Is Carolina Hurricanes Ron Francis Making The Grade?
While the Carolina Hurricanes play on the ice is underwhelming, what is the score for the team up in the board room?
Despite no major free agent signings by the Carolina Hurricanes in the offseason, Ron Francis and company kept themselves occupied with a lot of minor transactions. But did any of those moves actually work out? Given Carolina’s record this year, it would be easy to say no they didn’t; a somewhat correct viewpoint if a bit myopic. The best way to look at things is if the moves actually made the team overall better. And with over a third of the season over, it gives us enough games to make some evaluations. A sort of mid-term report card before the Christmas break; not set in stone, but a good idea of where things will be at the year.
Lee Stempniak B-
This one is really hard to judge. Nobody expected Stempniak to come in and score more than twenty goals. His ceiling was pretty well set. In fact given his improved performance last
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season due to increased TOI, a drop in production was almost guaranteed. So far while the drop hasn’t been very severe, it’s still noticeable, and Stempniak is on pace for around fourteen goals and forty points both totals down from last year.
Still, Stempniak is a definite improvement over players like Nathan Gerbe and Riley Nash. The thing is, though, if a GM can’t find better players than those two he probably needs to look for a new line of work. Given that small improvement, this ranking would be in the C range, but Stempniak is a known value around the league making him a tradeable asset at the deadline if things come to that. This fact, and the contract’s short term and AAV, upgrades the move to a B-
Victor Stalberg A-
This was a great signing for multiple reasons. One it brought on a fast and somewhat skilled player for the fourth line. Since Bill Peters likes to use his fourth line no matter what, players like Victor Stalberg become key. The root of the criticism directed at Peter’s usage of his fourth liners is not the strategy but rather the fact he doesn’t have the talent for it to work. Stalberg goes a long way to fixing these issues. Stalberg’s signing also shows the Carolina Hurricanes ability to avoid overpaying bottom six players while still getting good value. Oh yeah, there’s also the fact he’s on pace for eighteen goals which for a player averaging 12.33 TOI a game is a great bonus.
Matt Tennyson C+
Tennyson is an interesting story. He started out the year in the AHL and got the call up to Raleigh when the Canes gave Ryan Murphy the permanent hook. For the first few weeks on the Hurricanes, Tennyson continued his phenomenal play from his time in Charlotte. Well, that is until December rolled around. In fact, before Sunday’s game, Tennyson was outshot in six of his last eight games 5v5. Added to the fact he’s the second worst at generating offense, Tennyson’s outlook doesn’t look rosy. Still, his sample size is smaller, and the team’s overall performance has dropped a bit as well. There could be a chance, if a small one, he bounces back. However, the idea of him stabilizing the third defensive pairing isn’t quite as true as it was three weeks ago hence the lower grade.
Waiver Wire Madness D-
This includes picking up Klas Dahlbeck, Martin Frk, and Jakub Nakladal to start the season. (Yes Nakladal was technically signed as a free agent but he fits the spirit of failure for this category). All of these moves were uncategorical disasters. The only thing that keeps this from being an F is that somehow Dahlbeck maintains a spot on the roster. He might be useful for something in the future such as expansion draft bait or as a pot sweetener for a trade. Other than that, Francis and company made some uncharacteristic bad moves albeit ones with very low risk.
Ok so the reviews aren’t glowing for the ole Ronster, but just like in hockey sometimes playing the better game doesn’t get you the win. The process behind all these moves is solid, even if the results are a bit lackluster. Each contract here represents a slow and steady hand at the wheel. One making high reward low-risk moves, a mentality that hopefully will prevail when the time comes to make bigger signings.
