Following the major changes that the Carolina Hurricanes saw in free agency this summer, one of the biggest differences with the team’s roster heading into next season will be the look of the defense group.
The Hurricanes lost their entire second pairing, with Brady Skjei signing with the Nashville Predators, and Brett Pesce heading to the New Jersey Devils. So despite Jaccob Slavin, Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov still being under contract, and Jalen Chatfield re-signing earlier in the offseason, the Hurricanes faced a pretty tough blow in losing both Skjei and Pesce.
As free agency opened, the team found their replacements, signing Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker to fill the two vacancies.
Gostisbehere’s deal was for three years at a $3.2 million cap hit. The defenseman is 31 years old and is coming off a hugely productive year in Detroit, in which he scored 56 points. I’ve released an article at HockeyComparables.com to analyze the contract, which is linked below.
Meanwhile, Sean Walker’s deal was for five years at a $3.6 million cap hit. Walker was able to rebuild his value in Philadelphia to start the 2023-24 season, before being flipped to the Colorado Avalanche at the trade deadline for a playoff run. An analysis article for his five-year deal, and whether the Hurricanes got fair value, is below:
On paper, the additions of Gostisbehere and Walker could directly plug the holes left by Skjei and Pesce. At the same time though, there should maybe be some reason for concern about that trade-off.
On the left side, while the Hurricanes will benefit from Jaccob Slavin continuing to be one of the NHL’s best shutdown defenders, Gostisbehere and Dmitry Orlov will be tasked with taking the rest of the minutes. Orlov certainly got better as the year went on, but still ended up only averaging a little over 17 minutes a night. Then while Shayne Gostisbehere may have produced at a great rate last season, much of his success came due to the fact that he was heavily sheltered in terms of quality of competition, and over half his points also came on the power play. But between Orlov and Gostisbehere, the duo are likely both going to have to take on larger roles, and an injury to Slavin could leave the Hurricanes' left side really exposed.
Meanwhile on the right side, Brent Burns will remain on the top pairing with Slavin, as Chatfield and Walker take on the remaining minutes.
However, while Chatfield has been rock solid defensively and has shown he’s capable of playing a top-four role when called upon, he still averaged only 15 minutes per game last season. Then even though Walker averaged the most ice time of his career last season, he’s typically only been used for about 18 minutes per game over his career. So unless the team is comfortable using Burns in an even larger capacity, there’s going to be somewhat of a reliance on Chatfield and Walker stepping into bigger roles on a permanent basis.
In swapping out Skjei and Pesce for Gostisbehere and Walker, the Hurricanes’ defense group isn’t nearly as stable. Of course, that points more towards just how spoiled the team was with their blue line over recent years, but considering it’s been such a key factor of their success, there’s a decent chance the blue line isn’t as effective next season.
Slavin will likely be counted on more than ever, and while Burns can still put up points, there’s already a lot of reliance on Slavin to make up for any mistakes. Then behind the top pairing, all of Orlov, Gostisbehere, Chatfield and Walker are going to be counted on to take on larger roles than they’ve typically been tasked with. That’s not to say it can’t work, but there’s definitely much more uncertainty heading into the 2024-25 season.
So while the Hurricanes worked with the cap space they had available to find value replacements in free agency, the team could be poised to take a step back defensively, without Skjei and Pesce.
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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