Carolina Hurricanes: Andrei Svechnikov deserves larger role

The Carolina Hurricanes are rightfully searching to add goal scorers. What they might not know is they already have an underutilized one in Andrei Svechnikov.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one – the Carolina Hurricanes are struggling to score goals. Even after Thursday night’s four goal outburst against the Montreal Canadiens, they’ve still only scored 76 goals in 30 games. Only the Los Angeles Kings have fewer.

This isn’t a new issue for the Hurricanes. It’s something they’ve struggled with for a while. Perhaps that’s why the Hurricanes were elated when they awarded the second overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. This gave them the opportunity to draft dynamic goal scoring forward Andrei Svechnikov.

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New owner Thomas Dundon is rightfully desiring to add another scorer to his team. After all, you can never have too many good goal scorers. But here’s the thing – the Hurricanes already have a goal scorer in Svechnikov. And he’s underutilized.

Though Svechnikov has earned more playing time as the season has progressed, if you look at his five-on-five time on ice per game, he’s their ninth-most used forward. His most common linemate this season has been Lucas Wallmark. In fact, Svechnikov has spent 282 minutes and 40 seconds with him at five-on-five and a shade under 67 minutes away with him.

At five-on-five, Wallmark has the ninth-lowest points per hour rate among Hurricanes forwards at 0.95. Meanwhile, Svechnikov’s 1.72 points per hour rate is fourth among Canes forwards. His calling card when he was drafted was his goal scoring. Thus far, Svechnikov is worth the hype, as his 0.86 goals per hour rate ranks second on the team, trailing only Michel Ferland.

It’s baffling why the Hurricanes aren’t using him more often. Sure, Svechnikov’s defense is still a work in progress. But he has already proven to be one of their most dangerous offensive weapons despite playing a lot of minutes with someone who struggles to score.

Last night against the Montreal Canadiens, the Hurricanes put Svechnikov with Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen on the top line. He rewarded them with the first multi-goal game of his game. Hopefully for the Hurricanes, Svechnikov will get more playing time as he continues to grow into one of their best forwards.