Have the Canes done enough to stay competitive in their quest for Lord Stanley?
September is here, and the Pittsburgh Penguins will be in preseason play faster than you can say pumpkin spiced latte.
With Hooks already previewing the 2023-24 Metropolitan Division winners, the New York Rangers, we’ll analyze the second-best team in the Metro last season, the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Penguins and Hurricanes were linked last season due to the trade that saw stalwart winger Jake Guentzel shipped to the Hurricanes for a batch of prospects and forward Michael Bunting.
Carolina got the big fish at the trade deadline, hoping it would be enough to get them over the edge and into the Stanley Cup Final after flirting with postseason success the last few years.
It was not to be, as all Carolina has to show for their big-game acquisition is just 28 combined regular season and playoff games and no championship. Meanwhile, Guentzel signed a long-term deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning this summer.
Longtime captain Eric Staal, who was on the 2005-06 Stanley Cup-winning Hurricanes team, signed a one-day contract to retire as a Hurricane on July 30.
There also were rumblings of a player like Martin Necas being traded due to salary cap constraints, but both Necas and, more recently, Seth Jarvis, have signed extensions to remain in North Carolina.
Forwards Teuvo Teravainen (Chicago Blackhawks) and Stefan Noesen (New Jersey Devils) and defensemen Brett Pesce (Devils) and Brady Skjei (Nashville Predators) left as unrestricted free agents.
Forward Evgeny Kuznetsov also had his contract terminated as he departed for his native Russia and SKA Saint Petersburg on a four-year deal.
Carolina re-signed forward Jordan Martinook to a three-year, $9.15 million contract, and inked defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere (three years, $9.6 million), Sean Walker (five years, $18 million) and Jalen Chatfield (three years, $9 million) to multiyear deals to shore up their blue line.
The team secured the services of several depth players, signing William Carrier (six years, $12 million), Jack Roslovic (one year, $2.8 million), and Tyson Jost (one year, $775,000).
The Hurricanes also took care of business at the coaching and executive level of the franchise.
General manager Don Waddell has since departed to take on the same role with the Columbus Blue Jackets, leaving Eric Tulsky as the man calling the shots, and the team re-signed coach Rod Brind’Amour to a multiyear contract.
Here’s the team’s projected lineup, according to DailyFaceoff.
Forwards
Andrei Svechnikov—Sebastian Aho—Seth Jarvis
Bradly Nadeau—Jesperi Kotkaniemi—Martin Necas
William Carrier—Jack Drury—Jack Roslovic
Tyson Jost—Jordan Staal—Jordan Martinook
Defensive Pairings
Jaccob Slavin—Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov—Sean Walker
Shayne Gostisbehere—Jalen Chatfield
Goalies
Frederik Andersen—Pyotr Kochetkov
The question that has haunted the Hurricanes over the last six seasons of success is, “Can they get over that proverbial hump?”
This team has had great regular season success, winning 50 or more games each of the last three seasons. The playoffs, however, tell a different tale.
An off-season of mass turnover usually precedes some regular-season regression. Can the offense mask what appear to be defensive shortcomings? Can Carolina’s young players like Jarvis, Necas, and Kochetkov stay on upward trajectories?
The franchise cornerstones are locked down. While the Jake Guentzel experiment didn’t yield fruitful results, the Hurricanes still have a path to remain one of the Eastern Conference’s more potent teams heading into 2024-25.
