- The Hurricanes’ affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, announced (Twitter link) the re-signing of center Nikita Pavlychev and the signing of defenseman Jacob Friend to one-year contracts. Pavlychev had his best AHL performance last season, picking up 25 points in 63 games after primarily playing in the ECHL for the previous four years. As for Friend, he split last season between playing in Austria and Germany but has three years of playing in the minor pros in North America.
Hurricanes Rumors
Salary Cap Deep Dive: Carolina Hurricanes
Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those who don’t often see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2025-26 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia. We’re currently covering the Metropolitan Division, first up are the Hurricanes.
Carolina Hurricanes
Current Cap Hit: $84,855,709 (below the $95.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
F Jackson Blake (one year, $905.8K)
D Alexander Nikishin (one year, $925K)
F Logan Stankoven (one year, $814.1K)
Potential Bonuses
Nikishin: $3MM
Stankoven: $32.5K
Total: $3.0325MM
Blake and Stankoven will be on very team-friendly contracts for one more season before their long-term agreements kick in. We’ll cover them in more detail at that time while noting that Stankoven’s bonus is tied to games played; as long as he stays healthy, that should easily be met.
Nikishin’s long-awaited NHL debut wound up taking longer than expected as he didn’t suit up for Carolina right away after joining the team, leading to some brief concern that a formal agreement wouldn’t be finalized. But he ultimately signed and projects to be a regular for the Hurricanes this season. Some of the $1MM of ‘A’ bonuses might be reachable but the $2MM of ‘B’ bonuses are highly unlikely.
Signed Through 2025-26, Non-Entry-Level
G Frederik Andersen ($2MM, UFA)
F Mark Jankowski ($800K, UFA)
F Tyson Jost ($775K, UFA)
D Mike Reilly ($1.1MM, UFA)
Potential Bonuses
Andersen: $750K
Jankowski was a late-season pickup from Nashville and fared well with eight goals down the stretch. However, he has largely been a depth piece in his career so while a small raise is coming his way no matter what thanks to the pending increase in minimum salary, his next deal might not land too much higher than that. Jost was up and down last season and had a very limited role when he was in the lineup for the Hurricanes. As things stand, he’s someone who’s likely to remain around the minimum salary.
Reilly missed most of the season while recovering from a procedure on his heart to correct an issue discovered while he was out with a concussion. He has been more of a sixth or seventh defender in recent years and projects to land in that same range with the Hurricanes. That should keep him around this range moving forward.
When healthy, Andersen has been a decent starter but staying healthy has been a big challenge. He has failed to reach 35 games in three straight years and four of the last five. That particular games played mark is notable as that’s the first threshold of his bonuses for $250K with another $250K coming at 40 games (plus $250K if Carolina makes it back to the East Final and he plays in half the games or more). There isn’t much risk with this contract as if the injury issues return, he’s still a lower-cost second option while if he’s healthy and meets those bonuses, he’s probably going to provide a lot of value at that price. Because of the injuries, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him going year-to-year from here on out with structures similar to this.
Signed Through 2026-27
D Jalen Chatfield ($3MM, UFA)
D Shayne Gostisbehere ($3.2MM, UFA)
G Pyotr Kochetkov ($2MM, UFA)
F Jordan Martinook ($3.05MM, UFA)
F Jordan Staal ($2.9MM, UFA)
Martinook was more of a depth player over his first few seasons with the Hurricanes but has become one of their more versatile forwards and is often deployed in the middle six. The end result has been three straight seasons over 30 points. But even with the cap set to jump, it’s hard to forecast a sizable raise on his next contract. A few more years with a small raise might be doable though. Staal, on the other hand, took a big pay cut on this deal to stick around. He’ll be heading for his age-39 year in 2027-28 so a one-year deal with incentives is likely if he decides to keep playing with the combined value coming in around his current price tag.
Gostisbehere was brought back last summer for a second stint with the team to be a depth player at even strength but a power play specialist. He was exactly that, notching 27 of his 45 points with the man advantage. The even strength limitations and his smaller stature limit his earnings upside but this is a niche role he can fill for a few more years. If he has a couple more years of 40-plus points, an AAV starting with a four next time is doable on a short-term deal. Chatfield had largely been a third-pairing player until last season when he was trusted with a bigger role. He isn’t a big point producer but if he gets through these next two seasons around the 18-19-minute mark at the level he played last season, he could push past $4MM as well in 2027 on a longer-term agreement than the three-year pact he inked last summer.
