Gold: Drury, Jarvis give glimpse of future

By Adam Gold radio host 99.9 the Fan

Less than 48 hours until opening night and the Carolina Hurricanes still have a couple of future fan-favorites hanging around the veterans. Jack Drury, Carolina’s second round pick in the 2018 draft -- aka, the Svechnidraft -- and Seth Jarvis, the 13th overall selection two years later. Two very different players, each with very bright futures who may play roles sooner than expected.

Only one will start the season with the Hurricanes.

Drury has serious hockey bloodlines. Not quite the Sutter, Staal or Howe type, but his father, Ted, played in over 400 NHL games in eight seasons. Meanwhile, Uncle Chris is a former captain of the Rangers and co-captained the Buffalo Sabres when the team lost to the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2006.

Drury is talented, competitive and smart as a whip. He profiles likely as a 3rd line center, but NHL talent evaluators rave about his hockey IQ and the word that most comes up in Drury discussions is “winner”. With his junior season at Harvard about to be canceled, Drury made the decision to play professionally overseas and it worked out great.

He scored 10 goals and registered 31 points in 40 games for Vaxjo in the Swedish Elite League and was named one of the three finalists for the league’s rookie of the year. Then, he stepped his game up further, scoring five times and totaling 11 points in 14 games -- second most in the league -- as Vaxjo won the Swedish championship. As a sophomore, Drury led the Crimson with 20 goals and added 19 assists in 28 games.

Drury is going to kill it for Carolina’s American Hockey League affiliate in Chicago.

While Jack is on the roster today, when Thursday rolls around, and the Hurricanes activate Vincent Trocheck off the injured list, Drury will head to the Wolves to play a lot of minutes in high leverage situations. Drury is only rostered now to help create more Long Term Injury (LTIR) cap room with Jake Gardiner sidelined for the season.

With Drury on the roster when the season began Tuesday it stretched the LTIR exemption to almost $3.5 million. That's still short of Gardiner's $4.05 cap number, but better than roughly $2.6 million. Drury’s 925,000 NHL salary will come off the books as soon as he’s sent to the minors and the Hurricanes can build some available cap space if needed during the season.

UPDATE: The Hurricanes made that roster adjustment Tuesday. So, Drury is now in the American Hockey League and Trocheck is on the active roster.

Jarvis, whom the Hurricanes selected with the draft pick acquired when they absorbed the contract of Patrick Marleau from the Toronto Maple Leafs is a future top-6 scorer. Speedy, creative and unafraid of those scoring areas in the middle of the ice, Jarvis opened enough eyes without scoring a goal in the preseason to warrant a free, 9-game trial with the Canes.

“He certainly doesn’t look like a teenager”, head coach Rod Brind’Amour said after Carolina’s 3rd preseason game against a Nashville Predators line up that was representative of their entire NHL squad. “That was a real team he was going up against and he looks like he belongs in this league, that’s for sure.”

Well, the rules state that the Hurricanes can test drive the 24 car for 9 regular season games before they have to put the 19-year old on the actual roster or return him to his junior hockey team in the Western Hockey League. Smart money says that Jarvis is a long shot to create enough of a stir in the first 3 weeks of the season to keep here, but I believe that Brind’Amour is approaching this with an open mind and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he’ll give the team no choice but to keep him.

But, where does he play? When does he play? In which situations? How often?

I would not expect to see Jarvis in the opening night line up against the Islanders. First of all New York would be a hard team against which to make your maiden NHL voyage. I’m not saying that you have to protect him, but given 100% health to the regulars, I would expect Brind’Amour to utilize all the veterans at his disposal.

Let’s be honest, Jarvis isn’t going to be on a 4th line, and he’s not going to supplant Teuvo Teravainen or Martin Necas, so when he does eventually draw into the line up, it will be with Jordan Staal at center. Could you see a line of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Staal and Jarvis? Why not. The head coach once centered a line with Bates Battaglia and a rookie named Erik Cole. That worked out okay.

While it’s not a certainty, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jarvis get some time on the power play when he’s in the line up. Not sure who’d be coming off either of the top two units, but Jarvis moves the puck well and has excellent vision that’s an asset on the man advantage.

As for how many games he’ll get, well, that will be determined by what happens in those games. If Jarvis leaves the brass no choice but to keep him, then the Hurricanes will have made their team significantly better. If Jarvis is still more promise and potential than production, then by the morning of November 4th, after the Hurricanes play in Chicago, he’ll be on a plane back to Portland to join the Winterhawks for his final season as an amateur.

For a team that is built to contend for a Stanley Cup today, it’s really good to know that there are future pieces of future contending Hurricanes teams on the way.