Carolina Hurricanes team preview: Can they get over the hump?

No one would argue that the Carolina Hurricanes aren’t a good and talented hockey team. They’ve made the playoffs seven years in a row, won the first round each time and reached three Eastern Conference Finals since 2019. Plus, they’ve finished first or second in their division for five straight years.

But the Hurricanes have been missing something along the way, whether it was healthy and reliable goaltending, enough offence, grit, etc. There’s a hump they haven’t been able to get over yet. In those three conference final showings, they’ve won one game total, and the series they’ve been eliminated in over these years have generally been shorter ones.

Could this year be different? The Canes landed one of the bigger unrestricted free agents who made it to market. They re-worked their blue line, including the acquisition of K’Andre Miller from the Rangers, who came with a long-term contract extension. They are flush with quality depth and head coach Rod Brind’Amour has a proven track record of success — at least in the regular season.

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But the Canes have left their fans wanting more. This is a Stanley Cup contender still trying to figure out how to take the final steps.

Today’s preview focuses on the Storm Surge Hurricanes.

There weren’t many high-impact, top-line players who made it to free agency, but Carolina landed one of the best in Nikolaj Ehlers — even if the Dane never earned top minutes over 10 seasons with the Jets. The 29-year-old is coming off one of his best offensive seasons, scoring 24 goals and 63 points in 69 games last season, but he ranked eighth in average even strength ice time among all Winnipeg forwards. Yet Ehlers ranked second behind only Kyle Connor in goals and points per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play. Now making $8.5 million as Carolina’s second-highest paid player, Ehlers will surely see an increase in responsibility and could break camp on the top line. We should finally see how he’ll do with an increased role and elite linemates.

In 2023 and 2024, Nikishin finished as the top-scoring defenceman in Russia’s KHL. In 2025, he finished third before leaving to join the Hurricanes for four playoff games. Carolina is high on this 23-year-old and optimistic for the upside he brings. Not only does Nikishin come with that offensive background, he’s big at six-foot-four, 216 pounds and isn’t shy to throw that weight around. During his brief playoff stint, Nikishin logged 17 hits — a welcome skill for a team that has often earned the tag of not being tough enough. We’ve seen only very little of Nikishin in the NHL so far, but he showed flashes and recorded one assist, a primary helper on what turned out to be a game-winner against Florida. There are likely to be growing pains in the regular season, but Nikishin has a chance to work his way up the lineup at both even strength and the power play, where he’ll eye taking over the PP1 quarterback job from Shayne Gostisbehere.

Top Prospect: Bradly Nadeau

After one year at the University of Maine in his draft-plus-one season, Nadeau turned pro for the full 2024-25 season and finished with more goals than any other AHL rookie while placing second in points. He may make a push for the NHL club at camp and will surely see call-up action from time to time (he played two games with the Hurricanes last season), but it will be difficult to crack Carolina’s top six, which may mean another season of development in the AHL. Nadeau has a wicked shot and his frame is filling out since he was drafted 30th overall in 2023. He could make that final decision very difficult if he does show well in the pre-season.

1. Who’s going to be the second-line centre?

We know Sebastian Aho will be centring the top line and that Jordan Staal will be there on the third line. But the second line remains a mystery as the team looks for a better and more productive option than Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Two players are in focus for that spot on the depth chart in training camp: Seth Jarvis and Logan Stankoven. Jarvis played down the middle in junior, but has scarcely done so in the NHL and when he has, his faceoff win rate is just 41.3 per cent. Last year’s leading goal scorer on the team, Jarvis could carry a line and isn’t a slouch on defence either (he finished 12th in Selke voting last season), but the top line would lose some pop. Stankoven also has experience at centre, but has primarily been a winger in the NHL. While stocky/sturdy, he’s also just five-foot-eight and there’s some question how he could hold up against bigger centre matchups over the 82 game season. It also may just end up being Kotkaniemi winning the 2C job out of camp as well.

2. Who will win the No. 1 goaltending job as the season plays out?

Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov return to Carolina’s crease after both finished below a .900 save percentage last season. The Canes had the 24th-best team save percentage, the worst of any playoff team, and need to find improvement along with reliability this season. Andersen is returning after signing a one-year extension, while the younger Kochetkov is in the third of a four-year contract, over which time he was expected to take over the No. 1 job. He’s played more games, but that’s at least partly due to Andersen’s injuries and surely not because of consistent and confident play. The Canes need better from both goalies and would prefer Kochetkov to definitively win over the job. Cayden Primeau was signed to be the team’s No. 3 option and could play a factor here as well, given how Andersen and Kochetkov have been injury risks over the years.

3. Can K’Andre Miller rise to the challenge?

Last season was not K’Andre Miller’s best. Before the season began, Miller figured to be a centrepiece of the blue line as he gained more experience, and fans were calculating what his next contract might be and how it would fit in with the rest of the group. By November it was becoming clear that the Rangers’ season was shaping up to be a disaster, with disappointing results on the ice and plenty of drama off it. Over the summer, New York wanted to shake it up so it moved out a few players, one of whom was Miller, who quickly signed a long-term extension with a $7.5 million AAV to play for Carolina. The 25-year-old is two years removed from a 43-point season when he was a star on the rise. Can he get back to that level again, and how long will it take him to get comfortable within the Canes’ system?