The Carolina Hurricanes have gotten some early work done with one of their depth forwards from the 2024-25 season. According to a team announcement, the Hurricanes have re-signed forward Juha Jääskä to a two-year contract worth $1.55MM. Per the team’s announcement, Jääskä’s contract will transition from a two-way agreement in 2025-26 to a one-way deal in 2026-27.
After quality back-to-back campaigns with the Finnish Liiga’s HIFK, the Hurricanes signed Jääskä as an international free agent toward the back half of the 2023-24 NHL season. In those two seasons, Jääskä scored 22 goals and 67 points in 113 games, with another five goals and 11 points in 13 postseason contests.
A little old to be considered a true prospect (27), Carolina first deployed Jääskä with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. He quickly reaffirmed the Hurricanes’ decision to sign him, scoring 12 goals and 33 points in 53 AHL contests. His scoring output was good for fifth on the team, and sat second among wingers behind prospect Bradly Nadeau.
Carolina rewarded Jääskä’s quality transition to North American hockey this past season. Spending all of January at the NHL level, Jääskä tallied three assists in 14 games with a +3 rating in a fourth-line role. Adding four more games played by the end of the campaign, Jääskä finished the 2024-25 season with four assists in 18 contests, averaging 8:56 of ice time.
It’s hard to make any assessment of Jääskä’s game at the NHL level in his brief stint. He responded well to head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system as evidenced by his 61.7% CorsiFor% at even strength, but he was deployed rather safely with 61.7% of his shift starts coming in the offensive zone. Depending on whether the Hurricanes rearrange their bottom-six this offseason, Jääskä is destined for a similar role with the organization next season.