With the NHL season now just underway, we continue our look at what each team has done this summer and what to watch for in the year to come. Next up is a look at the Carolina Hurricanes.
Last Season: 36-35-11 record (83 points), sixth in the Metropolitan Division (missed the playoffs)
Remaining Cap Space: $15.35MM per CapFriendly
Key Additions: D Calvin de Haan (free agent, NY Islanders), F Micheal Ferland (trade with Calgary), D Dougie Hamilton (trade with Calgary), F Jordan Martinook (trade with Arizona), G Curtis McElhinney (waivers, Toronto),G Petr Mrazek (free agent, Philadelphia), F Andrei Svechnikov (draft)
Key Subtractions: D Klas Dahlbeck (free agent, CSKA Moscow, KHL), F Marcus Kruger (trade with Arizona), F Joakim Nordstrom (free agent, Boston), Derek Ryan (free agent, Columbus), F Jeff Skinner (trade with Buffalo), F Lee Stempniak (free agent, Boston – PTO), Cam Ward (free agent, Chicago)
[Related: Hurricanes Depth Chart From Roster Resource]
Player To Watch: G Scott Darling – A little over a year ago, the Hurricanes thought they had found their goalie of the future in Darling. They acquired his negotiation rights from Chicago and quickly worked out a four-year, $16.6MM deal with a 15-team no-trade clause. To put it nicely, their return on that deal was not very good in the first season.
The 29-year-old wound up losing the number one job relatively quickly and wound up in basically a platoon situation with Ward, who had the better numbers overall. Darling finished up last season with a 3.18 GAA and a .888 SV%, numbers that were below average for a backup let alone a starter and were the worst of his career by a significant margin.
Carolina conceded that they couldn’t bring back the same tandem for this season which resulted in Ward moving on. Darling has once again been given the opportunity to grab a hold of that top job but will be delayed in starting his campaign after suffering a lower-body injury that will sideline him for multiple weeks. How he fares will go a long way towards determining what type of success, if any, the Hurricanes have and if Darling has a repeat performance of last season, they’re going to once again be looking for that goalie of the future.
Key Storyline: It’s quite rare for a team to be spending almost as much on their seven defensemen as their entire forward unit but that’s the case in Carolina as their back end is within less than $200K of their forwards despite the fact they have 14 on their roster (including injured reserve). Their back end is quite enviable and at some point, it’s fair to wonder when they’re going to deal from it to fill another hole.
In the early going, the ‘Canes have Brett Pesce on their third pairing who finds himself in the first year of a six-year, $24.15MM contract. He has clearly established himself as a top-four defender so while having that extra higher-quality depth is nice, could it be better used filling a vacancy inside their largely inexperienced top-six?
However, given their commitment to Pesce, he’s probably not the one that would move. Instead, that would be veteran Justin Faulk who was widely made available over the offseason. As a legitimate top-four option himself with two years left on a reasonable contract ($4.83MM), he’s the type of player that could bring back a significant return so if they want to add to their forwards or simply shake up their team further, he’s someone that could be moved in the coming months.
Generally speaking, it’s nice to have a quality back end like Carolina does but with their self-imposed budgetary constraints (they’re at the bottom in league spending), can they afford to be spending as much on their defense corps as their forwards? If they determine the answer to that question is no, expect some movement on that front this season.
Overall Outlook: The Hurricanes have clearly embraced a youth movement up front so there are going to be some growing pains. Between that and a still shaky situation between the pipes, it’s hard to envision them being serious contenders in the Metropolitan Division. If all goes well, a Wild Card berth isn’t impossible but a likelier outcome is them extending their playoff drought to a tenth straight season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.