The annual Traverse City prospects tournament wrapped up last night, with the Hurricanes prospect team earning a fourth place finish for the second-straight year.
The Hurricanes kicked off the tournament with a tough 1-0 shutout loss at the hands of the hometown Detroit Red Wings. They followed that performance up with a pair of wild wins, storming back to topple the Dallas Stars and then fending off a late surge to best the Chicago Blackhawks, and earned themselves a shot at third place with a final matchup against St. Louis. They couldn’t pull out another victory, however, falling to the Blues and taking fourth place.
As mentioned in our tournament preview, the Hurricanes have stockpiled an impressive group of defensive prospects over the last few seasons. In Traverse City, everyone was able to see just how strong that corps could be. Of Carolina’s top five scorers in the tournament, three were defensemen. 2014 first-round pick Haydn Fleury led all defensemen and ranked third in the tournament overall with six points in four games, while the two college products on the blue line, Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin, turned in a solid three points over the four games. That’s a good sign of things to come for Checkers fans, as Pesce and Slavin have both turned pro and have a chance of starting their rookie seasons in Charlotte. The offensive flair they’ve shown would fit nicely along a blue line with proven AHL scorer Trevor Carrick, who netted a power-play goal while ripping a team-high 10 shots during the tournament. Fleury, still just 19 years old, will return to junior for another year should he not make the Hurricanes out of camp.
Up front, all eyes were once again on Sergey Tolchinsky. In his third appearance at the Traverse City tournament, the 20-year-old Russian again showed his ability to put the puck in the net, marking three goals in four games, the second-highest total in the tournament. Tolchinsky’s quickness and impressive hands remain his biggest assets, best evidenced by his three-point performance against Dallas, including the overtime game-winner. Perhaps most impressive, though, is the fact that his three goals came on just six shots. It’s obviously a very small sample size, but it’s a nice preview of what could become a lethal shot. With his strong performance, Tolchinsky comes away from the tournament having made a strong impression on many people, including opposing coaches.
“That Russian kid, he’s a good player,” Texas Stars head coach Derek Laxdal, who was behind the bench for Dallas’ prospect team, told Hockey's Future. “You could see what he did on the first goal. That’s a dangerous talent they have.”
In net, Rasmus Tirronen split time with 18-year-old Callum Booth. Tirronen appeared in three of the four games, going 1-2 with a goals-against average of 3.69 and a save percentage of .871. While his numbers were less than stellar, the 24-year-old Tirronen turned in solid 27 and 28-save performances in his two losses. His play in the team’s 1-0 loss to Detroit had Checkers head coach Mark Morris singing his praises.
“He was really solid, and I thought he made some great saves,” Morris told carolinahurricanes.com after that game. “Especially in the first period, he kept the game close, and when they poured it on in the second period, he put on quite a show”
The upcoming training camp will be where the native of Finland will have a chance to shine and secure the number two slot in Charlotte. He will presumably be up against 2012 third-round pick Daniel Altshuller in a competition to back up returning Checkers netminder Drew MacIntyre.
None of the four players on the Traverse City roster who spent last season in Charlotte (Brock McGinn, Trevor Carrick, Phil Di Giuseppe and Carter Sandlak) put up much in terms of numbers during the tournament. Di Giuseppe led the group with three tallies, while Sandlak and Carrick each notched one point and McGinn did not find the scoresheet (though he only appeared in three games). But while they did not find much in the way of production, they gained some leadership experience, with McGinn captaining the team and Sandlak and Carrick serving as alternate captains.
While a fourth-place finish obviously wasn’t the goal heading into the tournament, Morris seems to have taken away many positives.
“Big picture, I think there were a lot of pluses”, Morris told the Hurricanes’ site. “We were adapting to some of the systems and style of hockey that we want to play. When we executed, it was fun to watch and we scored a pile of goals. I think the guys learned some lessons about the fact that you have to bring it more and more against higher caliber competition. You really can’t take any shifts off, and hopefully the guys take that lesson from this experience.”
The prospects will now head back to Raleigh for the start of Hurricanes training camp this Friday.
