Hurricanes Sign Charlie Cerrato To Entry-Level Deal
According to a team announcement, the Carolina Hurricanes have signed forward prospect Charlie Cerrato to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal includes $2.525MM in total salary at the NHL level, $85K per season in the AHL, and $220K in signing bonuses.
Cerrato, 21, was drafted with the 49th overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft by the Hurricanes. He was finishing up his freshman year with the upstart Penn State Nittany Lions, scoring 15 goals and 42 points in 38 games with a +16 rating.
Remaining with Penn State for his sophomore campaign, Cerrato’s scoring dissipated somewhat, but he missed a decent chunk of the season due to injury. He finished the NCAA season with seven goals and 27 points in 23 games with a +3 rating.
Although he didn’t play in the regular season, Cerrato signed an amateur tryout agreement with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves after his season with Penn State finished. He appeared in one contest in Chicago’s recent series against the Texas Stars, going scoreless.
Throughout his time in the Big Ten Conference, Cerrato typically played well in a support role and on the defensive side of the puck. He’s relatively physical and somewhat of a pest with his stick. On offense, most of his production comes from reading the defense quickly and charging the net or dropping back to be the third man in.
Given the depth that the Hurricanes have on offense, it’s unlikely that Cerrato will begin the 2026-27 campaign on the opening night roster for Carolina. Despite his competitive nature, it’ll likely serve him better to get a full season with the Wolves to continue his development, as Carolina typically does with their prospects.
Hurricanes Sign Charlie Cerrato To AHL Tryout
The Carolina Hurricanes signed center prospect Charlie Cerrato to a tryout contract with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, according to a team announcement. Team reporter Walt Ruff reported that the team is keeping its options open regarding signing Cerrato to an entry-level contract, either for the remainder of 2025-26 or one slated to begin in 2026-27.
In the increasingly murky, uncertain world of NCAA eligibility, signing Cerrato to a tryout agreement rather than a full contract could allow him to maintain his eligibility to play college hockey. If he ends up not signing an entry-level deal, there could be a path for him to return to college hockey, in a similar vein to other players who have returned to the college ranks after getting their feet wet in the AHL and ECHL.
Cerrato, 21, recently concluded his sophomore campaign with the Penn State Nittany Lions. While injuries limited him to just 23 games played, he improved his scoring rate slightly, posting 27 points. He scored 42 points in 38 games as a freshman.
The Maryland native was a member of the U.S. National Team Development Program before spending a year as a No. 1 center at the USHL level with the Youngstown Phantoms. His stellar debut season in college got him drafted No. 49 overall by the Hurricanes, a relatively high selection for someone who had been passed over at both the 2023 and 2024 entry drafts. But it was a reflection of just how much progress Cerrato had made in his development in his freshman season.
Entering the season, the team at Elite Prospects rated Cerrato as the No. 17 prospect, crediting his “off-puck qualities” with giving him a “likely path to a bottom-six NHL role.” He appears to have raised his stock over the course of this season, with The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler recently ranking him as the No. 5 prospect in Carolina’s system. According to Wheeler, Cerrato’s “believers are very confident he has an NHL future.”
With today’s tryout agreement signing, Cerrato has taken a concrete step towards realizing that NHL future. While he’ll first need to prove he can handle the rigors of the pro game at the AHL level, his status as a double-overage selection and his pro-style game likely mean he’ll have an accelerated timeline towards making it to the NHL compared to other 2025 picks.
The fact that he signed a tryout agreement, and therefore may have kept open the possibility of returning to college, makes Cerrato one of the more intriguing prospects to track in the AHL at this later stage of the season.