Seth Jarvis is making things tough on the Hurricanes, in a very good way
The Carolina Hurricanes have a Seth Jarvis problem. It’s a really, really good problem to have, but a problem nevertheless.
What do you do when one of your top prospects has shown he’s ready for the NHL, when his coach has made it perfectly clear he sees Jarvis among his top nine forwards, when there’s no room for him on the roster and when there’s still nowhere it makes sense for Jarvis to go?
There are a lot of variables here, and regardless of how they’re crunched, it’s a tricky situation.
This much is clear: Jarvis, the 13th overall pick in the 2020 draft, is still very much an unfinished product, but has done what he needed to do to earn a roster spot, flashing speed and smarts and skill while making unbelievably confident plays with the puck in very tight spaces. After that it gets very hazy, very fast.
“He was impressive,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said after Tuesday’s preseason game against the Nashville Predators. “That’s all I can say. He looks like he belongs in this league, that’s for sure.”
The problem is the NHL’s agreement with the Canadian junior leagues that requires a 19-year-old player like Jarvis to be returned to his junior team — the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League — if he’s not on the NHL roster, at least until his junior season is over. (Jarvis could potentially join the Hurricanes in the playoffs.)
That takes away what would be the most logical option, sending Jarvis to the AHL to compete against older pros — where he held his own while the WHL was shut down during the pandemic — while being on call for spot NHL duty. That’s likely what will happen with Jack Drury, who was drafted as a college player and can be sent back and forth to the AHL.
The Hurricanes are left with an unappetizing choice between sending Jarvis back to the WHL, where he would be able to to play for Canada in the World Juniors but might not have that much else to gain, or keeping him on the NHL roster and carrying 14 forwards.
The latter would leave two forwards sitting out and not playing, one of which could be Jarvis most nights, especially if the Hurricanes carefully ration the 10 games he can play before activating a year of his contract. Many players have started their career with a nine-game NHL audition before heading back to their junior teams.
Neither is ideal.
But when Brind’Amour looks at a young player who can make the plays Jarvis is making, it’s hard to even think about him having to spend another year in junior hockey when he could be maturing and growing against better competition.
“Oh man, for sure,” the coach said. “That’s the problem with the system, unfortunately. There’s still a huge learning curve. Still a lot of mistakes being made. That’s just not being here and understanding it. But he’s a quick learner, from what I’ve seen in the time I’ve been with him. The system on kids like that, it definitely doesn’t help them.”
Then there’s Jarvis’ contract: if he play fewer than 10 NHL games, the first year of his three-year entry level deal gets pushed back as well. The Hurricanes are going to get more bang for their buck with Jarvis when he’s 20, 21 and 22 than when he’s 19, 20 and 21, no small consideration for a team that’s going to be pressed up against the upper limit. (Although a better third year could mean a bigger second contract. As noted earlier, it’s complicated.)
This isn’t like the old days, when any decent Hurricanes prospect who could skate without tripping over his own feet was all but awarded a preordained spot on the roster by default. Jarvis has earned this. He was the best player at the rookie tournament in Florida last month and hasn’t slowed down.
There will be a natural spot for Jarvis on the wing next season if the Hurricanes decide not to re-sign impending free agent Nino Niederreiter, but Jarvis is not playing along with their calendar. He’s making his case now.
“We’ll take a breath and see,” Brind’Amour said. “There’s a lot that goes into a decision like this. You don’t want to rush a kid for sure. That’s the worst thing you can do. But he’s doing all he can do. That’s what you like.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