Kochetkov’s contract was a curious one. Signed back in late 2022 with hardly any NHL time under his belt, it has aged pretty well so far as he has carried the bulk of the work for the first two seasons of the agreement. While his overall consistency is a bit spotty compared to some netminders, the good outweighs the bad and if you have a strong-side platoon goalie at this price, you’re doing well. If Kochetkov continues on this trajectory, his next deal could land around the $5MM mark.
Signed Through 2027-28
F Taylor Hall ($3.167MM, UFA)
Hall was the other part of the original Mikko Rantanen deal but unlike Rantanen, he decided he wanted to stick around. The former Hart Trophy winner certainly isn’t that caliber of player anymore although he’s still a decent secondary scorer. Even if he’s on the third line, if he stays around the 42 points he had last season, Carolina should do fine with this deal. He’ll be almost 38 heading into 2028-29, however, so one-year contracts are likely beyond this one.
Signed Through 2028-29
F Eric Robinson ($1.7MM, UFA)
F Andrei Svechnikov ($7.75MM, UFA)
D Sean Walker ($3.6MM, UFA)
Svechnikov bypassed the bridge contract to sign a max-term agreement four years ago with the hope that he’d be providing surplus value in the back half. He’s not quite there yet especially coming off a down year but his performance the previous two seasons suggests he can get to that level still. At a minimum, he’s a second liner with good size and physicality and with the forecasted jumps coming to the cap, he could beat this deal four years from now, even if he stays at his 2024-25 form. Robinson had a career year last season, fitting in extremely well in Carolina’s system for the first time, earning a four-year agreement in the process. For someone who has reached double digits in goals in three of the last four years, there’s a good chance this deal works out well in the long run.
Walker’s career year in 2023-24 landed him a five-year deal last summer and it looked like he had established himself as a second-pairing blueliner. His usage last season was a step back, however, ranking last out of their six regular defenders. This price tag is on the high side for a sixth option but right now, it’s a luxury they can easily afford.
East Notes: Robertson, Biondi, Gardner
Even if the Maple Leafs don’t plan on keeping winger Nicholas Robertson around long-term, they should do their best to settle with the restricted free agent before his arbitration hearing on Sunday, David Alter of The Hockey News opines.
He cites a recent example in Toronto, goaltender Ilya Samsonov, who had a one-year, $3.55MM deal handed down through arbitration for the 2023-24 season. Any trade value he had was tanked by his poor performance that year – something Samsonov admitted was influenced in part by the stress of the hearing – and he ended up on waivers and later left in free agency.
Players seeing their performance and confidence dip after an arbitration hearing isn’t a new phenomenon, and it’s something players are being more public about in the last few years. Hearing reasons laid out by your team for why you should be paid less than market value is an understandably unsettling experience. For the high-ceiling Robertson, who’s already had his development and confidence stunted by long strings of healthy scratches and limited deployment that led to a trade request last year, that’s not something Toronto can afford to saddle him with to continue getting positive value out of him, whether that’s via trade or with his on-ice play.
More news and notes out of the Eastern Conference:
- After going unsigned by the Canadiens, who drafted him in the fourth round in 2020, forward Blake Biondi will begin his pro career in the Hurricanes organization this season on a contract with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. The 23-year-old recently spoke to NHL.com’s Kurt Dusterberg about the significant injury-related and personal adversity he faced during his five-year run in college with the University of Minnesota-Duluth and Notre Dame, but called the opportunity with the Wolves “a great path for me” to continue his development toward landing an NHL contract. The former Minnesota high school star scored 12 goals and 27 points in 38 games last season for Notre Dame.
- While Canada’s NHL goaltending stable has been relatively weak in the past few years, Blue Jackets prospect Evan Gardner is a name to watch in the next wave of prospects hoping to change that, writes Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. The 2024 second-rounder has put up a pair of spectacular seasons in junior hockey for the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, leading the league in GAA and SV% in his draft year and posting totals of 2.46 and .917, respectively, in 74 career games for the Blades with seven shutouts. While he hasn’t logged any international experience for Canada, he’s on their roster for this week’s World Junior Summer Showcase and is looking to work his way onto their roster for the main WJC in the winter.
East Notes: Cristall, Blake, Sabres
Andrew Cristall was one of the biggest fallers of the 2023 draft, slipping to the Capitals in the second round at No. 40 overall despite some tabbing him as a potential top-10 pick. Concerns about his size – the winger checks in at 5’10” and 183 lbs – outweighed the offensive ceiling he displayed with 95 points in 54 games for the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets in his draft year.
