About Last Season: Ian Cole

[Anybodyhome]

I think Ian Cole has a couple seasons left in him, especially since he got what amounts to a season of rest in 2021-2022, skating the fewest minutes per game for him in recent memory. Ian Cole is most likely moving on as a free agent and he'll get paid a lot more than what the Canes would offer. But with Chatfield and Keane both on minimum contracts- they'll be paying 2 younger blueliners less than what Cole will cost. Nonetheless....

https://www.canescountry.com/2022/6/21/23177031/about-last-season-ian-cole-carolina-hurricanes-season-in-review

Ian Cole: 2021-22 By the Numbers

• Age: 33
• NHL Seasons: 11
• Scoring: 2 goals, 17 assists, 19 points in 75 games
• Playoff scoring: 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 points in 14 games
• Advanced statistics: 57.96 CF%, 54.37 SCF%, 56.48 xGF%, 54.22 GF%
• Contract status: Unrestricted free agent

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After seeing their season end at the hands of the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning in the past two seasons, the Carolina Hurricanes realized that Justin Williams wasn’t walking through that door - at least, not as a player. For all the playoff experience they had gained after wandering the wilderness for a decade, they were painfully short on grizzled veterans with Stanley Cups on their resumes. Jordan Staal is a superman, but even he can only do so much on his own.

Enter Ian Cole, the well-traveled defenseman who won two Cups with the Penguins and was universally regarded as one of the better locker-room guys in the NHL. The Hurricanes signed Cole to a one-year deal to do pretty much exactly what he delivered: anchor the third pairing, play with an edge, and gobble up some minutes to allow the likes of Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce to catch their breath without being a total horror show.

Mission accomplished.

Through the season a three-way rotation developed among Cole, Brendan Smith and Ethan Bear to make up the third pairing, when all were healthy. Cole was the constant, only missing seven games as a scratch.

Let’s talk about that “penalties taken: lots” notation for a second. Cole was the team leader in penalty minutes with 83, topping second-place Andrei Svechnikov by four PIMs. That’s the second-highest PIM total of his 11-year NHL career.

He was regularly used to kill penalties when he was available to do so, and he wasn’t bad at it: power play goals against with Cole on the ice were 3.53 per 60 minutes, second-lowest among Canes defensemen behind only Bear, who killed penalties much less frequently.

Cole wasn’t signed to score goals, so it’s little surprise that he was not the most prolific creator of offense. That made it even more surprising that it was him who knuckleballed a puck past Igor Shesterkin to give the Hurricanes a win in Game 2 against the Rangers.

Would the Canes bring Cole back for next year? Perhaps, if the price was right. But with Joey Keane and Jalen Chatfield waiting in the wings on minimum contracts, and Cole having been paid nearly $3 million last season, there’s a significant chance that some team will be willing to ante up for Cole for well more than the Hurricanes can or would be able to match.

It’s probably not fair to say that Cole didn’t live up to expectations. In fact, he’s exactly the reason why the grades are listed the way they are, and not just a “good season”/”bad season” continuum. Relative to what was expected when he signed, he met the mark. He wasn’t signed to be Jaccob Slavin, and he wasn’t. But for what the Hurricanes needed from him, he fit the bill pretty successfully.

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Anybodyhome

[MillionDollarCam]

Cole did fine for what we asked him to do (hold down the third pairing and block shots) but man alive did he take some bad penalties.

It’s time to see what Chatfield can do in that role.

I’d personally like to see:

Slavin - TDA

FA/Trade - Pesce

Skjei - Chatfield

Keane

 

[MillionDollarCam]

Good God… Cole definitely won’t be back and neither will Abby Labar who apparently was fugging Cole among other players while she was engaged.

Labar’s fiancé found out and called off the wedding and I assume Cole and his wife are probably having issues as well.

And… apparently Labar didn’t stop with Ian Cole…

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by MillionDollarCam

[kungfoodude]

Well.....you used to be able to fug your way to the top back in the day but I think those days are coming to an end.

Not sure Abby will be seeing any major sports news outlet anytime soon.

I hope that she didn't end up wrecking a bunch of other relationships on the team. 

Wow.

[MillionDollarCam]

7 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Well.....you used to be able to fug your way to the top back in the day but I think those days are coming to an end.

Not sure Abby will be seeing any major sports news outlet anytime soon.

I hope that she didn't end up wrecking a bunch of other relationships on the team. 

Wow.

Right… what a mess.

[KillerKat]

Holy poo. I always thought Abby was beautiful with a sexy voice and great hockey knowledge. She seemed like she did her job really well. She was on 99.9 a lot also. This is shocking AF.

Edited July 11, 2022 by KillerKat

[KillerKat]

Hopefully they dont fire her and she just ends up taking a year off and coming back. It would make interviewing with her awkward and may bring trouble with significant others, so not sure how that would work out.

[kungfoodude]

4 hours ago, KillerKat said:

Hopefully they dont fire her and she just ends up taking a year off and coming back. It would make interviewing with her awkward and may bring trouble with significant others, so not sure how that would work out.

Nah. She's definitely getting canned.

You can't be fuging the people you are interviewing as a journalist. Not to mention, if she fuged more than one Cane, they aren't going to want her around the organization potentially causing drama.

It does suck because she was good at her job. But, clearly her job wasn't as important as throwing pussy around. 

Damn. Never seen anyone fug up a promising career like that.

[Harbingers]

Speaking of, has there been any word on Tripp? 

[kungfoodude]

9 minutes ago, Harbingers said:

Speaking of, has there been any word on Tripp? 

Oh poo.....related???

[Raleigh PF]

2 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Oh poo.....related???

I don't think so. Tripp seemed happy enough sabotaging his own life. I hope he makes it back soon.

I doubt Abby is the first reporter to have an affair with an athlete. Typically, athletes are rather private so the risk is minimal, but for her to do so with a married man with children? 

And let's be fair, they are both at equally at fault. I hope Cole is dumped and really don't care what the return is.

[kungfoodude]

35 minutes ago, Raleigh PF said:

I don't think so. Tripp seemed happy enough sabotaging his own life. I hope he makes it back soon.

I doubt Abby is the first reporter to have an affair with an athlete. Typically, athletes are rather private so the risk is minimal, but for her to do so with a married man with children? 

And let's be fair, they are both at equally at fault. I hope Cole is dumped and really don't care what the return is.

Well apparently she got around, so I'd say she was likely the bigger issue.

Not that is absolves anyone of their personal responsibility.

Athletes get plenty thrown their way based on celebrity but you don't usually see this scenario. It's definitely far from a common occurrence.

[MillionDollarCam]

38 minutes ago, Raleigh PF said:

I don't think so. Tripp seemed happy enough sabotaging his own life. I hope he makes it back soon.

I doubt Abby is the first reporter to have an affair with an athlete. Typically, athletes are rather private so the risk is minimal, but for her to do so with a married man with children? 

And let's be fair, they are both at equally at fault. I hope Cole is dumped and really don't care what the return is.

Cole is a free agent but your point is still valid… two people fuged up and now two families are broken. Obviously feel bad for Labar’s fiancé but feel just as bad for Cole’s family.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, MillionDollarCam said:

Cole is a free agent but your point is still valid… two people fuged up and now two families are broken. Obviously feel bad for Labar’s fiancé but feel just as bad for Cole’s family.

I actually feel good for Kris Proctor. Thankfully it came out before the deed was done and they had kids or something like that.

It's gonna suck hard right now but he will eventually look back and be like, "Whew....dodged that bullet."