It’s been an exciting offseason in Carolina.
Now the team is equally excited about the season at hand, and the prospect of making the playoffs for the first time since 2009.
“We think we’re right there,” GM Ron Francis said on Tuesday, in announcing head coach Bill Peters’ contract extension through 2019. “We want to get in the playoffs, and we want to have success around here.”
Hired with little fanfare two years ago, there’s a sense Peters has finished the unglamorous dirty work in shaping the team, and teaching players how he wants the game to be played.
Now is the time to see the fruits of his labor.
In his first season behind the bench, the former Mike Babcock assistant was working with an expensive, older, mediocre group that included the likes of Alex Semin, Eric Staal, Tim Gleason and John-Michael Liles. The group wasn’t especially inspiring, and all the guys mentioned are now gone.
Next season, the ‘Canes project to be a different lot.
They’ll boast a young, dynamic group of players aged 24 or younger: Justin Faulk, Jeff Skinner, Victor Rask, Elias Lindholm, Brett Pesce, Jaccob Slavin, Teuvo Teravainen, Noah Hanifin and Sebastian Aho, to name a few.
These are all a positive changes for Peters, who is clearly a coach on the rise. He was named the bench boss for Team Canada at the world championships, and led the country to gold. This fall, he’ll reprise his role as Babcock’s assistant for Canada at the World Cup of Hockey.
“When you go back a couple years ago, there were a lot of questions about who we had hired,” Francis explained. "[Peters] wasn’t really well known, but in the two years he’s been here, he’s done a tremendous job.”
Put it all together, and it’s easy to see why optimism in Carolina is so high. Though the roster will be young next year, it’s absolutely loaded with talent and there’s good reason to believe they’ve got the right coach to lead the group.
If there is one thing that could dampen enthusiasm, though, it’s the club’s goalie situation.
Francis made the curious move of bringing Cam Ward back on a two-year deal, resurrecting the Ward-Eddie Lack tandem that struggled at times last season.
Peters was extremely patient and protective of his netminders during that spell, but with expectations raised, that tone might change.