RD Scott Morrow - UMass, NCAA (2021, 40th, CAR)

[AhosDatsyukian]

A lot of us thought Morrow would get a shot given Pesce and Skjei were pending UFAs. However, we signed Gostisbehere and Sean Walker so we still have 6 signed NHL D men. I think the plan is that Morrow will spend most of the year learning the professional game. He has PP QB abilities but could really use a season or even two in the minors to round out his game. Carolina expects a lot from our defensemen and if we have a weak link defensively we are very easily exploitable with our man-to-man system. I imagine Morrow will get some games with the inevitable injury, but also he'll have to compete with Riley Stillman. Prospects are never given an NHL job under Rod. They have to earn it.

Next year will be interesting. Nikishin will come over and almost assuredly take a top 6 spot. Burns and Orlov are UFAs. The logic is to replace them both with Nikishin and Morrow but such a thing is far from guaranteed. Burns in fact could probably Chara his way into a couple more seasons with less and less ice time.

Burns amazingly looks better than he did last year even to start the year last year (of course, long season ahead but still). I would not be surprised if he keeps his spot here next to Slavin for 2-3 more years and only after that dropping down the lineup -- of course that can change fast for a player his age.

If he really wants to chase records he's within reach of both Kessel's ironman streak and Marleau's GP record. The only other thing he's missing is a Cup and not many better places than Carolina to try to get one for the foreseeable future. 3 years gives him ironman record, 4-5 years gives him the GP I believe. Far from a guarantee but I think it wouldn't be a bad bet to think the Canes win 1 cup in the next 4-5 years.

My prediction is he continues to play for Carolina for at least 2 more years after this one. If that winds up being true, I'm honestly not really too sure where Morrow would slot in within the next couple years. Chatfield has 3 years, Walker has 5. Giving Walker 5 years was quite curious to me with Morrow waiting in the wings. I suppose it's possible they could trade one of those 2, but otherwise Rod doesn't like to play D on their off wings and obviously Slavin is a lock as well as Nikishin and Ghost is around for a while. There just isn't much space for him here and he could wind up being a trade candidate for a forward upgrade in the next 1-2 years.