Poll: Did The Carolina Hurricanes Improve This Offseason?

The Metropolitan Division is a meat grinder. In the five seasons since the NHL realigned into the current divisional structure, the Metro has produced 14 teams with 100 or more points, sent a team to the Stanley Cup Finals four times and won it on three occasions. The Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and New Jersey Devils have all been to the playoffs at least twice. Notoriously absent from that group is the eighth team in the division, the Carolina Hurricanes.

Not only have the Hurricanes failed to make the postseason in each of the five seasons they’ve been part of the Metro, but they haven’t even cracked 88 points during that period, instead topping out at 87 in 2016-17. Even before the realignment the Hurricanes hadn’t been finding any success, failing to reach the postseason since 2008-09. It’s been a long run of futility for the franchise, and this year looks like they’ll have another powerhouse division to take on with the Devils, Flyers and Blue Jackets all potentially taking steps forward while the Capitals and Penguins try to continue their dominance.

The other teams in the Hurricanes division aren’t going to get out of their way, meaning the only way to the top for Carolina is by improvement. With new ownership, management and coaching staff in place now is the time to try something different. That’s been shown in plenty of different examples this offseason, including most recently with the trade of scoring winger Jeff Skinner. Skinner was sent to Buffalo (and the Atlantic Division) for a package of picks and prospect Cliff Pu, in order to give the team a different look up front. That trade followed the draft blockbuster that sent Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin out west in exchange for Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland (and the rights to Adam Fox), which certainly shook up the roster construction for new head coach Rod Brind’Amour.

In free agency, Carolina shocked many by signing another defenseman in Calvin de Haan, and brought in Petr Mrazek to compete with Scott Darling for starts in goal. The team also drafted Andrei Svechnikov with the second-overall pick, and could get full-time contributions from prospects like Martin Necas and Janne Kuokkanen.

The question though now remains: did Carolina actually improve this offseason?

Up front the team still doesn’t have the first-line center they’ve been searching for since trading Eric Staal, despite his younger brother Jordan Staal and 25-year old Victor Rask being fine players. With time Necas may become that, but certainly shouldn’t be expected to shoulder that role this season. Even with the added skill of Svechnikov up front, it’s hard to imagine he and Ferland replacing the contributions of Skinner, Lindholm and outgoing free agent Derek Ryan right away. The improvement on defense is real, as Hamilton is close to being an elite offensive defenseman in the NHL and is basically the ceiling of what the team had hoped Hanifin had become. But it’s tough to think that de Haan really pushes the needle given that his addition comes at the expense of Trevor van Riemsdyk and Hayden Fleury’s playing time.

In goal, adding Mrazek doesn’t at all address the situation that they found themselves in last year after Darling struggled. In fact, there’s not much of a reason to believe that Mrzak will perform any better than Cam Ward did. Mrazek has shown potential in the past, but struggled immensely in Philadelphia and has shown real inconsistency in his game.

In aggregate, it doesn’t seem all that clear if the Hurricanes actually improved much this summer. To overcome some of the other teams in the Metro they’ll have to take a big step forward, and if some of their young players struggle there may be tough times coming. Do you think they’ll be able to jump up in the standings and make the playoffs? Or is another disappointing season coming in Carolina? Cast your vote and make sure to explain your thoughts in the comment section below.

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