Stephane Yelle Signing Speaks Volumes for Future
by Bob Wage on Aug 19, 2009 10:58 PM EDT
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Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford made a couple of huge statements with the signing of free agent Stephane Yelle. First of all, he is pushing the limits of the team budget as well as inching closer to the high end of the salary cap. You read that correctly, the Canes are getting close to the high end of the salary cap!
Team management obviously feels that the club has a very good chance at making another strong run for the Cup, and they are pulling out all the stops in order to achieve that goal. The addition of Yelle gives the Hurricanes one of the strongest groups of centers in the NHL. Eric Staal, Rod Brind'Amour, Matt Cullen, and Yelle will be as strong up the middle as any other group in the league. Add Jussi Jokinen to the mix, and they are probably second to none.
The Canes will also have a solid, bruising fourth line which is capable of scoring. Yelle, Tom Kostopoulos, and Scott Walker will demand much more than two minutes of playing time every night and coach Paul Maurice will be challenged to find enough ice time for everyone.
This roster could be the most balanced ever assembled in Carolina, but what might be even more impressive? The team has better depth than ever before and now is at liberty to allow their younger players a chance to earn their stripes in Albany, rather than get limited playing time in the big leagues.
Most Caniacs remember how Brandon Sutter was knocked into another world by Doug Weight against the Islanders last season. While Weight obviously lined the young center up intending to hit him hard, Sutter put himself into a very vulnerable position by lowering his head and reaching for the puck. Perhaps if he has more experience, he does not make that mistake?
Regardless, now that another center is under contract, the Hurricanes now have the luxury of allowing Sutter a full year of experience at a lower level. Not only that, but he will get to work with friend and fellow Team Canada (juniors) teammate, Zach Boychuk. Throw Drayson Bowman, Matt Pistilli, Mike Murphy, Jamie McBain, Brett Carson, Chris Terry, and others into the mix and several of this season's River Rats could very well be the future of the franchise.
Giving these younger players the opportunity to develop, learn, and grow together is huge. In year's past, Caniacs have seen their young prospects often thrown to the wolves too soon.
David Tanabe is a perfect example. The young defenseman not only played on the blueline without the benefit of proper development time in the AHL, he also had to play as a forward at times when injuries shortened the Carolina bench. The former first round draft pick was almost doomed to failure.
So not only does the signing of Yelle help with the chances of this year's formidable team, this signing also helps to insure the future success of the franchise. Things will be very interesting in Albany this year, for sure.
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Good post, Im “pro seasoning” as well. I really like the roster we have as is and see no reason not to let these guys get to know each other and build some chemistry. If the man wants to spend let him spend. Sure he coulda called up a younger guy and not acquired Ward/Kosto/Yelle and saved money….but uh, yea I’ll take the roster we have now!
One of the best parts of all of this “stocking up” at the NHL level that JR is doing- He is not selling away much for the future!
by packpigskinfan25 on Aug 19, 2009 11:18 PM EDT reply actions
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Thats it!!!! I’m changing my screen name to “4th line fan”. Tommy K, Yelle, Walker, these guys are bringing sandpaper and snot rockets to the line up. This is how hockey should be played.
sandpaper and snot rockets
great way to describe the 4th line.
