The choice of Bean at 13th overall further bolsters the organization’s wealth of young talent on the blue line. Beginning with Ryan Murphy in 2011 and continuing with Haydn Fleury, Noah Hanifin and now Bean, the Hurricanes used four of their last five top choices on defensemen. They’ve also hit on many picks in later rounds, with Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin making the jump from Charlotte to the NHL early last season and others, including Trevor Carrick and Roland McKeown, also waiting their turn.
Prior to the recent run on defensemen, the Hurricanes had used seven of their previous eight first-round draft choices on forwards.
Bean, a 6-foot-1, 173-pound native of Calgary, Alberta, where he has apparently made acquaintances with recent Checkers Zach Boychuk and Brody Sutter, scored 64 points (24g, 40a) in 68 games with his hometown Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League last season.
Shortly after choosing Bean, the Hurricanes added some depth at forward with the selection of Gauthier, a 6-foot-4, 224-pound winger from Val-d’Or of the Quebec Major Junior league. The nephew of former NHL defenseman Denis Gauthier, he scored 57 points, including 41 goals that tied for the sixth-highest total in the league, in just 54 games last season.
Both players, who Carolina selected from the Canadian junior system, are not eligible to start in the AHL next season. The agreement between those junior leagues and the NHL states that a player must turn 20 by Dec. 31 of a given season to do so. For Bean, who has a June birthday, that would mean 2018, while Gauthier (October birthday) would be eligible in 2017.
