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Pre-Season Preview: Carolina Hurricanes

Mar 28, 2024; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho (20) and center Seth Jarvis (24) look on against the Detroit Red Wings during the second period at PNC Arena. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

I have fired up my BigOl’JetAirliner to do a recon of each and every team the Winnipeg Jets will have to face in the upcoming campaign. When the wheels eventually touch back down in good ol’ River Heights, I hope to have a good idea of our competition’s key players/prospects, their strengths & weaknesses, and the overall depth of each franchise. To assist with that last topic, I opted to use the projected line ups provided by DailyFaceOff.com but since the visual display of the lines was better on PuckPedia, I ended up using that site to create the graphics included in the articles. Thanks to both of those helpful sites.

With four cities under my belt, I took off from Calgary heading for the state of North Carolina with the hope that I would find a parking place for my plane near Raleigh’s PNC Arena.

CAROLINA HURRICANES:

The Canes were one of the best teams in last year’s regular season, finishing with 1 more point than our Winnipeg Jets to end with the 3rd best record (111 pts). Carolina tied for 7th in goals scored (279) and was even better defensively (216 GA for 4th least in the NHL). Head coach Rod Brind’Amour had the 2023-24 squad playing really well as they finished with the 3rd best goal differential (+63) behind the Dallas Stars & eventual Stanley Cup winning Florida Panthers. The franchise did take a real swing at making a run in the playoff by acquiring Jake Guentzel at the deadline (25 pts in 17 regular season games with CAR). However, the plan fell short as the Canes exited the playoffs in the 2nd round and the veteran sniper opted to sign elsewhere.

The Hurricanes are coming off 6 straight post-season appearances, but did have a lot of changes to deal with this summer. Starting off, with Don Waddell’s resignation tendered, the franchise now has a new General Manager in Eric Tulsky. An advanced statistics guru that holds 27 patents in the United States related to his prior career in nanotechnology, Carolina appears to have hired an intellectual fellow to try to lead them to Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The changes continued with the player personnel, as the Canes lost several key players from last season: F Guentzel (77 pts b/w PIT/CAR), F Teuvo Teravainen (56 pts), D Brett Pesce (13 pts), D Brady Skjei (47 pts), & F Stefan Noesen (37 pts). To help fill in some of those holes, the GM brought in the following skaters: F Jack Roslovic (31 pts in 59 gms b/w CLM/NYR), F William Carrier (8 pts in 39 gms w/ VEG), D Sean Walker (39 pts in 81 gms b/w PHI/COL), & D Shayne Gostisbehere (56 pts in 81 gms w/ DET). Possibly the biggest bright spots of the off-season for Carolina were the key re-signings of Martin Necas (bridge) & Seth Jarvis (long-term).

At this point, the Hurricanes only have $79,913 to spend under the cap, but with Jesper Fast heading to long-term injury reserve they get an extra $2.4M to play with. Carolina currently only has 13 forwards at the NHL level because of that, so could be looking to add someone externally or internally (discussed further in lower section).

Lets take a look at a possible opening day roster for the Carolina Hurricanes via PuckPedia’s graphic.

I opted to use PuckPedia’s predicted lineup this time, since DailyFaceOff had 19 yr old Bradly Nadeau as the 2nd line left winger and I wasn’t certain how probable that was. I opted to go to the fans at the Carolina Hurricanes’ fansite Canes Country for some advice. From the replies, the theme seemed to be the expectations were high for their top unit of Sebastian Aho (89 pts in 78 gms), Andrei Svechnikov (52 pts in 59 gms), & Jarvis (67 pts in 81 gms). However, there also wasn’t much consensus on the lines because the fans felt it wasn’t exactly clear who the 2nd line center would be and they may end up having too many bottom sixers on the roster (thanks to ColdAsNice & jbwhite99). The most in-depth response came from a Hurricanes’ fan with the username of Ecupirate07, who shared his wisdom with me in the following post.

To translate some of the short-hand in the opening sentences, the thought was that the 30th overall selection of the 2023 draft (Nadeau), the 62nd pick of that same draft (Felix Unger Sorum), the 109th selection of the 2021 draft (Jackson Blake), and the 60th pick of the 2022 draft (Gleb Trikozov) would be fighting for a top six role. Nadeau is a 5’10” right-handed forward that had 46 pts in 37 NCAA games with the University of Maine last season. Unger Sorum is a 18 yr old 5’11” right winger who played with Leksands of the SHL (15 pts in 35 gms) and internationally for Sweden (30 pts in 37 gms). Blake was a later round selection but I have always noticed him on the ice when he played internationally for the United States. The 21 yr old American plays a gritty style, but also possesses a scoring touch as shown by his 22 goals & 60 points in 40 games with the University of North Dakota. The 6’1″ Trikozov is someone I know very little about, however his PuckPedia page shows that he scored fairly well in Russia’s lower leagues (MHL/VHL) with 39 points in 49 games. Other than that, the Cane fan also aptly outlined some of the behind-the-scene factors that could also play a role in who eventually wins the spot and provided some potential line up options.

There are questions on how the bottom nine will pan out, with fans hoping that players like 27 yr old Roslovic, 24 yr old Jesperi Kotkaniemi (27 pts in 79 gms), 32 yr old Jordan Martinook (32 pts in 82 gms), and 24 yr old Jack Drury (27 pts in 74 gms) are able to provide the level of play required to make the team a Cup Contender.

With an average age of 31.7 for the projected six starters on defense, the Hurricanes will have plenty of experience on the blueline in 2024-25. Carolina should get the bonus of offensive contributions from the backend, with 39 yr old Brent Burns (43 pts) leading the way in that aspect. But 30 yr old Jaccob Slavin (37 pts), 33 yr old Dmitry Orlov (26 pts), 28 yr old Jalen Chatfield (22 pts), and the previously mentioned Gostisbehere & Walker should all chip in regularly.

In between the pipes, the 34 yr old Frederik Andersen had problems staying healthy last season, but was stellar when he was on the ice (1.84 GAA/.932%/16 gms). Fortunately Carolina doesn’t have to rely entirely on the veteran because they have 25 yr old Pyotr Kochetkov (2.33 GAA/.911%/42 gms) in the fold.

PROBABLE FATE:

In prior articles I had mentioned that the Atlantic Division might be the toughest one in the NHL, but the Metropolitan Division could come close to challenging that. With the unfortunate Columbus Blue Jackets (RIP Johnny & Matthew Gaudreau) as the only franchise not truly expected to make a run at one of the East’s playoff spots, things won’t be easy for the Metro teams.

Despite possibly taking a bit of a step back at the forward position, the Carolina Hurricanes have improved the offensive potential from the defensemen with the additions of Gostisbehere & Walker. The Canes can rely on solid goaltending assisted by a responsible 2-way team system….that should make up for the possibility that they might fall towards the middle of the pack in goals scoring.

Even though teams like the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals, & Philadelphia Flyers would like to overtake the Canes in the standings in 2024-25, I believe it will remain a two way race between the New York Rangers & Carolina Hurricanes for the division title. Should be another fun season to be a Canes’ fan.

UP NEXT: The Chicago Blackhawks…..

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