Tweetmail No. 205: Waivers, Rookies & Extensions

Hello and welcome to Tweetmail, a weekly feature on CarolinaHurricanes.com in which I take your Twitter questions about the Carolina Hurricanes or other assorted topics and answer them in mailbag form. Hopefully the final product is insightful to some degree, and maybe we have some fun along the way.
Let's get to it.

This question is a few weeks old, but I wanted to circle back to it because it's an interesting one to dig into. So, here we go!
Curtis McElhinney certainly has been a solid waiver claim for the Hurricanes, especially considering the timing of Scott Darling's injury just days prior to Opening Night; given the situation, it couldn't have been more ideal.
The best waiver claim in team history, though? I think I'm going to give the nod on that to Sergei Samsonov, who the Hurricanes picked up on re-entry waivers (more on that below) from Chicago on Jan. 8, 2008.
Quick sidebar: Remember re-entry waivers? That was a separate waiver process for players paid over a certain amount who were being recalled to the NHL. Teams could claim these players for half price, with their former teams being on the hook for the other half of the salary. Re-entry waivers were eliminated in the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement.
After the Hurricanes claimed Samsonov, the diminutive but slippery Russian winger recorded 32 points (14g, 18a) in 38 games. The Canes wasted no time in re-signing Samsonov to a three-year contract in April 2008. In the 2008-09 season, Samsonov posted 48 points (16g, 32a) in 81 games, and he chipped in five goals and eight points in the Canes' run to the Eastern Conference Final in the spring of 2009.
Samsonov spent another season-plus with the Hurricanes before being dealt to Florida just prior to the 2011 trade deadline, where he played his final 20 games in the NHL. In total, Samsonov played in 191 games with the Hurricanes and notched 109 points (44g, 65a). Samsonov is now in his fifth year of working for the Canes' hockey operations department and, in my opinion, holds the honor as the team's greatest waiver claim.
Some possible runners up: Stu Grimson, acquired off waivers from Detroit in October 1996, who played with the Whalers/Hurricanes franchise from 1996-98 and racked up 422 penalty minutes in 157 games; and Andrej Nestrasil, another waiver wire pick-up from Detroit in November 2014, who played in 115 games with the Hurricanes and tallied 48 points (17g, 31a) in that time.
There have been plenty of waiver acquisitions that have gone the opposite direction, too. It is waivers, after all. Every once in a while, though, a gem is there for the taking, and the Canes certainly found one in Samsonov.
Tweet from @Haskdog: What Rookie will lead the team in Points this year?
I'm going to say Andrei Svechnikov will be the Canes' rookie leader in points come April 7. Currently, that title belongs to Warren Foegele, who has five points (3g, 2a) through nine games. Svechnikov has four (2g, 2a) through nine, and his game is only going to continue to improve as the season moves along. In fact, you're already seeing signs of that. I thought he had a solid game, along with the rest of the team, in Detroit on Monday night, even though he didn't mark on the scoresheet (aside from his one penalty).
In
Tweetmail No. 196
, we used translation factors to project point totals for a trio of rookies, Svechnikov included. The math projected he'd finish his first 82-game season with 43 points, and right now he's tracking for about 37.

That line has definitely driven the Hurricanes' offense in the first few weeks of the season, with Sebastian Aho pacing the team in assists (10) and points (14) and Micheal Ferland leading the team in goals (9). All three players are in the final year of their contracts: Aho and Teuvo Tervainen are set to become restricted free agents, while Ferland is looking at unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career. I think the first priority is a long-term contract extension for Aho.
Recall what majority owner Tom Dundon said before the Canes' preseason finale just over three weeks ago: "The hard part about this business is getting these things done, but it's our top priority. I have a crush on Sebastian Aho, myself. He knows he's going to play here for a long, long time, and we will get it done at some point."
It will be interesting, then, to see what happens with Teravainen and Ferland, both who have proven to be welcome additions to this team in the last few years.
Tweet from @Canesfan2006: What is the key to figuring out the powerplay and kill so the team can raise up the ranks? #Tweetmail
After the start that the special teams had, shooting up the ranks isn't going to happen overnight, but the Hurricanes hope to be in the top half of the league - if not the top 10 - of both categories by the end of the season.
There are going to be power-play droughts and penalty killing woes over the course of an 82-game season, and there have been both already. Like losing streaks, though, you never want these negative spells to last too long, and you don't want it to begin to affect other portions of the game, as well. The Hurricanes were able to avoid the latter, and through patience and work, were able to break through on both the power play and penalty kill in Detroit.
"That was the difference in the game," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said afterward. "You don't want to panic too much on that stuff because the overall game has been pretty, pretty good. I just give the guys credit for not letting that part of it blend into our 5-on-5 game."
Now the challenge is for the Hurricanes to carry this forward.
"It's nice just to get it going. It's been a pretty sore spot throughout the year so far," said Justin Faulk, who tallied a power-play goal and was an integral part of the penalty kill in Detroit. "We just need to keep it going. We're obviously happy it was that way tonight, but we're not satisfied, knowing that one game is not enough. We need to turn around and do it again Friday."
Let's hope with the special teams monkey off their back, the Canes will start rolling from here.
Tweet from @blueyedevil15: Where is Stormy's girlfriend? She made several appearances last year!
Caroline is Stormy's old friend from the sty - they were born just weeks apart and grew up together. Want more of their origin story? Who doesn't?!
It's right here
.
Caroline made her first appearance of the season on Saturday afternoon. Stormy won an oversized stuffed bear at the N.C. State Fair and gifted it to her during a break in play.
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