Carolina Hurricanes World Juniors Preview: Jake Bean

By Fansided and Charles Taylor/FanSided via Cardiac Cane
Published

With the Under-20 World Junior Championships approaching, we take a look at the Carolina Hurricanes prospects involved. This time, its defenseman Jake Bean.

Taken eight slots higher than his fellow Carolina Hurricanes 1st rounder Julien Gauthier, Jake Bean is the most recent top defensive prospect to wear a Canes sweater. Bean is now the third straight top Carolina pick to be a defenseman. He joins some pretty great recent company including Noah Hanifin and Haydn Fleury.

Listed at 6’1 and 172 lbs, it is going to be a bit until Bean is physically mature enough play in the NHL. In fact, he was so small that he was totally bypassed in the WHL Bantam Draft. What he lacks in pure physicality he makes up with hockey sense and pure skill. He is an elite offensive defenseman.

Bean was drafted into a perfect situation. With Carolina currently loaded with young defensemen, he has plenty of time to develop. That means lots of reps in the WHL with the Calgary Hitmen and lots of opportunities with Canada’s national program.

In this year’s edition of the World Junior Championship, Bean will be representing Canada. He expects to feature as a top 4 defenseman paired with Montreal prospect Noah Juulsen. While he probably won’t be logging massive minutes 5v5 or any on the penalty kill, Bean should be a constant presence on the power play. His 24 goals in the WHL last year are reason enough to have him quarterback at least part of Canada’s power play.

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    Canes fans should expect to see a great offensive display from Bean. What they should focus on more is how well he performs defensively. It will be fascinating to see how Bean deals with bigger and faster forwards at the World Juniors. Bean has the hockey sense, but will he be able to keep up physically? That’s the question.

    So far this season, he hasn’t exactly affirmed that he can be a shutdown defenseman. After missing about two months with a broken arm, Bean returned to the Hitman and put up points like usual. While he is dynamic that way, his defense has sometimes left something to be desired. His -6 rating after only 8 games played is evidence of that.

    Bean has been the leader on the backend for Calgary, but with Canada, his role will be reduced slightly. Maybe with less responsibility, Bean’s true self will show at the tournament. After a rough start to the year, a chance like this could be what Bean needs to turn his season around.