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“Insure the future” huh? Sure that ain’t “ensure”? I think it’s blasphemy to think these guys compare to Detroits forwards. I think Chicago and Pitsburg may have something to say, too. I appreciate the excitement and enthusiasm. I don’t think this team is what it appears. Everyone seems to be talking about chemistry taking time for the kids down at the AHL level. What about the NHL guys? They won’t start to click until spring. what about injury, which is gonna happen, messing lines and pairs up? This is Mo’s first full season back and has a new team from last year dam near. No small feat to get them cooking and crushing. This team has used speed to make up for lack of scoring skill and laid heavy burdens on the golie. Don’t get me wrong, I like the way the team is STARTING TO SHAPE UP. That said, Brindy and Yelle are worthless as speed skaters and when they give a breakaway it’;s gonna be a clean leave behind. so all you that used to bitch about Brindy giving them, get used to it, it’s gonna happen even more this year. I could see Booth getting a double hat trick against us and that dam Semin bagging a 6 point game. While Cullen is one of my favorite active players, he doesn’t match up well against a Malkin, Datsyk, and as a second line center he’s gonna face the big guns like Ovechkin, Crosby, etc. So this “second to none” is ludicris. This forward core has huge short comings. The face off circle won’t be among them, but this is not the golden ticket, yet. I think the real strength is gonna be the depth, not of the Gerital pool, but the kids. Brindy winds up in a walker again, we get Sutter. Who I think should be playing in the NHL this year. Wingers go down we got the holes filled, but instead of slower def. minded guys we get speed demon want to score guiys. Will make coaching against us a friggin’ nightmare. Should be a very good season, but there a few teams out there that will own these guys. Just not as fast anymore, we got to get the speed abck into it. That said, the blue line should be able to help alot, it would appear we are gonna win alot of face offs and we got a couple guys in the back that know what to do with it. Our PK should be very good, maybe excellent. I don’t see anything that has improved much over the dismal PP crew we had last year. I think we kept and added some very good pieces, we also lost a couple. I will miss Seids and I think Babchucks cannon will be missed, he won’t but that “oh shit, duck!” blast that guy had was a nice weapon to have, he would of learned to aim eventually. Nextly, ol’ Wardo. He’s gonna make it or break it again. He’s gonna face many breakaways, not really his strong suit. He will have to be the diff. in many games to snatch a win or cough up a loss. While he probably likes the pressure, I feel for him, that’s alot of weight to carry on young shoulders. So yee ha for the ‘Canes and getting around to spend the nickels and assemble a good team, we’ll see if they mesh and can become a great team. As for second to none, theres gonna need to be several plane crashes before this is a second to none crew.
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As hockeymom stated, you certainly know how to be a “negative nancy”. And while I agree that our forwards are not individually as good as Detroit’s, as a team and playing in the team concept (especially defensively), they are not a “plane crash” waiting to happen either.
First of all, you claim this team learns to mesh. However, the first three forward lines (assuming Yelle and Kostopolous are with Walker on a checking line) all played together through the late run and through the Eastern Conference Finals last year. They played in various combinations due to injuries and just Maurice switching up the lines. So, I doubt they need to mesh much. Plus, they played better defensively through the latter part of the season and we had an improved penalty kill unit. The additions of Yelle and Kostopolous would appear to also help improve the penalty kill ability this season.
Secondly, you make a big deal about having to replace Seidenburg and Babchuck. I happen to have liked both players but I think Aaron Ward is about a wash in terms of Seidenburg. You will get a little less offense but a big more defense. And if you look at the possible scoring combinations on the top three forward lines, the team shouldn’t need extra scoring from defensive players. And while Babchuck had a great booming shot and even could sneak down and score little chip-ins as well, he still was only a third-pair defenseman. So, Alberts will not score like Babchuck did but he probably will also not create as many defensive breakdowns either. Plus, I hope to see Rodney make it in training camp (I believe Rutherford commented that it was his to lose) and actually pair up with Alberts with Wallin as the healthy scratch in most games.
You are correct that we will have injuries and that it will likely cause us to bring up players from Albany. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to give our young prospects as much playing time down there as we can. You still have Conboy to fill in both on the fourth line as well as the third defensive pairing should injuries occur before you needed to draw on Michael Ryan, Dwyer, and others. I am also still hopeful we could have Ryan Bayda back before the start of the season since we still need to have 23 roster players.
Regarding the possibility of Cam Ward actually having to carry this team this year, I think that is less likely than in previous seasons. I think he will face fewer breakaways than last year. While you may be right that we are a little slower defensively than last year, we are also more defensive-oriented than we were last year. So, I consider that a wash until proven otherwise during the season. You also have discounted Brind-Amour entirely in almost all of your postings. He is not coming back off a season-ending career from the year before. His play improved both offensively and defensively in the latter half of the season, and it is my opinion that will continue.
Finally, given your own lack of spelling abilities and the grammatical errors which litter your postings, you should not call out anyone else on theirs.
So this "second to none" is ludicris.
Look, Paladin enjoys playing devil’s advocate here (which is fine, he usually stays on topic and I believe he really is a Canes fan who wants a Cup as much as the rest of us). Perhaps my bigger grief with him is that he hates the “return” key and thus eschews the eye-friendly paragraph format. I get lost after the first few lines and move on….sorry guy.
