Nadeau's brief NHL stint included his first goal, but it wasn't enough to solidify a spot. Assessing his impact and future potential.
Carolina Hurricanes' top prospect, Bradly Nadeau, appeared in six games this season while Eric Robinson and William Carrier were sidelined with injuries.
Now that both are back, Nadeau is headed back down to the Chicago Wolves in the AHL, so how did he do?
Most notably, the rookie scored his first career goal during this callup, rifling home a nice wrister for the opening goal of the Canes' game against the New York Islanders.
Nadeau's biggest asset is his scoring and while he had a few chances, 15 individual shot attempts, he only managed to get four on net.
It's not like the winger was playing with world beaters, the 20-year-old was averaging just 11:30 TOI per game on the Canes' fourth line, but you'd have hoped to see a little more volume on net from the kid, especially with getting some power play time.
I will also say though, he had a few nice setups too that his teammates just weren't able to find the finish on, so take that six-game point total with a grain of salt.
"It's a tough spot to throw him in," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "We'd have loved to see him on the power play more, but we didn't really have any. envision him ripping one-timers and we just hadn't had the opportunities yet. The 5v5 stuff, he's playing on the fourth line and it's tough to get him minutes, but he scored a nice goal, had the one off the post the one night. He's been around it."
If the Canes had had an injury to a top-six player, than perhaps Nadeau would have been able to get a better chance to showoff his skillset, but I actually liked how he carried himself in a bottom-six role.
I thought Nadeau acclimated himself very well to the checking game that was being asked of him as a fourth liner and he was never afraid to use his body or go to the tough areas.
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound winger isn't the biggest kid, but I was thoroughly impressed by his commitment to forechecking and his upped physicality (four hits, four blocks).
Multiple times, I saw him laying the body on the forecheck or taking a hit along the wall/at the blueline to make a play or get a clear and those are all the little things that one has to do to be a successful NHL player.
The physical side of the game was a big area of concern for me regarding Nadeau, but this stretch was really promising in that regard.
Another area of concern was the defensive side of his game, and while I saw improvements, there's still plenty of room to grow there.
Nadeau finished out the six-game stretch with a 53.64 CF%, meaning he generated more chances at 5v5 than is opponents did, but he struggled a bit with the quality that his line was giving up as he had just a 46.43 expected goals for percentage and and 38.89 high-danger chances for percentage.
It might not have seemed like things were that bad for him, but he was also propped up by fifth highest on-ice save percentage on the team at 0.957.
I think Nadeau has a bright future, but this is just a 20 year old kid we're talking about that was being asked to take on some tough assignments.
I believe it's for the best for Nadeau in the long run to get back to playing top minutes in Chicago, where he can continue to build his confidence and focus on the areas of the game that will make him an impact player.
If there was a spot for him, I think Nadeau would find his way more and more in the NHL, but that just isn't the case right now.
Carrier and Robinson are much bigger, more physical and fit the Hurricanes' ideal bottom-six, while Nadeau is a top-six score and he isn't better than any of the players ahead of him there.
He's in a bit of a limbo when it comes to the NHL, but I still think playing top minutes and dominating at the AHL level will be better for him than grinding away 10 minutes a night on the fourth line.
And if he keeps performing there like he's been known to, I think it won't be long before we see him again.
"I think the more games he gets under his belt, the more comfortable and more impactful he'll be," Brind'Amour said.
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