When Hurricanes fans envisioned No. 2 pick Andrei Svechnikov suiting up this season, they likely didn’t see him skating alonside Lucas Wallmark and Jordan Martinook.
No disrespect to those two, but as bottom-six forwards they were expected to play a much different role than a player projected to be a prolific goal scorer and make an immediate impact. But head coach Rod Brind’Amour wanted to ease Svechnikov and allow him to learn the defensive game, so to the fourth line he went (it has since been upgraded to the third line).