The Carolina Hurricanes currently hold 10 picks in this weekend's 2015 NHL draft, the most selections they've owned in a single draft since 1998.
If the team's drafting trends of the 17 years since then hold true once again, however, that mass of picks will soon begin to fade slowly into a mediocre collection of lifetime AHL players and forgotten prospects.
Since 1999, just two players picked by the 'Canes in the fourth round or later of any given year (Brett Bellemore in 2007 and Tyson Strachan in 2003) have gone on to play 100 NHL games, and neither have hit the 200-game milestone.
The past two decades have seen the franchise hit a number of jackpots with early picks—including Eric Staal, Cam Ward, Andrew Ladd, Jeff Skinner, Jack Johnson and others—but whiff repeatedly on late-round fliers year after year after year. I described the pattern as a "lifeless swamp of late-round strikeouts" prior to last June's draft after an eye-opening study on the matter by the Section 328 blog.
Admittedly, the crop of seven players chosen in general manager Ron Francis' debut draft have had ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Mark Jones
Carolina Hurricanes Must Convert Quantity into Quality in 2015 NHL Draft
June 22nd, 2015 by Mark Jones Leave a reply »
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