Hurricanes re-assign six, Ryan Murphy remains in Raleigh

I think they’ll keep Murphy around as long as possible for a myriad of reasons, but the experience is probably the biggest one. They also want to understand his game and potential. Wesley is certainly taking notes since this is his new high priority project over the next few years. IMHO, there’s no way he’s making the NHL team, and whether they put him out for any regular season games seems uncertain to me at this point.

From Chip’s tweets I thought I saw that Dalpe is in the lead (the might have been Michael Smith’s tweets though – @msmithcanes ) after practice, but that Tlusty is playing like his life depends on it. I kinda thought Tlusty was a lock for an NHL spot this year, but it’s good to know that isn’t a given. I agree Tlusty is in good shape and is playing at a very high level compared to those he’s in the running with (Bowman, Boychuk, Terry, Samson)

JR/Mo are keeping Murhy around for two reasons—one he’s shown the offensive skill we’d like to have, but he’s shown not to be defensively skilled nor sized enough for the NHL. So I’d keep him up to make the point to Murphy: You need more size, so work on that, but we like your offensive game, keep it up—now refine and add to your defensive accumen.

It should be apparent to Murphy the more he plays against NHL forwards.

There is no way they don’t make the roster, and there is nothing they’d fetch in a trade that would make it worthwhile. Hell, the very idea that you say there are three from your challenger group who might make the team implies that one of them is a lock. 6 "untouchables"+3 challengers means that one of them absolutely HAS to make it, even if Tlusty and Dwyer are the other two kept.

when you step back away from the team as a passionate fan and look around the league for a bit, then back again at what JR did/didn’t do this summer, you cringe (at least I did). To think that he decided Stewart and Poni were the best available forwards out there doesn’t instill a lot of confidence. Of course, he seems to have his hands tied financially; that said, if you don’t have the $$$ to spend on high-quality free agents, why keep marginal NHL talent instead of dumping salaries and bringing up more AHL kids? I think if we fall flat out of the gate it will reflect poorly on this scenario for JR. Let’s hope we come out strong and he proves us all wrong.

disconnect to me between what Mo thinks and what JR thinks

This is why I’m convinced JR had a hand in Skinner making the top 6 last year.

If he plays well as a scorer (which he has not consistently done at the NHL level), he will have every opportunity to move up the ranks. But what kind of message would you send to prospects—current and future—if you simply slotted them in the top six (or three!) based simply on AHL numbers and draft pedigree.

OK…But I hope if he does well they bring him up to Charlotte who will have a few games left when JR’s is done and see how he does in the AHL after a year in JRs.