Read just about any NHL season preview from a national media outlet for the upcoming season, and you’ll most likely find the Carolina Hurricanes listed as something along the lines of a “dark horse playoff team.” The work general manager Ron Francis put in during his fourth offseason has made it a far-reaching expectation that the team will reach the playoffs for the first time since 2009. Let’s take a look at the Hurricanes’ roster that will look to snap the league’s longest active playoff drought.
Forwards: A lineup that finished tied for 20th in the league in goals per game at 2.59 last season will look for a boost in production across the board. Last year’s leading scorer, Jeff Skinner, who set a career high in goals with 37, will be looking to the team’s additions and internal improvements from his teammates to help him lead the offense.
The big add at forward is Justin Williams, back for his second tour of duty in Carolina. The 35-year-old will look to add both leadership, to a young lineup, and production; he posted 24 goals and 48 points as a member of the Washington Capitals last season.
Sebastian Aho, a promising young Finn who broke in as a rookie with 24 goals and 49 points last year could be in line for a big breakout. The team will hope for continued steps forward from Swedish playmaker Elias Lindholm, who set a career high in both assists (34) and points (45) last year, and Finnish winger Teuvo Teravainen, who also set career highs with 15 goals and 42 points last year. Carolina will hope for more consistency from center Victor Rask, who started the season hot but faded in the second half, finishing with 16 goals and 45 points.
Jordan Staal will again be asked to bring a high level of two-way play on a nightly basis, producing offense (16 goals, 45 points last year) while shutting down the opposition’s top scorers. Derek Ryan, the veteran journeyman who notched a career-high 29 points in his first big league season last year will likely center the team’s third line.
The fourth line will most likely see some combination of physical winger Brock McGinn, penalty-killing specialist Joakim Nordstrom, free agent pickup Josh Jooris and trade acquisition Marcus Kruger, widely regarded as one of the best shutdown centers in the league. One of Jooris, McGinn or Nordstrom will likely be the team’s extra forward.
With veteran Lee Stempniak starting the year on the injured reserve with a mysterious ailment, rookies Janne Kuoakken and Martin Necas (the team’s 2017 first rounder) have made the roster and will look to break in and make an impact similar to what Aho did last year.
Defensemen: Despite upgrades at forward and in net, the blue line is still by far the strength of this team. The young top-four is rock solid, and at least in the upper third of the league. Justin Faulk, the “elder statesman” of the group at the age of 25, is an offensive weapon from the point, finishing tied for second in the league in goals by a defenseman with 17. Noah Hanifin, the team’s fifth-overall pick in 2015, will look to continue to grow after setting a career high in points last year in 29, and establish himself among the league’s elite offensive blueliners.
The team’s top shutdown pairing of Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce, coming into their third year in the league and both having secured long-term extensions this summer, figures to lead the way again. The duo finished tied for the team lead in plus/minus last year at +23, despite playing most of their minutes against the league’s top scorers. Slavin discovered an offensive element to his game as well, with a career-high five goals and 34 points.
The third pairing, a weak spot last year, seems to be much improved by the addition of Trevor van Riemsdyk in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights. Rookie Haydn Fleury, who has solidified a spot with a strong training camp, will likely slot in next to van Riemsdyk. Klas Dahlbeck is the top candidate to serve as the team’s spare blueliner.
Goaltenders: Goaltending was the team’s biggest area of need heading into the summer and, consequently, the area of the roster that saw the biggest move during the summer. Barely a month into the offseason, Francis traded a third-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for the negotiating rights to Scott Darling, and wasted little time getting him locked into a four-year deal.
Darling won 18 games with a .924 save percentage and 2.38 goals against average in a backup role for the Blackhawks last season, and the team will need him to translate that to a good performance as a starter in Carolina. The Hurricanes have posted a bottom-five team save percentage in each of the last three seasons, and poor play from Cam Ward and Eddie Lack was the biggest factor in the team’s miss last year.
This is by far the most important position group on the team, and the play of Darling as the starter and Ward as his backup will be the biggest determination of where the Canes finish the year.
