Hurricanes NHLE update
Another month has gone by without the NHL but some the Hurricanes players have been busy playing hockey in different leagues overseas. As of this post, there are now five players on the Hurricanes roster who are playing in European leagues to stay fresh during the lockout with Jamie McBain being the latest addition. The young defenseman decided to go on a short-stint with the Lahti Pelicans of Finland's SM-Liiga at the beginning of the month. He initially planned to stay for only a few games but it looks like he may stick around for a bit longer now that the lockout has gone into December. Jussi Jokinen also decided to extend his stay in Finland by playing a few more games with SM-Liiga's Karpat HC this month.
Now that these players have some more games under their belt, we'll take an updated look at what their performance would look like if they were in the NHL during this time using Gabe Desjardins' NHL equivalency values. If you need a refresher on what those are, I outlined it in last month's post on this topic.
We'll move onto this month after the jump.
European Leagues
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | P/G | Trans | NHLE | Pts/82 |
| Evgenii Dadonov | Dombass | KHL | 30 | 10 | 13 | 23 | 0.77 | 0.64 | 19 | 52 |
| Jiri Tlusty | Kladno | Czech | 21 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 0.95 | 0.70 | 15 | 58 |
| Jussi Jokinen | Karpat | SM-Liiga | 14 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 1.00 | 0.54 | 8 | 44 |
| Gregory Hofmann | Davos | Swiss | 25 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 0.64 | 0.28 | 7 | 23 |
| Alex Semin | Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo | KHL | 11 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 0.73 | 0.60 | 7 | 49 |
| Jamie McBain | Kahti | SM-Liiga | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.17 | 0.09 | 1 | 7 |
| Anthony Stewart | Nottingham | EIHL | 17 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 0.65 | |||
| Andreas Nodl | Innsbruck HC | Austria | 17 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 0.88 | |||
| Erik Karlsson | Frolunda U20 | SuerElit | 18 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 1.11 |
- Among Carolina players who are on the roster now, Jiri Tlusty appears to be having the most success overseas. He is scoring at almost a point-per-game rate in the Czech league and is making the most of his time on the top-line. Tlusty is in a good situation there, getting to play with line-mates such as Jaromir Jagr and Tomas Plekanec but he appears to be more than just a passenger there. His 20 points in 21 games would equate to 15 points at the NHL level and if he continues scoring at this pace, he would have a pretty good season offensively. We got to see Tlusty take a huge step forward last year and his play in the Czech league could show that it wasn't a complete fluke like some think.
- It's easy to forget that Dadonov is still part of the organization since he was only acquired last winter, but he is doing very well for himself in the KHL. Unfortunately, we may never get to see Dadonov play with the Hurricanes because he seems to like it more in the KHL but he is definitely showing off his talent this year. It is worth remembering that Dadonov had some moderate success with the Florida Panthers despite his underwhelming AHL offensive numbers. Maybe it was all about getting the ice time?
- Semin's numbers thus far are a bit underwhelming but he hasn't played in as many games as his peers since he started the season in a different league. Still, I would have expeted him to have more than two goals at this point but I'm sure this isn't anything to fret over.
- McBain's first month with the Pelicans? Underwhelming to say the least if you go by his point total. Judging a defenseman based on that stat alone is silly, though but there isn't enough footage/information available for us to get a closer look at McBain's performance.
- To put Anthony Stewart's in the EIHL into context, Paul Bissonnette is playing in the same league and has 18 points in 8 games. I'm fairly sure that he is the only other NHL-er in that league, too. Stewart has done well for himself in the United Kingdom but he's got some catching up to do to get to Bissonette's level there, apparently. It's too bad that there isn't much information available about the league Andreas Nodl is playing in or I would draw up bad comparison for him, too. Both players seem to be doing well in their respective leagues, though.
- Hofmann's 16 points in 25 games are pretty impressive, considering that he is only 20 and doing this in a professional league that has seen a recent talent influx.
- Carolina's fourth round pick from this year, Erik Karlsson, is having a pretty good year in Sweden's under 20 league. However, it's worth noting that the competition level there is relatively low compared to what others are facing. Probably best to wait a year and see what he does at the next step.