In the two seasons since, the 20-year-old left winger has only improved and now, as he turns pro, will be given a legitimate chance to crack the Capitals’ opening night roster, general manager Chris Patrick told NHL.com’s Harvey Valentine. “He’s going to come in, if he has a camp like last camp, it’s going to be hard on the coaching staff to not keep him on their NHL team,” Patrick said.
His strong training camp showing with Washington last year preceeded an absolutely dominant junior campaign from Cristall in 2024-25, and that may be an understatement. He scored 28 goals and 60 points in just 28 games for the Rockets before a trade sent him to the Spokane Chiefs, where he finished the year with 72 points in only 29 games – a rate of 2.48 per game. That was good enough for the WHL scoring title with 132 points despite only playing in 57 of 68 regular-season games.
Cristall capped off his season with 21 goals and 41 points in 19 playoff games, leading the postseason in goals and being named a CHL First Team All-Star at season’s end. Now eligible for an assignment to AHL Hershey if he doesn’t crack the opening night roster, he’ll look to work his name into competition for a middle-six spot in Washington’s group as they deal with some turnover at the forward position.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference today:
- There was surprise when the Hurricanes recently announced an eight-year extension for winger Jackson Blake coming off his rookie season, but the organization had its eyes set on a long-term deal ever since the campaign began, GM Eric Tulsky said today. “We knew by mid-October that he was on a trajectory we were happy with,” Tulsky told Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal. “I think we knew all along that he was someone who, you know, had the potential to be a long term fit for us and who we were going to try and get something done with, if there was a way to do it.”
- The Sabres have extended their arena naming rights agreement with KeyBank by 10 years, the team announced today. The KeyBank Center, which was opened as Marine Midland Arena in 1996 and has also been known as HSBC Arena and First Niagara Center, will hold its name through at least the 2035-36 season. The initial naming agreement was signed by Marine Midland and remained in effect up until the coming season, as the name of the banking branch network in question changed hands multiple times over the last three decades.
$15.9MM Of Blake's Contract Deferred To 2034
Late Thursday, the Hurricanes raised some eyebrows when they signed winger Jackson Blake to an eight-year, $45MM contract extension after just one professional season. It was reported at the time that the deal carries some salary deferrals; PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that a total of $15.9MM in signing bonus money over five seasons in the agreement is deferred to July 1st, 2034, the day after the deal expires. In doing so, the cap hit goes from $5.625MM per season to $5.117MM. As part of the contract, Blake also gets a 10-team no-trade clause starting in July 2031 that will remain in place until 15 days before the 2034 trade deadline. Given that the other years of the deal cover RFA-eligible seasons, he wasn’t eligible for trade protection in those campaigns.
Hurricanes Sign Jackson Blake To Eight-Year Extension
The Hurricanes announced Thursday night that they’ve signed winger Jackson Blake to an eight-year, $45MM extension that will kick in for the 2026-27. While that would normally mean an average annual value and cap hit of $5.625MM, the actual cap hit of the contract will fall in the $5.1MM range due to deferred compensation, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. The contract buys out the extent of Blake’s RFA eligibility and will make him a UFA following the 2033-34 season.
Blake’s stock has been on the rise since immediately after Carolina selected him in the fourth round in 2021. He was a USHL All-Star in his post-draft season with the Chicago Steel before making the jump to NCAA hockey with North Dakota, where he totaled 102 points in 79 games in two seasons – earning a Hobey Baker finalist nod in his sophomore year. He signed his entry-level contract with the Hurricanes in April 2024 and joined them for the brief remainder of the regular season.
In his first full pro season, Blake hit the ground running. He made the Canes out of camp and had five points through his first nine games despite seeing less than 12 minutes of ice time per night. That offense didn’t quite hold up the rest of the way, though.
While he ended up seeing significant deployment alongside Sebastian Aho at even strength, he ended up finishing the year with a 17-17–34 scoring line in 80 games, finishing ninth on the team in scoring and ninth in Calder Trophy voting as the league’s Rookie of the Year. That’s fine production, especially considering he averaged under 14 minutes per game on the year. He’ll need to build on it to justify that cap hit, though, especially with so much risk attached to a max-term deal.
The good news is that Blake has another year left on his entry-level contract to continue his development before he’ll need to start justifying that cap hit. The son of former NHLer Jason Blake turns 22 next month, yet with this deal, he’s guaranteed to surpass his dad’s career earnings.
