This trade deadline, almost everyone is considering a few spots that the Carolina Hurricanes need to fill. The top players on the Hurricanes’ trade deadline want list are a goalie, a second-line center, a top-six forward, and goal-scoring support. However, there exists an additional positional need that may prove to be equally essential as any of them. This trade deadline, the Hurricanes ought to aim for a genuine depth defenseman.
Trade Deadline for the Carolina Hurricanes Should Aim for Depth Defensemen
The Hurricanes’ strength has been their defense for the past five years as they have been relevant again. Their play style, the defensive responsibility of their forwards, and the fortitude of their defensive core all demonstrate this. Considering the kind of two-way player Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour was during his playing days, it makes sense. It’s obvious that he instills that in his group as well.
What’s With Them
The Hurricanes’ current top six defensemen are no different. Seems pointless to make a deal for a top-six defenseman. Brent Burns, Jacob Slavin, Brady Skjei, Brett Pesce, Dmitry Orlov, and Joel Chatfield make up a core six that is nearly as good as any club in the NHL. They have tremendous shutdown skills in Slavin, another defensively responsible minute-counter in Pesce, good offensive balance in Burns and Skjei, and a recently established excellent bottom pair in Orlov and Chatfield. Nevertheless, there is a decline after those six.
In order to add another offensive option to their back end, the squad made a trade acquisition of Tony DeAngelo in the summer. In Carolina, the DeAngelo experiment has not been successful. Just 21 games and 299 minutes have been played by him. frequently playing only on the power play and filling in as the seventh defenseman. He has only managed two goals and seven assists over that time. His analytical performance has been rather good, as evidenced by his positive ten anticipated goal differential. However, he really has no goal differential. But this is exaggerated because of his power play time. He has a team-worst -10 actual goal differential at 5v5, compared to a -2.1 predicted goal difference.
He may be useful on the power play. However, Carolina requires assistance beyond only power play. They supposedly tried to exchange him, but no one seemed interested. Notably, the Hurricanes also signed Jacob Jones, who they traded before to the start of the season.
Indeed, what the Hurricanes have works if their top six defensemen remain healthy and free from injuries or other problems. If the playoffs have shown us anything, it’s how crucial team depth is. For this reason, it’s critical that the Carolina Hurricanes acquire a defenseman. Is DeAngelo the best choice to replace a defenseman who gets hurt? It might not be as awful for an offensive defenseman, but in actuality, none of Carolina’s defensemen—aside from DeAngelo—are completely one-dimensional. It’s difficult to predict if the DeAngelo/Orlov combination would do any better today, given how poorly it performed early in the season. Perhaps he could play a little with Slavin, but that is only because of Slavin’s exceptional skill.
For depth defensemen, there aren’t really many choices available besides DeAngelo.The next player up would probably be Dylan Coghlan, who has enjoyed a successful season with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. He received the title of AHL All-Star. Once more, though, Coghlan tends to tilt slightly more offensively and has little NHL experience. It’s not like he couldn’t make an impression this season, but is Carolina really willing to take that chance?
Locating a real depth defenseman is the preferred course of action. This would be a responsible, versatile defenseman, or perhaps a more defensively inclined one. This would probably be an experienced player who has no trouble spending a lot of time in the press box and stepping in quickly when necessary. It would be a player that fits the team’s approach, plays the game responsibly on defense, limits mistakes, and, ideally, can still move the puck up ice, even if it’s only with a crisp initial breakout pass. This player might not blow everyone away with goal scoring prowess. This kind of guy might be extremely crucial in the postseason if one of the top six players gets injured.
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