Hurricanes Preview: Dougie Hamilton Autographed Card

This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: 2020 is a different beast and requires adaptability; in my case, it means the joint posts with my "main/personal" blog will not be in the "player here/analysis there" format but rather the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written. Caveats: at this point, despite the season being set to start in Mid-January, several impact players haven't found a team yet and quite a few teams are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

A lot has been made of last season's Norris Trophy voting and how the vote was split between the offensive powerhouse John Carlson and the well-rounded Roman Josi who happened to have a career year as well, but let's not forget Dougie Hamilton was also a force on the blue line until he got injured in January, after representing the Carolina Hurricanes at the All-Star Game. He had an astonishing 14 goals and 40 points in 47 games, playing over 23 minutes a night on one of the league's best brigades and finished 7th in Norris voting despite playing in 20-23 fewer games than the rest of the league.

What makes their odds look good:
Up-front, the top line of Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov is exactly what it is supposed to be - elite - but it's the defense that turns heads, starring Hamilton, Jaccob Slavin, and Brady Skjei in a top-three unit that rivals any in the NHL; Jake Gardiner used to be a #2 in Toronto and is instead a luxury #6 in Carolina, and 22-year-old Jake Bean, fresh off being named the AHL's defenseman of the year, should have a spot on the middle pair. And that's saying nothing of Brett Pesce and once-highly-touted prospect Haydn Fleury.

Question marks:
Was Ryan Dzingel only a good fit with the Ottawa Senators? His first season in Carolina was disappointing, and Nino Niederreiter and Vincent Trocheck have also failed to produce as expected. And the goaltending pair of Petr Mrazek and James Reimer is possibly the weakest in the league.

Outlook:
This isn't the deepest lineup and they're an injury away from being in danger of missing the postseason because of that, but dealing with such a position of strength is a blessing for years in that even if more stud defensemen come up through the draft, the rest become assets that can be dealt to remedy to any weaknesses.

Prediction:
Third in the Central Division.

Which brings us to Hamilton. Like Carlson, he has flaws, but one cannot dismiss the qualities he does have - reach, extreme mobility, a good shot, tremendous offensive vision and strong shape. He's on his third team, because eventually, his lack of physical play at his size gets on coaches' nerves, as do the multiple giveaways. But the time that he keeps his coaches happy, he's extremely efficient.

Here he is from his days in Juniors, with the Niagara IceDogs, after a 58-point season (in 67 games) as a 17-year-old, about to be selected by the Boston Bruins in the first round (9th overall), on card #179 from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects collection:

He signed it in blue sharpie on my Mom's birthday in 2017 after a Calgary Flames game in Montréal, with his then-jersey number (27) tagged at the end.

Ryan Strome Autographed Card

When historians sit down to write the story of the 2018-19 hockey season, a few story lines will stand out:

- It's the year the Columbus Blue Jackets went all-in.
- It's the year Shea Weber started noticeably regressing.
- It's the year Roberto Luongo's injuries became a bigger story than his on-ice performances.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning's regular-season domination.
- Nikita Kucherov joined the "best player" conversation.
- The CWHL announced it was ceasing its operations, just a week after the Calgary Inferno beat the Montréal Canadiennes in the Clarkson Cup Final.
- The Chicago Blackhawks' offense finally retained (Alex DeBrincat) and acquired (Dylan Strome) offensive talent instead of trading it away (Teuvo Teravainen).
- The Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers redefined "rock bottom".

That last point is where I want to look to shed yet another light on how bad GM Peter Chiarelli's tenure was, via oft-maligned former 5th overall (2011, New York Islanders) draft pick Ryan Strome.

After four seasons of Juniors hockey, Strome finished the 2012-13 season in the AHL (7 points in 10 games), and spent the following year bouncing up and down between the Isles and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers before posting a 50-point season on Long Island in 2014-15.

After two sub-par seasons in the 30-point range, Chiarelli acquired his services in exchange for Jordan Eberle, a move that was supposed to be lateral in terms of offensive production (it was thought that playing alongside either Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would re-launch Strome), at half of Eberle's salary for a few couple of seasons, as Strome is younger.

Unfortunately, Strome was only able to put up 36 points in 100 games over a season and change in Edmonton, prompting them to send him packing to the New York Rangers in exchange for Ryan Spooner, a player they would put on waivers just a few months later.

In Manhattan, Strome has put up 31 points in 60 games, a 42-point pro-rated production on an entire season, which is an improvement, particularly considering the Rangers are in full "rebuild" mode, although there is concern that his luck may run out at some point, as his underlying numbers are unsustainable.

The Rangers are in fairly good hands for their rebuild, with young veterans Mika Zibanejad (25 years old) and Chris Kreider (27) leading a pack comprised of Pavel Buchnevich (23), Jimmy Vesey (25), Brady Skjei (24), Vladislav Namestnikov (25), Filip Chytil (18), Brendan Lemieux (22), Fredrik Claesson (25) and goalie Alexandar Georgiev (22). Add a lucky middle-of-the-pack first-rounder or two, or a top-three pick in the next couple of years and you've got yourself a team that's fighting for the playoffs again.

Where does Strome fit in there? Well, he may not, unless he keeps producing. His brother Dylan's turning his career around in Chicago, though, so everything's still possible.

Here is Ryan playing for the OHL's Niagara IceDogs:

It's card #69 from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set, which he signed in blue sharpie last December.

Ryan Strome: Two Autographed Cards

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the Edmonton Oilers sent Jordan Eberle to the New York Islanders for former first-round pick (5th overall in 2011) Ryan Strome last week, mostly as a salary cap move to free up space for Connor McDavid's upcoming contract, but also because Eberle was disappointing during the 2016-17 playoffs.

But was this a move backwards in terms of it being a "hockey trade"? Yes and no. Strome may never live up to being a fifth-overall pick - and he's technically the second "failed Islanders prospect" Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli has taken off Isles' GM Garth Snow's hands, after Griffin Reinhart last summer, who will now continue his career as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights - but Strome might be able to jump in and fit in right away in Edmonton, as his ability to play either center or wing should give him reps alongside both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, in addition to occasionally spending time with another decent player in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

A pretty-much guaranteed top-six role means he will be able to aim at a 50-70-point season like he achieved in 2014-15 (17 goals, 33 assists, 50 points on the nose) because he'll have a John Tavares-esque player next to him regardless of how he slots in the lineup, which should get him back into the  2013-14 AHL groove, when he posted 49 points in 37 games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and at one point even led the league in scoring (a call-up to the Isles "cost him" a scoring title, but that's one move most players would make).

And we're talking about a guy who has posted 106- and 94-point seasons in Juniors with the OHL's Niagara IceDogs and won the bronze medal suiting up for Team Canada at the 2012 World Juniors, posting 9 points in 6 games.

Speaking of which, here is a close-up of the IceDogs' black (away) uniform, on card #169 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set:

And here's a sideways and more global view of the uniform, on card #34 from ITG's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed both cards in black sharpie in January 2015, while the Islanders were in town to face the Montréal Canadiens. I have to say that I already found him to be NHL-ready when I saw him stand at 6'1" and 190 pounds, and he's since added ten pounds of muscle to his frame that should give him an entirely new dimension in the Western Conference.