Welcome to the fifth 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.
Today we take a look at a couple youngsters enjoying breakout seasons, as well as a prospect drafted way back in 2020 whose signing rights are set to expire this coming summer. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Justin Robidas
A player that I’ve been high on for many years, it feels validating to see Justin Robidas beginning to establish himself as a legitimate professional player. I’d watched him live in Gatineau multiple times when he was playing with the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League’s Val d’Or Foreurs and Quebec Remparts. What he lacks in size (he’s listed at 5-foot-8, 180 pounds — and that almost seems generous) he makes up for with sheer tenacity and great puck skill. He’s a very reliable player in all facets of the game and is a guy that coaches can lean on in key moments. On the Remparts’ championship team in the 2022-23 season, he led the team with 27 points in just 18 games.
After turning pro and spending the entire 2023-24 season in the ECHL, Robidas is now an AHLer and he’s arrived with a bang. As of this writing, he’s second on the Chicago Wolves with 22 points, and has a team-leading nine goals. He started the season slow in which there was obviously an adjustment period to a higher level of hockey, but as December rolled around he exploded offensively and has 15 of his 22 points in the last 13 games. The uptick in production and confidence can be credited to both Tyson Jost and Juha Jaaska getting summoned to the NHL, which has opened up a bigger role for Robidas to jump into. He’s also got one of the best mentors in the business, as his father is long-time NHLer Stephane Robidas.
Of course, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself because we’re still only talking about a 32-game AHL sample size, but I’m confident in my assessment that Robidas has an NHL future. He just plays the game the right way, and what he lacks in stature he more than makes up for with his heart. He leaves it all out on the ice every night, and can be a very effective offensive contributor when he gets hot and deployed in an attacking role. I’m confident enough to even say that if the Hurricanes had called him up today, he would not look out of place against NHL competition. However, with the rest of the season in Chicago and another summer of development, I would not be surprised to see him genuinely compete for an NHL roster spot next fall.
Andrey Krutov
A seventh-round pick just six months ago, Andrey Krutov’s development has gone about as well as you’d hope for a prospect drafted anywhere. Playing within the Nizhny Novgorod program over in Russia, he’s fast-tracked his way through the ranks this season. After an impressive 50 points in 41 Russian junior games last season was good enough to hear his name called by the Hurricanes on draft day, Krutov has now broken out in a major way. He quickly graduated from the junior level and exploded for Torpedo-Gorky of the VHL (Russia’s AHL equivalent) with 12 goals and six assists in just 30 games — proving that his goal-scoring ability can translate to the pro level. That impressive run of form earned him a recall to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), and he scored in just his second game!
18-year-old Andrei Krutov scored his first KHL goal in just second game! 👏 pic.twitter.com/JwQRhCwPas
— KHL (@khl_eng) January 11, 2025
What’s also incredible is that not only is Krutov playing in the KHL — he’s skating on their first line! For an 18-year-old player who was in the junior league just three months ago, I cannot stress enough just how impressive of a feat that is. Teenagers historically very rarely earn much trust from coaching staffs in the KHL, so the fact that Krutov is already in a top-six role should speak volumes about where he’s at as a player and how much the team likes him. He’s billed as an exceptional puck handler and he has a nose for putting the puck in the net. Of course, it’s very early in the development process and he has a long way to go, but the strides that he’s already taken are borderline unheard of for a seventh-rounder. This could end up becoming a home run pick if he continues this trajectory.
Lucas Mercuri
Lucas Mercuri is a prospect that the Hurricanes will have to make a decision on this coming summer, as his signing rights are set to expire on Aug. 15, 2025. He’s a big-bodied center who’s now in his final of four years at UMass-Amherst. At this stage of the proceedings, I still can’t say for sure whether he will get a pro contract or not. Now a senior, Mercuri has four goals and 14 points in 21 games — which currently has him tied for fifth on his team. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s important to note that his offensive production really hasn’t progressed the way you would hope. His points-per-game this season is currently below where he was at as a junior last season.
The redeeming qualities for Mercuri are his size (6-foot-3, 195 pounds) and overall game. He’s a very strong presence in the faceoff dot, routinely winning over 60% of the draws he’s taken this season at the college level. He uses his size to protect the puck on the cycle, and can bring a bit of physicality. The Hurricanes will have to decide if that’s enough to warrant a contract slot. I feel like he’s worth developing, but he’s still quite a raw project and will turn 23 in March. There’s also the question of just how much NHL upside he might have considering he doesn’t bring a ton to the table offensively, even in college, which limits his pro outlook. It’ll be interesting to see how he finishes his season, and what the Hurricanes will decide to do.
Related: 3 Hurricanes Prospects Whose Stock Is Falling
As always, 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, therefore adding more players to their system, which has helped this prospect group grow into one of the deepest in the NHL.
