Hurricanes late move for Max Domi shows team’s supreme self-confidence. Is it enough?
The NHL trade deadline passed Monday afternoon with expected fanfare. Over the past week in particular, teams across the league looking to make a serious run at a Stanley Cup title added players they believe to be key means to that end. Others worked on positioning themselves for the future, adding draft picks or top prospects in the process. Many tried to do both.
Among the expected eight playoff teams in the Eastern Conference, there was a decided effort to get deeper, and more physical, while shoring up scoring in what figures to be an absolute dogfight to the finish — all eight of the likely playoff teams in the East are among the Top 10 in the NHL overall standings.
In the Atlantic Division:
The Florida Panthers added a sniper and two NHL-ready defenders.
The Tampa Bay Lightning added depth on the wing.
The Boston Bruins bulked up — big time — on defense.
The Toronto Maple Leafs brought in an established team captain on defense.
In the Metropolitan Division:
The Washington Capitals traded for scoring depth on the wing.
The Pittsburgh Penguins got deeper on defense.
The New York Rangers added grit and scoring to the front line.
And the Carolina Hurricanes? They added … Max Domi.
To be fair, the Canes are atop the Metro Division. They are three points clear of Pittsburgh and the Rangers, with a game in hand on each, and eight points clear of the Capitals. At 41-15-6, Carolina is among the top three in total points in the NHL, trailing only Colorado and Florida. So it’s an easy jump to suggest the team didn’t really need to do much. Don’t mess with what got you here, right?
Except, it doesn’t always work that way in the NHL. Really, it almost never does. The regular season is a grind. The playoffs are a bigger grind. Slumps happen. Fatigue happens. Injuries happen. Getting extra bodies into the fold in enough time to coalesce with the team before the stretch run is almost imperative.
The Hurricanes have repeated the mantra that they no longer are satisfied with reaching the playoffs — they’ve done that three years in a row now, and this year will be the fourth. They want more than a second-round exit.
Teams that want more than a second-round exit, though, need to prove it. Last season, Carolina made one small deadline deal, acquiring depth defender Jani Hakanpaa for young defender Haydn Fleury. Earlier in the winter, the Canes added noted pest Cedric Paquette. Neither played significant roles for the Hurricanes down the stretch. Neither helped the team past the second round.
In the playoffs, injuries plagued an already thin defensive group, the goaltending underperformed, and the Canes limped out of the playoffs in Round 2. Again.
Club President and GM Don Waddell went to work last summer. In separate signings he swapped goalies with Toronto to add Frederik Andersen, and added an underrated Antti Raanta. Box checked.
Waddell also revamped the blue line, keeping the core group of Jacob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei while adding Ethan Bear, Tony DeAngelo, Ian Cole and Brendan Smith. The emergence of Jalen Chatfield has also been a big help for a group that, despite some bumps and bruises, has mostly stayed intact — DeAngelo’s recent trip to the injured list and a COVID-induced layoff for Ethan Bear notwithstanding. Another box checked.
Seth Jarvis’ emergence added a wrinkle to the forward group. The Canes added Derek Stepan. They re-signed Jordan Martinook. They swiped Jesperi Kotkaniemi via offer sheet. Monday, the added Domi.
Is that all window dressing? No. But is it enough to be a Stanley Cup champion? I guess we’ll find out.
The Canes’ gaudy record (again, it’s 41-15-6 for those keeping track) is impressive, and all but guarantees a playoff berth, even with 20 games to play in the season. But a look inside recent trends shows cause for concern. Let’s go through some of the numbers:
▪ Third overall in points in the NHL. This is great, if it’s sustainable, but the Canes are 10-6-4 in their past 20 games. Let’s call the OTLs and SOLs what they are — losses. The team is batting .500 in February and March.
▪ Eleventh in goals scored per game (3.26/game). This number has slipped, as well. The Canes were ensconced in the top 10 in this stat for most of the season. But in the past 10 games, Carolina has scored just 21 goals. The Canes have lost four in a row and have been shut out twice this month.
▪ Ninth in power play production (23.8%). Another stat that has fallen off in the past couple months, since the Canes were once among the NHL’s top three. Part of that is, of course, DeAngelo’s absence. But even with his return Sunday, the Canes couldn’t find the net.
To hear coach Rod Brind’Amour tell it, the team is playing hard, playing the right way, shots just aren’t falling. I believe that. I know he believes it.
But in the playoffs, playing hard in a loss is still a loss, and there are no pity points for losing in overtime (and Hallelujah there are no shootouts).
The biggest cause for concern of late is the disappearing offensive production. In January, the Canes went 9-2-1, scoring 48 goals in 11 games, better than four per game. In February, that production dipped to 35 goals in 10 games. In March, it has plummeted to 21 in 10 games.
Part of this swoon is likely just a simple slump, albeit a collective, team-wide affair. But the Canes had better hope that it’s not a bigger sign of team fatigue, especially with a schedule ahead that does Carolina no favors. Through the end of the season, the Hurricanes have just two instances of having two days off in a row.
But what if it’s not just a slump? Seeing potential first-round opponents Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh and Toronto add new pieces while not really losing anyone with regular playing time — while also peeping what the teams based in Florida are up to — is cause for pause.
It’s likely part of the reason the Canes made a strong push at the buzzer for Domi, who’s not as flashy a name as Rickard Rakell or Claude Giroux, but who’s been around the league a little while. At 27, Carolina is the 2013 first-round pick’s fourth stop. And he has shown some scoring pop, putting up 28 goals and 72 points for the Canadiens in 2018-19 (the last “normal” season before COVID). He added 44 more points during the split 2019-20 campaign.
His time in Columbus wasn’t spectacular, but he was also used in a different role. He has offensive chops to be able to skate in a top-6 role, but he’s got enough of his father’s grit (Tie Domi had 3,515 penalty minutes in 1,020 NHL games over 16 seasons) to fit in with the fourth group, too. And, he has familiarity with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who just signed an eight-year extension with the Canes on Monday — the two played together in Montreal.
So while the seven other playoff-bound teams from the East were loading up, spending draft capital, shipping out prospects or shifting stars hither and yon, the Canes, with their blue line set at about eight deep and the best statistical goaltending tandem in the NHL, sat back and waited.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s watched the Canes operate the past couple of years. Vincent Trocheck’s acquisition was an anomaly, not a regularity. But that doesn’t mean no moves — or smaller/fewer moves — is wrong, not if you’re confident in what you have. It’s just glaringly different.
Whether the team repays Waddell and Brind’Amour’s confidence with a deep playoff run, and whether trading for Domi is indeed a game-winning — or Cup-winning — addition, remains to be seen.
Justin Pelletier is Deputy Regional Sports Editor based at The News & Observer and Durham Herald Sun, and has been covering hockey for more than 20 years. Follow him on Twitter at @JPell915.
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 7:29 PM with the headline "Hurricanes late move for Max Domi shows team’s supreme self-confidence. Is it enough?."