Carolina has historically opted to sign their young players for as long and as early as possible, a trend that continues here. Sometimes, it’s paid off – their eight-year, $59.4MM commitment to Seth Jarvis last offseason looks like a steal after he put up a repeat 67-point performance in 2024-25. There’s also the glaring example of where that strategy has failed regarding center Jesperi Kotkaniemi, whose $4.82MM cap hit looks more stomachable now with a rising ceiling but is still well above his market value four years into the deal. The jury is still out on newly-acquired Logan Stankoven, who they inked to an eight-year, $48MM extension at the beginning of the month.
Blake’s deal will be one of the last of its kind. It contains two elements – deferred compensation and an eight-year term – that will be outlawed when the new CBA Memorandum of Understanding takes effect on Sep. 15, 2026. If he waited until reaching RFA status next summer to sign, a lengthy negotiation could have lost him that eighth year if the two sides didn’t come to terms until the beginning of training camp.
With the salary cap’s Upper Limit projected to reach $104MM in 2026-27, the Hurricanes have around $16MM in projected space with Blake’s and Stankoven’s deals taken care of. While they’re projected to be Carolina’s 11th and 12th highest-paid forwards on their opening night roster this season, they’ll be their fifth and sixth-highest paid forwards in 2026-27.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.
Hurricanes Sign Ryan Suzuki, Ronan Seeley To Two-Way Deals
The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that they have signed forward Ryan Suzuki and defenseman Ronan Seeley to one-year, two-way contracts. Suzuki will earn $775K at the NHL level and $130K in the AHL, while Seeley will be paid $813,750 in the NHL or $80,000 in the AHL.
Suzuki, 24, made his NHL debut last season, appearing in two games for the Canes and recording a plus-one rating while averaging 6:36 of ice time per night. The team’s first-round pick in the 2019 draft (28th overall), Suzuki had a slow start to his pro career but found his scoring touch last season, recording 59 points in 69 games for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. That marked a 27-point jump from his previous career high. In 230 career AHL games, he has totaled 145 points.
Before turning pro, the 6’2″, 195-pound center appeared in 173 games for the OHL’s Barrie Colts (three seasons) and Saginaw Spirit (one season), where he put up 57 goals and 177 points. While Suzuki is likely to start next season in the AHL, he provides the organization with a quality depth piece if called upon.
Seeley, 22, was drafted by the Canes in the seventh round of the 2020 draft (208th overall). The 6’1″, 192-pound left-handed defender spent four seasons with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, where he produced 102 points in 190 games. He then got off to a solid start in his pro career, posting four goals and 25 points in 70 games for the Wolves during the 2022–23 season. However, he hasn’t been able to replicate that level of production over the past two seasons, totaling just 24 points in 127 games during that span.
Hurricanes Promote Daniel Bochner Among Multiple Staff Changes
The Carolina Hurricanes have announced multiple staff and structure changes across their hockey operations and management departments. Most notably, they’ve hired Daniel Bochner as a full-time development coach, after he spent the last two seasons in a part-time coaching role with both the Hurricanes and the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg. Bochner will move to Raleigh, from Russia, for this hire and work with both the NHL and AHL lineups.
Bochner has built up a rich career across the hockey world. He was originally born in Toronto, but began playing for Israel’s U18 club at the age of 15. He joined the club in their debut at the World Junior Championship Division-III tournament in 2001, and debuted with the country’s men’s roster at the World Championship Division-II tournament later that year. Bochner continued to be a fixture of Israel’s national roster through 2011, and racked up three points across 13 total appearances at the World Championship.
Bochner retired from his playing career in 2011, and turned towards head coaching with the Don Mills Flyers’ AAA club in 2013. He led the Flyers’ 2000-birth year through their 14U, 15U, and 16U seasons. Current Utah Mammoth forward Jack McBain served as the team’s captain in all three seasons. Bochner left Don Mills for a youth coach role with the KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan in 2016, briefly returned to coach the Vaughan Kings 14U AAA team in 2017, then moved full-time into a development coach role with SKA St. Petersburg in 2018.
His role with SKA included serving as a development coach for the KHL and MHL (junior) clubs, as well as with Russia’s National Men’s roster. He also served as an assistant coach for the KHL club from 2020 to 2023. Bochner’s role spanned some impressive rosters, and allowed him to work closely with top NHL skaters and prospects – including Yaroslav Askarov, Ivan Demidov, Matvei Michkov, Kirill Marchenko, and Hurricanes prospect Timur Kol. Bochner will now leave seven years with SKA behind to work full-time with Carolina’s top two rosters.
The Hurricanes have also announced that CBA-specialist Earl Schwartz has been promoted to the role of CBA and Salary Cap Analyst. He will the title of Compliance Assistant after three years in the role. Schwartz began his niched career publicly, writing CBA-related analysis for LeafsNation and a personal newsletter. Now, he’ll take another step forward in a Hurricanes organization that’s seen multiple staff take unconventional paths into their roles.