North American Leagues
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | P/G | Trans | NHLE | Pts/82 |
| Zach Boychuk | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 13 | 6 | 19 | 0.95 | 0.42 | 8 | 34 |
| Justin Faulk | Charlotte | AHL | 17 | 3 | 14 | 17 | 1.00 | 0.44 | 7 | 36 |
| Zac Dalpe | Charlotte | AHL | 19 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 0.79 | 0.35 | 7 | 28 |
| Drayson Bowman | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 11 | 3 | 14 | 0.70 | 0.31 | 6 | 25 |
| Brett Sutter | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 0.65 | 0.29 | 6 | 23 |
| Chris Terry | Charlotte | AHL | 17 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 0.76 | 0.34 | 6 | 28 |
| Ryan Murphy | Kitchener | OHL | 29 | 4 | 17 | 21 | 0.72 | 0.19 | 5 | 15 |
| Brock McGinn | Guelph | OHL | 29 | 6 | 15 | 21 | 0.72 | 0.19 | 5 | 15 |
| Bobby Sanguinetti | Charlotte | AHL | 19 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 0.63 | 0.28 | 5 | 23 |
| Trevor Carrick | Mississauga | OHL | 24 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 0.71 | 0.18 | 4 | 15 |
| Marc-Andre Gragnani | Charlotte | AHL | 12 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0.83 | 0.37 | 4 | 30 |
| Jerome Samson | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.50 | 0.22 | 4 | 18 |
| Riley Nash | Charlotte | AHL | 19 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0.47 | 0.21 | 4 | 17 |
| Phil Di Giuseppe | Michigan | CCHA | 13 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0.62 | 0.25 | 3 | 21 |
| Jeremy Welsh | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.35 | 0.15 | 3 | 13 |
| Michal Jordan | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0.30 | 0.13 | 3 | 11 |
| Keegan Lowe | Edmonton | WHL | 22 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 0.45 | 0.12 | 3 | 10 |
| Victor Rask (AHL) | Charlotte | AHL | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.50 | 0.22 | 2 | 18 |
| Tim wallace | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.20 | 0.09 | 2 | 7 |
| Nicolas Blanchard | Charlotte | AHL | 20 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.20 | 0.09 | 2 | 7 |
| Justin Krueger | Charlotte | AHL | 13 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0.31 | 0.14 | 2 | 11 |
| Brett Bellemore | Charlotte | AHL | 19 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.21 | 0.09 | 2 | 8 |
| Tyler Stahl | Victoria | WHL | 18 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.33 | 0.09 | 2 | 7 |
| Rasmus Rissanen | Charlotte | AHL | 19 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0.16 | 0.07 | 1 | 6 |
| Danny Biega | Harvard | ECAC | 7 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0.43 | 0.18 | 1 | 14 |
| Victor Rask (WHL) | Calgary | WHL | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.80 | 0.21 | 1 | 17 |
| Sean Dolan | Charlotte | AHL | 17 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.12 | 0.05 | 1 | 4 |
| Mark Alt | Minnesota | WCHA | 14 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.14 | 0.06 | 1 | 5 |
| Austin Levi | Plymouth | OHL | 10 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0.30 | 0.08 | 1 | 6 |
| Justin Soryal | Charlotte | AHL | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0.25 | 0.11 | 0 | 9 | |
| Jared Staal | Charlotte | AHL | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0.13 | 0.06 | 0 | 5 | |
| AJ Jenks | Charlotte | AHL | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.17 | 0.07 | 0 | 6 |
| Brendan Woods | Wisconsin | WCHA | 11 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.09 | 0.04 | 0 | 3 |
| Tommi Kivisto (AHL) | Charlotte | AHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Justin Shugg | Florida | ECHL | 16 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 1.00 | 0.26 | ||
| Tommi Kivisto (ECHL) | Florida | ECHL | 19 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.53 | 0.14 | ||
| Brody Sutter | Florida | ECHL | 15 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0.40 | 0.10 | ||
| Beau Schmitz | Florida | ECHL | 18 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.11 | 0.03 | ||
| AJ Jenks (ECHL) | Florida | ECHL | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
- Unsurprisingly, the organization's best AHL performers are at the top of this list with Boychuk leading the way. His producing so far would only equate to a modest point total in the NHL, though. Getting excited over sexy boxcar numbers can sometimes lead one to forget that the level of competition in the AHL still doesn't match what these players will face in the pros. No disrespect to Boychuk, as his fantastic start to the year would equate to decent numbers in the NHL, it's just worth remembering that a player's offense doesn't always carry over from one level to another.
- Justin Faulk easily has the most impressive scoring line among any player here. He is scoring at a pont-per-game rate as a defenseman, which is pretty great no matter what league you play in.
- Dalpe is much higher on this list than he was a month ago, which is probably due to the scoring run he went on not too long ago. He is in the same realm as Boychuk where his current point total would equate to modest numbers in the NHL but the fact that he is improving is a good sign.
- None of the Canes junior prospects are really blowing away their competition, although Ryan Murphy has been really heating up over the last month or so.
- Justin Shugg would probably be in the AHL if it wasn't for the lockout and the high number of bodies on the Checkers right now. I wouldn't say that he has been dominant with the Everblades, as there are other players in the ECHL scoring at ridiculous rates, but he is obviously playing extremely well and scoring at a point-per-game rate.
