Draft Preview: Second Pick a Game-Changer for Canes

Visit www.Hurricanes.com/Draft for the latest news, videos and pick-by-pick information in the 2018 NHL Draft.
When the 2017-18 regular season ended in early April, the Carolina Hurricanes were preparing to make a draft selection outside of the top 10 for the third year in a row.
Then, everything changed.
In the NHL Draft Lottery, the Hurricanes defied the odds to win the second overall pick, marking the first time in 18 lotteries that the Canes have moved up in the draft order.
"You can't do much better than two," said Director of Amateur Scouting Tony MacDonald. "One would've been great, but I think two puts us in a great spot. We're very excited about it."

"When you go into the day looking at the 11th pick in the first round and move up to second - we didn't go to number one, but I feel like we won the lottery big time," President and General Manager Don Waddell said in a
recent interview
.
The lottery win changed the frame of the Hurricanes' annual pre-draft amateur scout meetings at PNC Arena, held this year in early May. It changes the type of draft class the team will build out on June 22-23 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Perhaps most importantly, it changes the structure of the Hurricanes come October and beyond.
The Hurricanes have picked second overall thrice prior in the franchise's history. In 1983, the Hartford Whalers selected Sylvain Turgeon, and in 1993, the Whalers drafted Chris Pronger. In 2003, the Canes selected Eric Staal. Their accomplishments speak for themselves. One scored 40 goals as a 19-year-old rookie. One is a Hall of Famer. The other helped bring the franchise a Stanley Cup Championship is still working on a career potentially worthy of the Hall. Recent No. 2 picks include Nolan Patrick (2017), Patrik Laine (2016) and Jack Eichel (2015). The list, one that boasts immense talent, goes on.

"When you've got such a high pick this time to start out with, it gives you a pretty good base to build the rest of your picks from," MacDonald said. "You're looking at a player who can step in and play and should be able to contribute in the proper situations next season."
Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin is the consensus No. 1 pick. The next three picks off the board will likely be forwards: Andrei Svechnikov, Brady Tkachuk and Filip Zadina. With the second overall selection, the Canes have their pick of the three.
The prevailing opinion favors Svechnikov, an elite, dynamic offensive force from Russia who, on the heels of scoring 40 goals in 44 games with the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League, is the NHL Central Scouting Service's top-ranked North American skater.
"He can play the power game. He can play the finesse game. He's big and strong and has skill," MacDonald said. "I think he's probably one of the most complete players we've seen in a few years."
There are arguments to be made, too, for Tkachuk and Zadina.
Tkachuk's hockey bloodlines are strong. His father, Keith, logged 1,065 points in 1,201 career NHL games. Brady's brother, Matthew, currently plays for the Calgary Flames.
"He brings a physical dimension to the table. He's got that quality that every team is looking for and covets. You'd like to have that kind of player in your lineup," MacDonald said. "He makes things happen through effort, grit and determination. He's also got a significant skill level."
Zadina is a sharp-shooter who formed a good bit of chemistry with Martin Necas - likely to make the jump to the NHL this season with the Canes - at the 2018 IIHF World Championship.
"You wouldn't call him a one-dimensional player, but he's a sniper. He likes to score," MacDonald said. "He likes to have the puck on his stick in situations that call for big goals."
The Hurricanes are currently slated to make six additional picks in rounds 2-7 on June 23. While the Hurricanes won the second overall pick in the first round, the draft order reverts to the reverse order of the final standings (and playoff results for the 16 teams that qualified) for the remaining six rounds. That means that, after No. 2, the next pick the Canes will make will be No. 42, the 11th pick in the second round.
"Knowing we're picking at two, we've pretty well got our minds made up. We know who may be available there," MacDonald said. "Who we might be able to pick at 42, that's a more difficult thing to predict. You can make some assumptions and hope that certain players are going to be in the mix there, but you never really have a good idea until after Friday night is over when you get to sit down and reevaluate things. Then you have a real good idea who you might get at 42. We've targeted some players that we feel could be there. The rest, you have to let the process take place and unfold before you really know who it's going to be."

Bookending the second overall pick is the second to last pick in the draft, which also belongs to the Canes by way of Vegas, who assembled a record-setting inaugural season.
Frederik Andersen, though he never played an NHL game with the Hurricanes, remains one of the team's best late-round finds, taken 187th overall in the seventh round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. The Canes will pick at 197 and 216 in this year's final round.
"It will be a late pick, but you never know who you're going to come up with. You're always hoping that you're going to select a guy in the seventh round who is going to be able to play," MacDonald said. "They are more than just afterthoughts."
One thing that the lottery win doesn't change is the Canes' draft strategy, whether it's the second pick or the second to last pick.
"The strategy for us in my mind has always been very simple: you want to pick the best players available," MacDonald said. "You focus certainly on that in the early rounds - the best player available regardless of position - and then as you get into the mid-rounds and later rounds, you still follow that pattern of trying to come up with the best player, but you may look at people at a certain position."
With the second overall pick, the Hurricanes will certainly land one of the best players available amongst the entire draft class, an exciting, game-changing scenario for a team on the cusp of taking that next step to become a perennial playoff contender.