South Raleigh News

The Carolina Hurricanes have several promising prospects making headlines early in the season. Justin Poirier, an 18-year-old from Valleyfield, Quebec, is among them. He became the first player to score 50 goals in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) since Sidney Crosby's achievement in the 2003-04 season. Drafted by Carolina in the fifth round of this year's NHL Draft, Poirier leads the QMJHL with 17 goals and 31 points over just 18 games.

Poirier received QMJHL "Player of the Week" honors on November 4 after scoring eight points across two games. This included a four-goal game on November 1 that helped his team, Baie-Comeau Drakkar, defeat Gatineau Olympiques. Despite concerns about his height at 5-foot-9 during last year's draft process, Poirier continues to excel offensively.

"There are very few people who have scored as many goals as he had over the last two years in the CHL during their draft years," stated Darren Yorke, Canes' Associate General Manager. "He was probably a little undervalued unfortunately because he's not very tall, but all he does is score."

In NCAA hockey, Jayden Perron has begun his sophomore season with five points in nine games for the University of North Dakota. The third-round pick from last year aims to surpass his freshman total of 18 points and has focused on improving his speed.

"I want to keep working on my skating," Perron said. "I want to get faster and faster."

The Fighting Hawks face off against Denver University next weekend.

Meanwhile, Ruslan Khazheyev has made strides with Chicago Wolves in AHL after being called up due to Frederik Andersen's injury for Carolina Hurricanes. After an initial rough start with Bloomington Bison in ECHL, Khazheyev allowed only seven goals over three AHL games.

Chicago Wolves are showing signs of improvement under new head coach Cam Abbott despite a challenging start to their season with a record of 3-5-1-0.