Pro Hockey Rumors

The offseason has arrived with the draft and free agency fast approaching.  Accordingly, it’s time to look at what each team needs to accomplish this summer.  Next up is a look at Carolina.

For the fifth straight season, the Hurricanes advanced past the opening round of the playoffs.  For the second time in three years, they made it to the Eastern Conference Final but this time, they were quickly eliminated by Florida.  It’s not very often that a team that gets this far in the playoffs has the ability to take some big swings but GM Eric Tulsky is well-positioned to try to do just that to fill some big needs the roster has.

Add A Second-Line Center

With Sebastian Aho locked up through 2031-32, Carolina’s top center is in place for the long haul.  Jordan Staal is nearing the end of his career but was a reliable third liner this season and continues to be sharp at the faceoff dot so he’s a safe bet to be in that role again in 2025-26.  But in between those two, there’s an opening that needs to be filled.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi was supposed to be that piece for them after being brought over from Montreal via a successful offer sheet.  But over his four seasons with the team, he has yet to reach 20 goals and has only reached 35-plus points once.  If it weren’t for the fact that they enter the summer with a whopping $26.7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, there might be a case to make for buying out the remainder of his contract since he still qualifies for a lower one-third cost instead of the standard two-thirds.  But with the flexibility they have, they can keep him around and continue to hope that the 2018 third-overall pick will break through.

But hoping for improvement can’t be Plan A down the middle for the Hurricanes next season.  Jack Roslovic was brought in as a low-cost piece to see if he could play his way into that role.  He had some good moments and a quiet 22 goals but it seems unlikely that he returns after being scratched multiple times in the playoffs.  With much more flexibility cap-wise, they can aim a lot higher this time around after being forced into looking at lower-cost pieces last summer.

The list of key center UFAs is well-known and pretty small.  John Tavares, Sam Bennett, and Mikael Granlund are the remaining headliners.  Landing one of them would solve the problem for a few years, at least.  Otherwise, they’ll have to turn to the trade market to try to fill that spot, something that a lot of teams will likely be looking to do with options in relatively short supply.  They haven’t had a reliable second option down the middle arguably since Vincent Trocheck, and that will need to change in the coming weeks.

Add A Top-Line Winger

When the Hurricanes surprised the hockey world by acquiring Mikko Rantanen midseason, they parted with a pretty strong winger as part of the return in Martin Necas.  Of course, they weren’t able to agree on a long-term contract with Rantanen to keep him around so Tulsky opted to flip him at the trade deadline to recoup some value.  All things considered, he did rather well, adding Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks, and two third-round selections.  But with all due respect to Stankoven, a solid youngster, the move was a pretty big step back in terms of short-term talent.

Part of the reason for being open to accepting a futures-based return knowing there would be some short-term pain was the knowledge that they have that cap space available to them.  When it comes to the open market, few can offer more than the Hurricanes.  That’s definitely an enviable spot to be in.

Now, they need to take advantage of it.  They were believed to have shown interest in Mitch Marner at the trade deadline but Marner wouldn’t waive his trade protection to go there.  Was that because he didn’t want to go to Carolina or because he wanted to stay with the Maple Leafs for the playoffs?  It stands to reason they’ll find out the answer to that very quickly as he’ll almost certainly be at the top of their wish list this summer.  Failing that, Brock Boeser and Nikolaj Ehlers should be getting calls as well.

This season, the Hurricanes had two wingers record more than 50 points which is a pretty low baseline for a top-six player.  One of those was Necas in the 49 games before the trade while the other was Seth Jarvis, who reached 67 for the second straight season.  Andrei Svechnikov has gotten there a few times before but had a bit of a down year this season.  He and Jarvis aren’t a bad duo to start from but they’re going to need a pickup of considerable significance if they want to have a shot at taking that next step.

Bring In A Top-Four Defenseman

This season, the Hurricanes had three blueliners average at least 20 minutes a game.  One was Jaccob Slavin, whose new eight-year deal kicks in July 1st, one that already looks like a below-market contract.  The others were Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov, both of whom are set to reach unrestricted free agency next month.  Accordingly, they’re going to need to be replaced on the roster.

It’s likely that at least one of the two spots will be filled internally.  Alexander Nikishin was long viewed as the top blueliner outside the NHL and held his own in four playoff games.  It’s safe to say that they don’t intend to start him in the minors next season and the hope is that he’ll be able to play his way into a top-four spot relatively quickly.  Prospect Scott Morrow could also be in the mix and could fill the vacancy on the right-hand side of the back end but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Carolina prefer to give him more time with AHL Chicago.

That leaves one spot to try to fill externally.  Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly deep crop of rearguards.  Offensively, only four players had more points than Burns and Orlov and one of them (Matt Grzelcyk) doesn’t fit with Shayne Gostisbehere already on the roster.  Basically, that limits potential upgrades to Aaron Ekblad, Ivan Provorov, and Vladislav Gavrikov, while Dante Fabbro, Cody Ceci, and Ryan Lindgren have handled top-four minutes before.  That’s not a lot of options.  Speculatively, knowing Nikishin and Morrow are pegged as key pieces for the future, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see Tulsky try what worked with Orlov two years ago, offering a short-term deal at a well above-market rate.  With the league projecting big jumps in the salary cap over the next two years, it’s possible one of the better blueliners would be open to the idea.

Failing that, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Hurricanes look to the trade market to try to fill this spot.  They have a strong prospect pool and a pair of extra first-round picks in their pocket from the Rantanen deal that could help form the foundation of a swap.  Even if they are able to land a top winger and a top-six center, there should be ample money left to fill this vacancy as well.

Examine Goalie Options

With the Hurricanes re-signing Frederik Andersen to a one-year deal last month worth $2.75MM (plus $750K in potential performance bonuses), it looks like they have their goalie situation settled for next season with Pyotr Kochetkov signed for two more years as well.  With the youngster signed at $2MM per year, it seems like there isn’t anything left to do at that position.

But perhaps there should be.  Andersen has only played in more than 35 games once in the last five years.  Kochetkov hasn’t reached 50 yet and his play has been a bit more up-and-down than Carolina would like although that’s far from uncommon for young goalies.  This tandem isn’t the best in the league but there’s a solid floor.

However, that floor can be improved upon.  There probably isn’t an upgrade of significance in free agency but on the trade market, it’s possible some options become available.  Speculatively, Anaheim’s John Gibson comes to mind and he’s a player who they’ve been linked to before.  We know they can afford the short-term premium while they could afford to carry three goalies or send one the other as a salary offset.  This isn’t a must but Tulsky would be wise to sniff around to see if a goaltending upgrade could become available that would make their roster just a little stronger heading into next season.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.