Welcome to the second installment of the revived “Future Canes” prospect series. In this column, we take a look at Carolina Hurricanes prospects who are standing out and enjoying success, whether they’re playing in Canadian juniors, the American Hockey League (AHL), Europe, Russia, or anywhere around the world.
This week, we will take a look at a former first-round pick who’s had to overcome a ton of adversity on his path to the NHL. We’ll also highlight a couple of red-hot performers in Quebec and Russia, as well as talk about a very mysterious and bizarre situation with a certain goaltending prospect over in Russia.
Ryan Suzuki
While he seems unlikely to fulfill the top-six center potential expected of him when he was drafted, Ryan Suzuki remains an intriguing prospect in numerous ways. As a former first-round pick, there’s still hope, especially considering his rather unlucky injury history and that COVID-19 stalled his development.
The first of 12 selections by the Hurricanes in the 2019 NHL Draft that, at the time, looked to potentially be a historically good haul — Suzuki’s story, along with defenseman Domenick Fensore, are the last to be written. Five years later, nine of the other 12 picks have all but left the organization, and the other is Pyotr Kochetkov. It’s a cold reminder that there are no winners and losers on draft day, and now Suzuki holds the burden of being the difference between viewing the class as a success or as a major disappointment.
Related: Hurricanes Prospects: Artamonov, Vuollet, Honka & More
That said, this season will undoubtedly be the biggest of Suzuki’s career, and it could decide whether or not he has an NHL future. In the past five seasons, he’s played for four different teams and, due to injury and COVID-19 shutdowns, has only skated in 205 of the 356 games he was scheduled to participate in. He also suffered a serious eye injury in junior.
The pandemic ended his Ontario Hockey League (OHL) career prematurely and then sliced his rookie campaign in the American Hockey League (AHL) in half. He spent the 2023-24 season on loan to the Springfield Thunderbirds (the St. Louis Blues’ affiliate) because after the Hurricanes split with the Chicago Wolves, he didn’t have a suitable place to play within the organization. Now — finally — he has some stability.
The biggest beneficiary of the Hurricanes mending their working relationship with the Wolves may be Suzuki, who — for the first time since he was drafted — is healthy and in a perfect situation. He’s playing an important role in the Wolves’ top-nine and on their power play; and through three games is the team’s leading scorer.
He scored the team’s first goal of the season in their first game, and then in the second, he set up an overtime goal for their first win of 2024-25. His ability is on display with this goal — he carries the puck into the zone and feints to the middle of the ice, causing the defender to slide down to block the passing lane. He then steps around the defender and waits him out before sending a gorgeous cross-ice feed to Scott Morrow. A real touch of beauty.
Morrow’s OT beauty pic.twitter.com/sXy9uS0EVD
— Chicago Wolves (@Chicago_Wolves) October 20, 2024
He still has high-level patience, vision, hands and hockey sense, and he is still refining his game. He’s been held back by factors that are out of anyone’s control, but at age 23, he remains young enough to have a chance to take that next step. He’s both the biggest “what if” and the biggest question mark within the organization’s prospect system right now. While he’s been overshadowed by the emergence of others such as Jackson Blake and Felix Unger-Sorum, let this serve as a reminder that Suzuki still has a ton of untapped talent, and we shouldn’t forget about him just yet.
Justin Poirier
The first 17-year-old to score 50 goals in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) since Sidney Crosby, Justin Poirier is a player I’ve watched live twice, and I’ve always come away impressed. He generates a lot of power despite having a bit of a wonky stride, and when he gets moving, his top-end speed is quite high. His offensive IQ and ability to find the open spaces in the attacking zone is probably his best asset, along with his wicked release. His shot is a thing of beauty – high velocity and accurate. He is a very versatile attacking player who can score in bunches. His skill was on display when he easily batted a puck out of mid-air past the goaltender.
Un premier point dans la @LHJMQ pour Samuel Brunet sur ce magnifique jeu de Justin Poirier. 🤌#TousÀBord pic.twitter.com/ILBKX26GAx
— 🦀Drakkar de Baie-Comeau🦀 (@DrakkarBAC) October 4, 2024
The knock on Poirier is his size, at 5-foot-8, 170 pounds, but that hasn’t held back others his size, like Alex DeBrincat and Cole Caufield. I’m not suggesting that he can reach their level, but that’s what his ceiling could be. Through 10 games for Baie-Comeau Drakkar, he already has 8 goals and 13 points — he leads the team in both categories. If he stays healthy all season, he could surpass 60 goals and potentially lead theQMJHL in goals.
Quick Hits
Nikita Artamonov
A player I profiled in the first Future Canes series, Nikita Artamonov deserves an update because of his exceptional play. He’s up to 9 goals and 8 assists in 17 games, which ranks top-five in league scoring. He’s also been elevated to the first line. All of this is practically unheard of for teenagers in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ranks, much less for an 18-year-old 2nd-round pick.
For comparison’s sake — the Montreal Canadien’s 5th overall pick, Ivan Demidov, has 11 points in 18 games for his KHL team — which is also impressive — but Artamonov has out-performed him so far. If he can keep it up, this could be a record season for a teenager in that league’s history.
Yegor Naumov
Since being drafted in the 7th round by the Hurricanes in 2021, Yegor Naumov has cemented himself as the most mysterious prospect I have ever tracked. I spent nearly three seasons searching far and wide for an update on him and was left with nothing. Between 2021 and 2023, he did not play a single game anywhere. Finally, last season, he re-emerged with Arktika Murmansk of the Russian NMHL (a league that’s impossible to find info on — I believe it may be Junior-A level) and posted a 1-6-0 record with a 5.51 goals-against average (GAA) and a .891 save percentage (SV%).
Then he vanished again. He is no longer on Arktika’s roster. Through some digging, I discovered he had a summer try-out with Dynamo Molodechno of the Belarusian League, but I can’t find any updates on what came of it. He is not listed on their roster, either, so I must assume he was released. At this point, he’s played eight games since being selected well over three years ago.
He was always a longshot as a 7th-round pick, and at this stage, I think it’s possible there is a personal issue involved that has kept him away from the game. As such, I wish nothing but the best for Naumov, and I will continue to do my best to track down any updates on this situation.
The important thing to remember with prospects is that development is non-linear. Some players take longer to figure it out than others, and some players never do. Wisely, the Hurricanes’ philosophy over the past few drafts has been to trade back and add more picks, adding more players to their system, which has helped this prospect group grow into one of the deepest in the NHL.
