The Carolina Hurricanes entered the 2023 NHL Draft with nine draft picks and left having made 10 selections.
The Canes once again targeted high-ceiling players, with an emphasis on undersized, but offensively gifted forwards.
Following the draft, Hurricanes AGM Darren Yorke gave his overall thoughts on Carolina's draft.
Here's what he had to say:
On Bradly Nadeau: Bradly Nadeau, our first-round selection, probably the best way to describe him is that he just scores goals. It’s pretty remarkable the types of goals he was able to score this year. Catch and shoot, scoring from distance, backhand, forehand and on top of that, he’s incredibly hard to play against. So you have this blend of competitiveness and you have this blend of this high-end offensive player that fits in exactly with what we want from our players.
On Felix Unger Sorum: Felix Unger Sorum is the youngest player in the draft, but on top of that, he sees the ice incredibly well. He’s a guy that we saw keep on getting better and better and better right from the November tournament all the way through till April. Worked his way up. Incredibly smart, playmaking. He’s able to put the players on his back hip and then spin off them and find the open man. Goes to the net, plays with a little bit of sandpaper. So it’s a kid that has a little bit more playmaking, but on top of that, a competitive player.
On Jayden Perron: Probably in a little bit similar sense to Unger Sorum, there's playmaking, high-end skill, and the ability to take the puck from the neutral zone and take it into the offensive zone. Able to spin off his checks. Headed to North Dakota following the similar footsteps of Jackson Blake. A kid that we know very well given that Brock [Sheahan] coached him two years ago. Again, a kid that we are very familiar with and excited for. We really didn’t expect to see him that late in the draft.
On Alexander Rykov: A benefit for us is that he missed some time last year, but he's one of the highest scoring all-time VHL players at 18-years old. Competitive, smart, playmaking. Able to handle the men, which isn’t something you normally see from an 18-year old, but a little bit in between Unger Sorem and Bradly Nadeau in his ability to make plays and at the same time score goals.
On Stanislav Yarovoy: Yarovoy went through the draft a couple of times and worked his way up this year playing regular shifts in the KHL. High-end skill, high-end compete, high-end motor. Really, sort of that Carolina prototypical forward. At the same point, he’s been able to score and produce against men which is not something you normally see from a 19-year old.
On Charles-Alexis Legault: Legault is a kid that we obviously know well since we have connections to the Quinnipiac organization. Plays the defensive style of game that we want to play, which you don’t normally see from college kids. He’s able to get up in the offensive zone, flush down the wall, seals off in the defensive zone, plays a really fast game, a defensive game, and that’s something that we want in our defensemen. He’s able to get up in the play and he’s a strong skater, so we’re looking forward to watching him grow in Quinnipiac.
On Ruslan Khazheyev: Ruslan Khazheyev is the first goalie that we took and he’s incredibly powerful, balanced, and has had unbelievable seasons the last few years in Russia. But our goalie coaches were just so impressed with the feet and the balance in combination with that power.
On Timur Muhanov: Timur Muhanov is hard-working and at the same point, as good as he is competitive, he’s probably just as smart offensively. Probably slipped in the draft a little bit because of his size which is really not entirely fair to him because of how hard he works and everything that he’s accomplished to this point.
On Michael Emerson: Emerson is another Chicago Steel player. Seems like we’ve taken advantage of that organization. They do such a good job in development and he probably would have gotten drafted last year, but he got hurt. Straight-line speed. He’s able to get the puck from the neutral zone to the net. Probably one of the best players in the USHL this past year with just being able to transport that puck and get it to the net. Happy to have him. Another player that’s going to North Dakota, so we got a lot of future Hurricanes being developed at North Dakota.
On Yegor Valmakin: Yegor Valmakin is a kid that we were impressed with how his season went as he got a little bit better in each and every game. So a kid that we’re happy to get right at the end of the draft.
On leaning more towards guys from organizations that the team has more connections with: There are guys that we probably have more connections to and we’ll use that information, but at the same time, we’ve got a great group of scouts that have logged a lot of miles. So they have a lot of connections to those organizations as well. Just because I haven’t seen them live, doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t seen them live. I think for our organization, it’s really just the balance of being able to utilize the live viewings and leverage that with the video, leverage that with all the connections that we have throughout the different leagues and at the end of the day we also have to balance that with where they fit on our list and who we may be able to get.
On taking advantage of the fact that some organizations are avoiding Russian players: I think every organization is going to look at that differently. We can’t really control what other organizations do and we can’t control what’s happening in the world. We’re just trying to make it as simple as possible and just draft the best player available. It just happens that the last few years, there’s been a little bit more Russians available to us in our draft list and where we take them, but it doesn’t matter if they’re Canadian, American, or Russian, we will really just take the best player that we have available.
On if the Russian-drafted players will be at this year's development camp: I haven’t looked into it too much. If they’re not able to come this year, we’ll get them next year, but the visa situation for these players isn’t a concern for us.