The Carolina Hurricanes haven’t had much to celebrate this year. Sitting sixth in the Metropolitan Division just two points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers, carrying a 19-18-7 record. There is a bright spot within the Hurricanes organization though.
It's their 2nd round pick of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Justin Faulk has been a force on their blue-line. The St. Paul, Minnesota native has put the team on his back this year. In doing so, he’s also on pace for a record setting season.
Justin was tied with Patrick Kane for the league lead in power-play goals with 12. That’s not even the good part yet. What makes this so note worthy is that Carolina’s power-play is ranked just 25th in the league with 22 goals in 131 tries with the man advantage. That’s a measly 16.7% which is only one of the many problems in Raleigh this season.
Considered very coachable, Justin is a stocky guy who can be very agile on his skates. He likes to play rough but is more disciplined than most players his size. He is the typical offensive defenseman being produced by the US developmental program.
If Justin keeps up the pace he is on, he will be one of only five players since the record was first recorded in 1967-68 to notch more than 40 percent of their team's power-play goals. Before the 2015-16 season got underway, Faulk had just 15 goals in 262 NHL games so this could end up either being his coming out party, or just a statistic found tucked away in someone’s note book somewhere.
Justin Faulk is scoring 54.5% of his teams power-play goals; that is the highest rate ever recorded. The next closest was Alex Ovechkin in the 2014-15 season when he finished with 41.7 percent of the Washington Capitals’ power-play goals. Let’s hope for Carolina’s sake that Justin Faulk has caught his stride, they could use a solid back bone as they maneuver their way through another re-tool/re-build and navigate through some tough decisions with Eric Staal and Jordan Staal. Which better player to step up than their big shot defender.