Logan Stankoven’s Shorthanded Success Offers Hurricanes Versatility

It’s probably fair to call the Stankoven penalty killing experiment a success. It lets Carolina keep the rest of the penalty-killing units unchanged, gives a young player a chance to take on a bigger role, and helps sustain the offensive pressure the Hurricanes like to have when shorthanded. All of that is positive. A young player growing into a penalty killer can help mitigate the loss when a veteran eventually departs the franchise, and also creates all sorts of shorthanded deployment options. This success may bring more benefits yet to be seen, but there is a slight hiccup.

Unit Swapping

The entire point of keeping Stankoven in Jarvis’ spot was to keep the rest of the roster together. It won the Stanley Cup, so it doesn’t need fixing, and the Carolina coaching staff is trying to maintain continuity. The downside is that it takes one of the Hurricanes’ most offensively-dynamic penalty killers this season out of a role he’s already starting to thrive in.

That said, Jarvis should retake his place when available. Before the season started, Jarvis was in the top ten for shorthanded goals since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, and Jarvis didn’t debut until 2022-23. He clearly offers a shorthanded threat, and he’s already mentally aligned with how the Hurricanes want to go about killing penalties. On the other hand, Stankoven is essentially taking his driving test in a NASCAR race.

The most interesting idea here is that head coach Rod Brind’Amour could use Stankoven to kill penalties situationally. If the Hurricanes are trailing late in a game, Stankoven could provide a greater shorthanded threat than a traditional killer who leaves the bench solely to prevent a power-play goal. Having different killing units for different situations would be remarkable, even by the Carolina kill’s lofty standards.

Carolina has every option it could ask for, and more, shorthanded. How the Hurricanes choose to line up once the roster is complete again will be up to the coaching staff. Truthfully, there may not be a wrong answer. This is the organization flexing its muscle, rather than an issue failing to be addressed. Stankoven has excelled, but has he done enough to join the ranks of the traditional shorthanded maestros? That’s the question Tim Gleason, Carolina’s penalty-kill coach, and Brind’Amour must answer between them.