CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • August 26, 2021 Durham Bulls honoring Hurricanes with Hockey Night at the DBAP Durham, N.C. — The Durham Bulls will hit the field for an Hurricanes players are expected to attend the game along upcoming home game looking like another one of the with Hurricanes mascot, Stormy! The Hurricanes' warning Triangle's favorite teams. siren will also be at the ballpark. Hockey Night is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 10. at Durham The Bulls are scheduled to take on the Norfolk Tides with a Bulls Athletic Park as the Bulls partner up with their friends at 6:35 p.m. first pitch. The Hurricanes will open the season the Carolina Hurricanes. against the New York Islanders on Thursday, Oct. 14 at PNC Arena. Bulls players and coaches will wear special Carolina Hurricanes-themed jerseys, which will be auctioned off to benefit the Carolina Hurricanes Foundation. Metropolitan Division review: Capitals, Penguins try for another run; Teams on the rise By Adam Gretz Bernier, Tomas Tatar, and Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton is the big addition here and arguably one of the biggest moves of Current Metropolitan Division Favorite: Hurricanes the offseason made by any NHL team. He is one of the top The New York Islanders have been in the Conference overall defensemen in the league. He drives possession at Finals/Semifinals two years in a row, the Pittsburgh Penguins an elite level, produces offense at an elite level, and is a and Washington Capitals still have their cores, and the New better, more impactful defender than he gets credit for being. York Rangers are a team on the rise. But it might be the Even though his contract is a significant investment in free Hurricanes’ time to take the torch as the top team in the agency, it is probably below market value given how the division, even with the offseason departure of Dougie contracts signed by other defenders around the league this Hamilton and even with the question mark in goal. They had offseason. the best record of any team in the division a year ago, were Honorable mention for biggest offseason move: Ryan Ellis to two points off the Presidents’ Trophy pace, and are still the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were clearly in the market bringing back an outstanding roster that is full of players just for a top-pairing defender and got an outstanding player in entering the prime of their careers. Ellis in a three-team trade with the Nashville Predators and Even without Hamilton this should still be an elite defense, Vegas Golden Knights. He is a significant upgrade to their while forwards like Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, roster. Martin Necas, Vincent Trocheck, and Teuvo Teravainen form Metropolitan Division team on the rise: Rangers an exciting core. They have one of the best long-term outlooks in the NHL and the short-term outlook is pretty They better be a team on the rise, anyway. They have strong as well. stockpiled young talent and have an outstanding core of Alexis Lafraniere, Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov, Igor Biggest Offseason Move: Dougie Hamilton to the Devils Shesterkin, and the reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam The New Jersey Devils entered the offseason with a great Fox. Some of those players have shown more than others in opportunity due to all of the salary cap space they had at the NHL, but the potential here is enormous. They also have their disposal. They put it to good use and were one of the a voice and leader with Gerard Gallant take over behind the busiest teams in the division, adding Ryan Graves, Jonathan bench. Expectations are clearly sky high right now given that ownership cleaned house over the past few months with a CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • August 26, 2021 general manager change and coaching change. Progress star power, do not have many game-changers after Mathew has been slower than ownership has wanted it to be, but Barzal, and do not score a ton of goals. they are getting there. They also do not have any weaknesses. The defense is as Metropolitan Division team on the decline: Penguins, solid as it gets in the NHL, the goaltending is sensational, Capitals and they have the best coach in the league. But do they have enough to get by teams like Tampa Bay at the top of The Penguins and Capitals have followed a nearly identical the league? path for the past 30 years. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s they played each other in the playoffs every year. In Philadelphia the biggest question still revolves They rebuilt at the same time. They drafted franchise around starting goalie Carter Hart. changing players at the same time. Then turned into consistent powers at the top of the NHL for the past 16 years His 2020-21 season was a complete disaster on the ice and at the same time. Now they are starting their next decline at significantly held the Flyers back. If they want to have any the same time. chance of being competitive or contending for a playoff spot this season they are going to need him to be dramatically They should still be really good. They should still be playoff better this season. Adding players like Ryan Ellis and Cam teams. But are they still Stanley Cup contenders? The Atkinson is fine, but if Hart does not return to the form he Capitals are one of the oldest teams in the league and have showed in his first two seasons in the league or reach his lost a lot of speed in recent years, while the Penguins’ roster potential then none of it will matter. has taken a step back this offseason, they will not have Evgeni Malkin to start the season, and goaltending is a major The big question in Columbus is whether or not new concern and question mark. head coach Brad Larsen can get Patrik Laine back on track, and what Laine’s future with the team is. Big questions remain for Flyers, Blue Jackets, Islanders This clearly did not work as planned for Laine and the Blue In terms of playoff success the Islanders have been Jackets after the trade from the Winnipeg Jets, and he is the most successful team in the division the past now entering the final year of his current contract and will be three years, winning five total playoff rounds and eligible for restricted free agency after this season. reaching the Conference Finals/Semifinals two years in a row (each of the past two years). The Blue Jackets desperately need him to become the impact goal scorer he was in Winnipeg and they have to see Even with all of their postseason success there are still if there is a long-term future in Columbus. If he becomes that questions that follow them around because they never really player again and Columbus can convince him to stay have great regular season and do not have the type of roster (something that has been a problem for the Blue Jackets in that a usual Stanley Cup contender has. They are short on recent years) that is a potential game-changer for the Blue Jackets. They need a forward like him. CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • August 26, 2021 About Last Season: Brett Pesce Performance Review and Grade Brett Pesce bounced back from a rough 2019-20 season every great 5-on-5 offensive defender can operate well on with an outstanding 2021 campaign that saw him put up elite the power play, just like how some of the best power-play 5-on-5 offensive numbers while maintaining strong defensive quarterbacks in the NHL are bad 5-on-5 players. metrics. Pesce’s big offensive moments came at 5-on-5, including By Brett Finger some game-defining goals in the playoffs against the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning. Brett Pesce: 2020-21 By The Numbers He was an elite 5-on-5 player in 2021. Relative to when Age: 26 Pesce wasn’t on the ice, the Hurricanes generated an additional .28 expected goals per 60 with him on the ice NHL Seasons: 6 while giving up .09 fewer expected goals against per 60. Scoring: 4 goals, 21 assists, 25 points in 55 games The heat maps back up the raw numbers. When Pesce was Advanced Statistics: 54.31 CF%, 53.86 SCF%, on the ice, the Hurricanes generated more high-danger shot 56.46 xGF%, 58.57 GF% attempts and gave up far fewer grade-A chances in front of their own net. Average TOI: 18:48 ES, 0:51 PP, 3:08 SH Pesce’s stout and reliable defensive play led to him getting Contract Status: Signed through 2023-24, $4.025 high-pressure matchups late in games, situations he has million AAV performed very well in for years. He continued that trend in 2021. After his lackluster 2019-20 season came to an early end due to another serious shoulder injury, there were plenty of His impact on the penalty kill was overwhelmingly positive, questions surrounding Brett Pesce entering the 2021 playing a crucial role in Carolina’s elite penalty kill. He led all season. Canes skaters in PK ice time and was dominant. Those questions disappeared in about two weeks. Pesce also deserves a lot of credit for aiding in Brady Skjei’s improved play as the season went on. Skjei’s early returns From the outset of the season, he was Carolina’s best all- were pretty consistently bad, but as the season went on, the around defenseman, and he didn’t really relinquish that strengths in his game started to stand out, especially on the status at any point in the year.