Carolina has further promoted Jorge Alves into the role of head equipment manager. He will take over for Bob Gorman, who has worked with the Hurricanes since 1976 and will continue to support the team in a reduced role. Alves will be joined by Patrick Budds, who has been promoted to assistant equipment manager from his role of equipment assistant. Filling that latter role will be CJ Reif, who worked with the Chicago Wolves last season.
The Hurricanes have also hired Zach Ellenthal and Dennis King as pro scouts. Ellenthal spent the last four seasons with the SHL’s Rogle BK, while King previously served in the Edmonton Oilers’ analytics department. King will join former Oilers peer Tyler Dellow in Carolina.
Carolina rounds out the hires with changes in their athletic training and nutrition rooms. Koryd Lavimoniere will step into an assistant trainer role after serving as the head trainer of the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds last season; and Kristin Pirigyi will move into a newly-created, full-time nutritionist role after previously serving as a nutrition consultant.
Photo courtesy of David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports.
Hurricanes Re-Sign Skyler Brind’Amour, Domenick Fensore
Jul. 16th: The Hurricanes confirmed Brind’Amour’s new contract via a team announcement. Carolina also announced that they’ve re-signed defenseman Domenick Fensore to a one-year, two-way contract. He’ll earn $775K at the NHL level and $70K at the AHL level, with $100K guaranteed.
Jul. 14th: Carolina has taken care of one of its remaining restricted free agents as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the Hurricanes have re-signed forward Skyler Brind’Amour to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay him $775K in the NHL, $90K in the AHL, and has a guaranteed payout of $100K.
The 25-year-old was originally a sixth-round pick by Edmonton back in 2017, going 177th overall. However, after playing his college action at Quinnipiac, he didn’t sign with the Oilers, instead joining AHL Charlotte on a one-year deal for 2022-23. After putting up eight points in 54 games with them, Brind’Amour inked a one-year, two-way pact with the Hurricanes for last season.
Brind’Amour spent most of 2024-25 with AHL Chicago and was a bit more productive than his professional debut, notching 16 goals and eight assists in 68 games. With Carolina sitting many players for the final two games to keep them healthy for the playoffs, Brind’Amour was among the players recalled from the Wolves and he picked up his first career NHL goal in the final game of the season.
Brind’Amour will require waivers now to return to the minors but it seems unlikely that he will be picked up off the waiver wire. Assuming he passes through unclaimed, he will once again serve as recallable depth for Carolina in 2025-26 and will once again be a restricted free agent next summer.
With the signing, the Hurricanes are now down to two remaining restricted free agents, both of whom primarily played for the Wolves last season – forward Ryan Suzuki, plus defensemen Ronan Seeley.
Hurricanes Expressed Interest In Retaining Burns, But With Reduced Role
The Carolina Hurricanes came into the offseason with a lot of cap space and were going to make a push to sign big-name free agents. Offensively, they did just that, signing free agent Nikolaj Ehlers to a six-year, $51MM deal. The team also seems eager to continue to bolster their offensive group and is reportedly eyeing Pittsburgh Penguins veterans Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust.
However, the team also revamped their defensive unit, highlighted by a sign-and-trade for K’Andre Miller, which sent right-shot defender Scott Morrow the other way, and the signing of depth defenseman Mike Reilly. The Hurricanes also opted to let veteran Brent Burns walk in free agency, though there was interest in keeping the potential Hall of Famer in a lesser role. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast, Carolina informed Burns that, should he stay with the team, his role would be diminished.
“In Carolina, it’s not that they didn’t want to keep him. It’s that they told him that his role was going to decrease. And I’ve seen this before. Even if players are being told the truth by their team, they have such pride and sometimes they like to go somewhere else and take a lesser role than the place where they already are,” Friedman said.
Friedman noted that the Hurricanes are satisfied with their current group of blueliners, believing they fit seamlessly into Coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system. Miller will undoubtedly be a key part of that system for years to come after signing an eight-year deal worth a total value of $60MM for $7.5MM per season. The Hurricanes will also likely rely on the continued development of Alexander Nikishin, who began his NHL career in the playoffs last season.
Burns eventually landed a one-year deal with the Avalanche. Burns, 40, comes to the Avalanche after registering 29 points in 82 games with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. While his offensive numbers dipped considerably in 2024-25, he still logged a hefty 20:57 of ice time per game on the season. He added five points in 15 playoff contests.