BTW, for clarity’s sake, AP, did you mean (spelling errors do seem to jump off the page at me)
1) ludicrous – adj [ lu di krəs] : completely ridiculous.
or
2) Ludacris:
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by Carolyn Christians on Aug 20, 2009 10:19 AM EDT up reply actions
(the first image disappeared – trying another)
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by Carolyn Christians on Aug 20, 2009 10:30 AM EDT up reply actions
“Ensure” was an age crack….
Not spelling, I type phoeneticly, I make no bones about sucking at grammer.
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Here’s a simple way of putting one of my main concerns. The home team get’s last change. We are gonna get killed on the road with some teams on match ups. detroit has the depth to get any match up they want, luckily we don’t need to worry about them. Pittsburg on the other hand we do and you will see the Crosby/Malkin 1-2 punch eat what ever poor bastards on the second line. Cullen on a given night can play that well, but he doesn’t seem to have it every night and Staal can only play so many minutes. The change game is gonna be crucial and I think we lose out on the road. In our house we have more control and should be able to get what Mo wants a good bit of time.
For HMof2
As for Ward I’m gonna disagree, but say I don’t know for sure. I think Wards gonna get peppered by the teams that seem to have our number. Booth is a great player, but the guy just has our number, same with Semin. Those nights I think are gonna be tough for for sure and I’m not so sure our D pairs are gonna mesh so well right off.
We shall see. If nothing else, we are going to field the best team the franchise has had on peper, including the Cup year. It should make for some killer hockey. The Craps should be the 700# gorilla in the SE. They want us dead and I do think on a 4 line basis, we are far deeper, even with the busy work they have done. ’em’s gonna be some doozie’s me thinks.
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Aah – progress!
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by Carolyn Christians on Aug 20, 2009 11:27 AM EDT up reply actions
I think you missed it
Paladin- Bubba was not calling this team second to none or even this group of forwards second to none. If you re-read his post you will see he was talking about our centermen!! Staal, Brindy,Cullen,Yelle/,Jussi,Sutter etc (Ruutu is a natural center and so is Boychuck).
Im not sure there are many teams that have that type of depth up the middle (that means the center position)
Secondly, Why is that you think we will give up more break-aways with Yelle? It could be assumed that because he is not a speedster he will not be able to recover fast enough on give aways near the point. In doing so you assume he will turn over the puck in the first place. Brind’amour made bad decisions with the puck last year which was abnormal for former selke award winner. I’m hoping that is a thing of the past. Yelle is a smart player with the puck and protects it well. There is no way that you can convince me that the team is worse off defensively when he is on the ice. If Brind’amour does not return to form Yelle will be our best defensive forward. I have no problem with his line playing against David Booth.
As for Ove,malkin and crosby: EVERY LINE ON EVERY TEAM HAS FITS WHEN THEY ARE ON THE ICE.
by CarolinaCanes on Aug 20, 2009 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Just to add my two cents to the breakaway debate. I’m hoping that there will be less of them this year. And it has nothing to do with the speed of the players involved.
The biggest problem is with certain players on the other teams who see our D pinch and so sneak behind for an easy outlet pass. No amount of speed is going to fix that.
What should fix that, is that we’ve got more defensive-minded defensemen who will be less likely to pinch constantly all game every game. By staying back, they will prevent those easy outlet passes.
Between that and the general improvement of defense overall (both forwards and defensemen), I think Ward will get much more help than in the past and so should hopefully have the team covering his biggest weakness (breakaways).
Of course, we’ll just have to wait to see how it all plays out in the actual games.
by Pirate Caniac on Aug 20, 2009 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions
It would appear we all are concerned about breakaways. brindy coughed up several. the d pinched and coughed up several. yelle is new and not fast enough to catch many snipers. I think new d pairings an aging failing captain and adding another senior center only increases the risk of breakaways. also ward one weak spot is the breakaway, he has not been stellar. Look I hope I’m wrong, but Rod isn’t fast on a good day, Yelle isn’t either, cullen is about the best unless staal can use his reach. Otherwise the center spot is weak on the give up. You get one stride past any of our centers and there is no D it’s a gimme clean shot. The d is going to concentrate on moving up, so it’s goinf to be a concern. That and the lack of a PP are my two big points. If reality were able to be set aside, i’d have Brindy with the Rats abd Sutter on the 4th line. That way ypou’d have veteran face off call up when needed and youth and speed on the front line roster. Just my .02 I think we have alot less speed and ability to get it down ice. even when we did get it down quick we wern’t real proficient at smacking twine with the biscuit. Yelle was what a 20 point guy? We need 50 point or better guys at center. Sutter may or not be there, but I bet he does as good if not better than Rod or Yelle and only get’s better where Yelle and Rod will not.
