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2025-26 Canes Miscellaneous Thread

Groin, one assumes. That usually the deal when goalies float in and out of availability like he did in camp. Maybe he can join the team in Vegas and just give Cali a pass. The schedule kicks up a notch at that point.
 
Seems like you need a better option than PK. He’s sometimes good but too inconsistent and seems like as a young player you should be a little more (a lot more) bullet proof.
 
Need to see what we have in Bussi and if he can be a reliable 2. I doubt it, but you never know. If not, they will HAVE to get a long term option at the deadline or this summer at the very latest. Can’t go into next year with these issues.
 
The team will practice at 10 this morning and then we should get an update on Slavin. If he’s not available, I imagine that Charles-Alexis Legault will be recalled from Chicago and Reilly will step into the lineup. Miller and Chatfield will become the de facto first pair.
 
Slavin is not on the ice and Janky has replaced KK as 4C. Miller is now paired with Walker and Reilly is with Chatfield.

Ehlers - Aho - Jarvis
Svechnikov - Stankoven - Blake
Martinook - Staal - Carrier
Hall - Jankowski - Robinson
Kotkaniemi

Miller - Walker
Nikishin - Gostisbehere
Reilly - Chatfield

Andersen | Bussi
 
Not sure what the defensive usage will be if they have to adjust to having Slavin out for more than a couple of games. If it's longer term, I suspect that the staff will shift to Chatfield with Miller and hope for the best otherwise. Miller and Walker should be able to hold their own with heavy defensive usage in the short run but you're asking a lot of a guy who has only played two games in the system.
 
Walt Ruff checked in from that presser this morning.

Slavin ... still being evaluated, no word on travel status. Hint ... that ain't good news.

Kochetkov ... not traveling today. Could join the team later on. Hint ... also not good news.

Bussi ... will probably get a start on the roadie. Good idea, since Freddie is still Freddie and might turn to ash if forced to play more than three consecutive games.
 
No Slavin for more than a couple games on a roadie that long will hurt more than anything else...him not playing any time in the pre-season was concerning enough, something now lingering or getting worse is brutal for this team.
 
CanadaCanes said:
No Slavin for more than a couple games on a roadie that long will hurt more than anything else...him not playing any time in the pre-season was concerning enough, something now lingering or getting worse is brutal for this team.
Click to expand...
At least Reilly is capable of plugging a short term hole, certainly moreso than Riley Stillman. But long term, it’s an issue because someone has to fill those minutes, especially on the PK. Nikishin played 1:30 on the PK on Saturday, 3rd most among dmen behind Walker and Slavin (who only played 1:32 on the PK). Every dman got some PK time, even Ghost.
 
Agreed, any time Slavin is not available is a concern. When we had Skjei and Orlov around, you had a vet who could take those heavy defensive minutes. We don't have that experienced depth anymore. Miller has the experience, but only 2 actual games playing our system. Nikishin has 2 actual regular season NHL games altogether. Ghost obviously is not a good option for taking many dzone starts. Reilly has experience but again, not in our system.

You don't want to tell the forwards to do anything differently because Slavin is out. Our goalies are going to need to step up a bit. This team should be capable of outscoring the loss of Slavin for a period of time.
 
The news (or no news) about Slavin is deeply concerning, but maybe it will prompt a quicker integration of the newer players. When I took on a job earlier in my career that was a big jump in responsibilities, I asked my boss what training will be required. He replied, "full immersion".
 
It’s better it happens in game 2 than game 75. This team can survive the early season without Slavin. If not, then they aren’t as good as we thought. Florida and Tampa have both survived, and won cups, playing without major pieces for long stretches of the season. It’s not doom and gloom. They’ll be fine
 
Oh, you would absolutely prefer that Slavin miss time now rather than late in the season. For one thing, it's early days and most everybody is still kind of settling in, and for another you have time to deal with it if it ends up being long term. That said, Brindy's pretty good as signaling the severity of these things and he didn't sound terribly concerned after the game on Saturday. It's more than likely that he tweaked that knee that he had surgery on this summer and just needs to keep working the PT.

On that note, should Carolina need to make a move on D, they might be looking to the trade market rather than the depth chart. Legault has made strides but I don't think anyone thinks he's ready for a full time NHL role right now. Maybe next year. Maybe. Reilly is a nice option at No. 7 because he's never all that bad and can give you PP time if you need that. But he's VERY limited. Nikishin is obviously capable of handling more than he's been given thus far, but he's also green to the point where you're probably going to get high event results (lots of good, lots of bad) similar to what he dished out on Saturday night. That's not really the Canes' way. There's cap room to make a move, but obviously they would rather look for more high impact options down the road. Still, they have almost $11 million in Cap space on paper. In reality it's more like $8 million because you need to budget for Nikishin's sizable bonus structure. I think he maxes out at $3 million but you don't want to be shoving that off to next year unless you have to.
 
I suspect Slavin is still recovering from his surgery he had over the summer. Probably jumped into regular season games with no preseason, and pushed it a bit much.
 
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