About Last Season: Warren Foegele Performance Review and Grade

Warren Foegele: 2018-2019 By the Numbers

• Age: 23
• NHL Seasons: 1
• Games Played: 77
• Scoring: 10 goals, 5 assists, 15 total points
• Ice Time: 12:30 all situations, 11:06 EV, 0:06 PP, 1:18 PK
• 5 on 5 Stats: 53.47% CF, 38.46% GF
• Contract: Finished second year of ELC, Restricted Free Agent after next season

Making the Grade

When you think of Carolina Hurricanes rookies, Andrei Svechnikov likely comes to mind. When digging a little more, other names like Saku Maenalanen and Lucas Wallmark also pop up, but sometimes lost in the mix was Warren Foegele.

Foegele started off strong last year in a cameo NHL debut. He made the team out of training camp in a minor surprise, and also made his presence known in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Foegele scored three points in two games in the 2017-2018 season including two goals which gave him some high hopes heading into this season. In the 2018-2019 season he played a majority of the season on the third line with Lucas Wallmark and Brock McGinn or Micheal Ferland on his opposite wing. This season he had 10 goals and 5 assists in 77 regular season games, but had five goals and four assists in 15 playoff games at he age of 23.

He came on in the second half of the season, which is common with rookies as they gain confidence. In the 2018 portion of the season Foegele had four goals and two assists with a -14 rating. He played 13:57 per game with a 57.19% Corsi. While he struggled with consistent scoring he was able to help with possession, but the -14 rating shows that he struggled with big turnovers and limiting large mistakes.

Later in the season and into 2019 his production picked up with six goals and three assists. His possession numbers dropped down to a 48.87% Corsi but just a -3 rating.

But he really seemed to settle in during the postseason. He proved to be a pest in the first round against the Washington Capitals and had a greater scoring rate in the playoffs than he had in the regular season. He had a 51.25% Corsi with 14:26 average time on ice, the seventh-most minutes for Hurricanes forwards in the playoffs. He also had the third most hits on the team with 31 over 15 games and proved to be a force to be reckoned with.

The Canes need to figure out if Foegele’s playoff play is sustainable or just a flash in the pan. Right now he has proven to be more productive than Maenalanen, but seems to be in an overlapping role with Brock McGInn who had 11 more goals and points during the regular season and a plus/minus rating 27 points higher than Foegele. Additionally, McGinn is only two years older than the rookie.

The past few seasons have also been rumors that the Canes will trade a defenseman for a forward. There could be the chance that they bring in another top six type player that could end up jumping Foegele in the depth chart.

Heading into the 2019-2020 season he is set to make $746k before becoming a restricted free agent. His playoff experience has earned himself a place on the Canes roster for the upcoming season. However, the Carolina brass needs to see him continue to develop this season going into contract negotiations. He is not a player that is going to command a ton of money in his next contract, but with so many young players in the organization and potential players coming in, he could find himself out of a top nine position with the team.

Let’s not forget that he also won the Goal of the Year survivor vote that went on all year with the NHL with this goal.

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