Hurricanes send former first-round pick to AHL

Going down with a shoulder injury shortly before the opening of the regular season, Ryan Suzuki had been on the Season-Opening Injured Reserve for the Carolina Hurricanes through the first month of the year. Now that he is healthy, Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal reports Suzuki has been assigned to the Springfield Thunderbirds of the AHL.

Suzuki, who was a first-round selection of Carolina back in the 2019 NHL Draft, will be joining Dylan Coghlan and Jamieson Rees in Springfield as the only other members of the Hurricanes organization.

For a number of reasons, Suzuki has failed to move up the depth chart in Carolina, spending the last three seasons with the team’s former AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. In what was his most productive season last year, Suzuki notched 13 goals and 19 assists in 50 total games.

In Springfield, Suzuki will now find himself on a team competing in a hotly contested North Division in the AHL. However, Suzuki will be competing for minutes of his own, as the Thunderbirds have formed one of the AHL’s best top lines in the game through Adam Gaudette, Matthew Peca and Nathan Walker.