The youth movement has begun

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
Email Puck Drops

---

Two bits of news from the corner office at the RBC Center this week that seem to indicate the Canes are at least leaning toward a youth movement for 2010-11, if not yet committing to it wholeheartedly.

First, the smoke signals seem to indicate that Ray Whitney's time with the Canes may be numbered.  Chip Alexander talked to both Whitney and GM Jim Rutherford earlier this week, and reading between the lines it seems that Whitney and the Canes aren't seeing eye-to-eye on Whitney's potential earnings, never mind discussing the length of any new contract.  Sources I've spoken to also indicate that Whitney may be at the end of his road with the Canes, with the Canes hesitant to give Whitney a significant salary and Whitney believing (almost certainly correctly) that he will command a hefty salary on the open market.

The skeptical types might say, correctly, that last year the Canes said the same thing about Erik Cole and Chad LaRose, essentially writing both of them off before re-signing them early in the free-agency period.  The difference, though, is that last year the Canes were preparing for a playoff run that never came, and believing that the team who lost to the Penguins in the Eastern Conference final in 2009 could repeat history simply by coming back together was the prime motivation for re-signing Cole and LaRose.  This year, the three things that matter on Edwards Mill are the budget, the budget and the budget; Whitney at anything other than a significant discount from his $3.55 million salary for 2009-10 doesn't fit with any of those three goals.

Then today, Rutherford told Chip that the backup goalie question has been settled and Justin Peters has been anointed the backup goaltender for 2010-11, leaving Manny Legace to pursue an NHL contract elsewhere that he almost certainly earned after swooping in and saving the day when Cam Ward was hurt in November.  This is all well and good, and indicates that for the first time in a while (probably since the 2003 offseason) the Canes aren't going to look to plug holes with veterans; as we learned the past few years with the likes of Trevor Letowski, Andrew Hutchinson, John Grahame and Stephane Yelle, that idea seems to be the proverbial good idea in theory that never pans out well in practice.

However...

A disturbing trend of Paul Maurice-coached teams is the propensity to play the #1 goaltender in a high number of games.  In ten full seasons as an NHL head coach, Maurice has played his #1 goalie in more than 60 games six times, topped by Arturs Irbe's ridiculous 77-appearance 2000-01 season, tied for third all-time in NHL history in games played by a goalie.  Including the 2008-09 season, when Maurice took over in December and coached the final 57 games (or nearly 70%) of the season, the number rises to seven in eleven seasons.

Here's the full list:
2000-01: Arturs Irbe, 77 GP
1999-2000: Irbe, 75 GP
2006-07: Andrew Raycroft, 72 GP
(2008-09: Cam Ward, 68 GP)
2003-04: Kevin Weekes, 66 GP
2007-08: Vesa Toskala, 66 GP
1998-99: Irbe, 62 GP

The last thing the Canes need is for Peters to sit on the bench and make eighteen appearances in a season.  However, getting Maurice to change his ways in regards to goaltenders has proven difficult in the past.  Even this past season, when Ward was limited to 47 games due to various injuries, over half of those games came in one stretch when he started 24 in a row from December 16 until February 3, after which his back started acting up and he hit the bench for two months.  With Legace as the backup, 24 straight starts is still a very long stretch, but it's at least sort of OK since Legace is in no need of further development as an NHL goalie.  With Peters serving as Ward's caddy, his development will be severely stunted if he goes two months without seeing live fire in a game.

As I wrote at the start of the season, Canes backups have generally fallen into two categories: fall-on-your-face bad (Eric Fichaud, Tyler Moss, Jamie Storr) or good enough to eventually wrest the starting job from the incumbent (Trevor Kidd, Irbe, Weekes). Peters has shown signs that he will not belong to the former group, and no one expects him to supplant Ward as the starter anytime soon, if ever.  However, the Canes are doing a disservice to both goaltenders if Maurice insists on playing Ward 65 or 70 times next season.  Not only is Ward recovering from two injuries suffered this past season, but Peters has earned the shot to play regular minutes in the NHL. Playing Ward a manageable 50-55 games, with 30 or so starts thrown in for Peters along the way, is a good mix that should reward both goalies and keep them both fresh for the stretch run.  As we've seen with Grahame and Michael Leighton lately, irregular starts for a goalie keep him off-balance and more susceptible to inflated statistics. The Canes don't have the luxury to play Ward every game, nor does Peters deserve the table scraps that have so often been fed to Canes backups.  Will Maurice be able to snap his habit and give Peters the ice time he will hopefully earn?