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BTW, I think Booth is one of the most under rated players. He is a Gretz like God against us, but on any given day is a game stealer against any team. don’t seem too eager to send anyone against him, he will make you pay. Cullen is the only guy nifty enough to work against him. he’s made Staal look flacid over and over. I hate watching him in our building, but I love watching that guy play. he’s flat out a great hockey player. 10 yrs ago, rod would be in a position to work with it, so would Yelle, not today. Staal doesn’t have the snap off the line to deal with him and if Cullen isn’t Bruce Lee like he can’t either. Booth is and has always been Kryptonite to this team. Then there is Crosby/Malkin, the craps. It will be interesting to see what Boston fields, they dam sure are not going to roll over for us, i’d expect pretty spritied play. Never know out of Tampa and Florida. The Rangers will be better. While we have improved, so has the enemy. It’s in the xecution of the game. I think we got guys that know the right thing to do. It’s a matter of can they?
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Booth is an amazing talent … game-breaking speed. But he needs to learn to pass the puck.
by Cory Lavalette on Aug 21, 2009 10:29 AM EDT up reply actions
yeah but are they as good as last years caps? Will MIke Green have another superlative year? What about goaltending? a Theodore Varlamov tandem aint scaring the **** out of anyone. Plus this defense looks stogier than the previous iteration, so even if they do geta clean break on Roddy or Whits, you can feel better about someone like A Ward or Alberts being in position.
nice points paladin6. I agree that there is a room for some concern. We will have to see how it works outs. It’s august and august is a time for optimism. lol
as for booth. I agree he is a great talent and should develop into a nice player (coming into his 4th year i think)
The SE has alot of great youngsters. The South Least???? I think no more.
by CarolinaCanes on Aug 21, 2009 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions
I don’t think points will be as easy to come by in the SE this year, especially with Tampa having an NHL quality blue-line again. Atlanta looks better with Bogosian and Enstrom having another year of experience under their belts and Kovalchuk is in his contract season – I doubt he’s going to pull a disappearing act.
As for Mike Green having another year like he did – if he can stay healthy, I don’t think it’s at all out of the question. He scores his points on the PP by having great hockey sense and getting to soft areas in the PK, behind the D and sneaking down for backdoor cuts. Is he going to score 10 goals in 8 games again? Probably not. Almost certainly not, that was one hell of a historic run. The Caps powerplay lost Fedorov, which sucks, but gained Knuble, which is great because it gives them the presence in front of the net that they’ve lacked – I don’t think Green is going to have much trouble racking up production on the PP.
Varlamov is the big X-factor: If he’s the version from early in the Pitt series or the Rangers series, he’s pretty scary. He’s a hell of an athlete and has the potential to be a showstopper if he can put it together and get some solid technique from Irbe, who (we Caps fans hope) may be able to teach him ways to become more durable.
by Knee high to a duck on Aug 21, 2009 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Avalanche blog named Yelle as a top-20 player in their franchise history (at #15) last summer.
The prototypical workhorse, Yelle’s entire NHL career has been marked by effortless skating, gutsy shot blocking, hard hits and on-ice discipline—-the ultimate checking line center. Despite landing 140 body checks during the 1999-2000 season, Yelle was assessed only 28 penalty minutes, a testament to his invaluable worth as a skilled grinder.
Another piece from a Denver newspaper was calling for Yelle to be re-signed by the Avs, last summer, before he went to Boston.
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by Carolyn Christians on Aug 20, 2009 9:32 AM EDT reply actions
those Nov games the ’rats play in Norfolk really sounds like a great opportunity.
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by Carolyn Christians on Aug 20, 2009 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions
I’m sure it’s beautiful – but alas much farther from hockey. Perhaps the pre-season game vs Nashville is convenient for you? There ought to be some prospects on the ice…
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by Carolyn Christians on Aug 20, 2009 5:41 PM EDT up reply actions
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