In Raleigh, the Carolina Hurricanes have been heaped with praise, and an enormous amount of expectations.
Brady Skjei is a trade option for the Hurricanes?
They have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs the last five seasons after strong regular seasons in the Metropolitan Division.
The Canes do not have a Cup to show for the effort. They manage to find a way to lose in the playoffs and not compete for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Last season they were bounced from the playoffs in an Eastern Conference Final sweep at the hands of the Florida Panthers.
Granted the Panthers were on a run, but swept? And managing just six goals?
“We’ve gone five years making the playoffs, and I think we’re right in the heart of our window to keep moving forward,” general manager Don Waddell said. “… We’re a franchise that doesn’t want to win one Cup. We want to try to win 10 Cups, and you’ve got to put yourself in position to compete for the Cup every year and we think we can do that for numerous years coming up.”
Let’s start with one, and build from there.
The off season featured the re-signing of Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast to line up as well as goalies Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen.
“I liked the fact that we kept a lot of our guys that we needed to keep,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “The questionable guys that, ‘What are we doing with them?’ we wanted to keep them in the fold, and we were able to do that.”
The Canes also added free agent signings to the activities over July. Dmitry Orlov, Tony DeAngelo Michael Bunting, and Brendan Lemieux were added to the Carolina bench.
“I think I can bring the energy, bring my skill set and be able to move the puck and get to the hard areas,” Bunting said after signing. “That’s where I excel the most is kind of in front of the net, in the corners and distributing the puck but also being able to put it in as well.”
Sebastian Aho was signed to an eight-year deal over the summer as well.
“We think we’ve had a very good offseason, not only signing the players from our team last year that we needed to bring back, but also the additions of some of the free agents we added,” Waddell said. “My job as the general manager is just to stay on the phone every day and continue to look to see if we can make our team better. … I can’t say anything’s going to happen between now and the start of the season, but certainly we’ll continue to talk to different teams and free agents and see what shakes out here.”
Three prospects are expected to be in Raleigh this season.
Forward Vasily Ponomarev iced for the Chicago Wolves of the AHL last season for 64 games and collected 24 goals and 46 points on the season.
“We think he’ll play games this season for us,” Waddell said. “We think he’s really close.”
Scott Morrow was drafter in 2021 and has been playing for the University of Massachusetts. As a defenseman he had nine goals and 41 points in 35 games last season.
“[UMass] has a good program there and he’s done well there,” Waddell said. “He plays a ton of minutes, so certainly another year there is not going to hurt his development at all.”
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Jack Drury is the most prepared for Carolina as a prospect. He skated in 35 games for the Canes last season with two goals and eight points. He also iced in Chicago with the Wolves for 11 goals and 24 points through 37 games.
“It was tough when we had to send him down last year, but he went with a great attitude, and he played well down there,” Waddell said. “And he brought that game and attitude right back to us when we brought him back, and we see him being ready to take even bigger strides this year.”
The Canes will carry three goalies this season with Raanta, Andersen, and Pyotr Kochetkov. That’s hefty bit of juggling. Who gets the ice time? Who gets a chance to get hot, and stay hot?
The Hurricanes scored six goals in their season ending four games against the Panthers. The Canes believe they have addressed that issue. That remains to be seen.
Carolina has been juggernaut in the regular season, but seems to find a way to lose in the post season.
The faith in the core of the roster is encouraging for those on the bench. The question is whether they are now predictable in their playoff runs.
Everyone has improved in the Metropolitan Division. Did the Canes tread water, or improve?
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