Sportsnet: Cory Lavalette on the Jeff Marek Show on the Carolina Hurricanes season so far and if they look to deal from their position of strength on the blue line to fill another area.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “How would you describe the Canes here now that the quarter mark has come and gone?
Lavalette: “Well, I think it’s, it’s rounding into form now. It’s, it’s better than it had been. A lot of that is, you know, and I did, anybody who’s been a writer or in media or anything has had situations where they’ve done a whole bunch of work on something and then it all just kind of fell apart. And before the season I said, it, has there been a better, you know, defense group on paper than what the Hurricanes have put together here in the cap era?
With the additions of Dimitri Orlov and, and Tony D’Angelo, and what he was able to do in Carolina the first time around. And then they put Orlov and DeAngelo together and it just did not work. It was definitely a glaring problem and I, you know, you don’t want to pin it on one guy sometimes those things just don’t go well.
And I’m not saying that’s the only reason they had their, their up and down start. Certainly goaltending play, part of that too. But it feels like maybe it’s kind of getting righted now. I know you’re a big Pyotr Kochetkov fan. He’ll make his third straight star night and he’s had two consecutive good appearances so maybe they can lean on him a little bit with Frederick Anderson on the shelf still.
And questions about, you know, when/if he’ll be back. He was around again today in the player lounge. but when you’re dealing with stuff like that, that involves blood clots, I mean, can you even get on a plane and go somewhere you know, that’s what sticks out in my mind.
So the defense either getting, getting fixed I think is a big thing and I don’t think that means Tony DeAngelo is the permanent seventh defenseman. It’s just he played so well with Jaccob Slavin and now that that spot isn’t open, you know, Brent Burns is on that side and Brent Burns doesn’t get hurt. So (not) that’s changing or at least doesn’t get hurt and stop playing.
So, you know, I think you know, Jalen Chatfield and Orlov have looked good together. So we’ll see what happens with the defense going forward, but it looks better now. With that with those six that have played right now, but it meant the on the flip side, it hurts the power play. So you know, it’s not easy being an NHL coach and Rod Brind’amour learns that I guess every week.
Marek: “Can you see Don Waddell moving one of these defenseman? I mean, I think we’ve wondered even though they just signed him, we wonder about Tony DeAngelo. But can you see Carolina moving one of these D. I mean, they are negotiating from a position of strength if they do so.”
Lavalette: “I you know, I think they’ve they’ve sniffed around on that a little bit. I heard that they may have been in on a couple things that would have involved D’Angelo going the other way. But obviously, those haven’t, haven’t panned out.
You know, they like Tony. I think they liked me in the room. They liked what he brings offensively. It’s just if he’d if there’s not a home for him with a, with a guy on the other side, it becomes tough to cover up, you know, some of his deficiencies defensively. And it doesn’t make them a bad player, but it makes him one that you have to have the right fit with and they’re not in a position to take Jacob SLavin away from Brent Burns and put those two together again at this point.
So I could see something happening. But at the same time you love having depth you know you love having depth and having somebody you know, knows how to play your system and after, you know, after the DeAngelo the next step would be Dylan Coghlan with, with Caleb Jones obviously, haven’t been traded in the preseason. So yeah, so it’s a little bit of a conundrum, I’d say.”
