising youngster Noah Hanifin joined by a rotating cast of Murphy, Matt Tennyson and Klas Dahlbeck. The Canes grabbed van Riemsdyk from the Vegas Golden Knights for a second-round draft pick after Vegas took him from Chicago in the expansion draft. Van Riemsdyk put up five goals, 16 points and a plus 17 in 58 games for Chicago last season, and will look to pair with a rookie, likely Haydn Fleury, to back up the team’s likely top four of Hanifin, Justin Faulk, Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce.
“I couldn’t be happier,” van Riemsdyk said via conference call the day of the trade. “It’s a great team that’s headed in a great direction, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
With the opening of free agency July 1, the Canes turned to a familiar face. They signed forward Justin Williams, a three time Stanley Cup champion (including as a member of Carolina’s own title run in 2006) to a two-year deal worth $4.5 million per season. Williams was brought in to add goal scoring and leadership to a young group that, largely, has not sniffed the postseason. He put up 24 goals and 48 points for the Washington Capitals in 80 games last season, and could even be a candidate to take over Carolina’s vacant captaincy this year.
“In this league, you need to be confident in your abilities,” Williams said. “I’m certainly confident in my abilities that I can help produce offensively. That’s no secret. That’s what I’m here to do, among other things. More importantly, being there and hopefully being a presence, helping this young, talented team take the next step.”
In addition to Williams at forward, the Canes brought in Jooris as a free agent (three goals, 10 points for the Arizona Coyotes last season), and picked up Kruger in what was essentially a three-team trade, giving the Vegas Golden Knights a 2018 fifth-round pick for him after they acquired him from Chicago for future considerations. Those additions add more depth and defensive prowess to the forward group; Kruger is considered one of the best penalty-killing centers in the league.
For the most part now, Francis has done his part. If there’s another move to be made to improve the team, he’s expressed that he will make it, but the bulk of his summer work is done. The next part of the task falls to Peters. The Canes’ bench boss was very vocal about the need for external additions after 2016-17 and is pleased with the new players his general manager has brought in.
“We had some holes to fill this summer, and we filled them,” Peters said. “If there’s another to make that [Francis] can make that makes sense, he’ll make it, but all the moves that we’ve made leading up to today have been very solid from my perspective, for sure.”
Coming into the 2017 offseason, the Canes had holes to fill. With the offseason wrapped up for the most part, management has filled them and in doing so given the team a strong chance to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2009.
