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The Carolina Hurricanes were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs for the second year in a row on Monday, falling in Game 7 to the New York Rangers.
It was a great regular season for the Hurricanes, winning the Metropolitan Division and finishing second in the Eastern Conference overall. They won a playoff series against a good team in the Boston Bruins and were a win away from the Conference Finals. However, they fell victim to poor special teams, not being able to capitalize on their chances and for whatever reason, not being able to win on the road in the postseason.
This season, the Hurricanes benefitted from really well-rounded play from Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen up front. Vicnent Trocheck’s production dropped but he was still a capable top-six center, while Nino Niederreiter performed well and produced as expected. Jordan Staal also had a strong back half of the year after a slow start, while Jesper Fast continued to be reliable in all areas and Jordan Martinook, Derek Stepan and Steven Lorentz all added solid depth.
Max Domi was also a pretty decent deadline addition, especially for the price, while Seth Jarvis made an immediate impact. I was a fan of Carolina drafting Jarvis two years ago and expected him to be a key member of the team’s forward group down the road, but in just his rookie season he already proved capable of a top-six role. On the other hand, Martin Necas took a bit of a step back this year and wasn’t much of a difference-maker in the playoffs. He’s still very young and is poised to be a highly productive winger given his offensive skillset, but he certainly has room to grow. Meanwhile, offer sheet addition Jesperi Kotkaniemi was… fine. He’s still only 21 years old and didn’t have a huge role to work with but he still hasn’t necessarily shown a huge offensive upside, especially for the eight-year extension he was given. It was a decent first year in Carolina but he really needs to continue progressing to make that a worthwhile deal for Carolina.
On defense, Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce were both solid as usual while taking on tough matchups and Slavin in particular upped his production from last season. Tony DeAngelo ended up being a huge addition for the Hurricanes, scoring 10 goals and 51 points in 64 games and taking on a huge role within the defense group. He provided excellent value for his contract and was absolutely a capable replacement for Dougie Hamilton. Brady Skjei also rediscovered the offensive side of his game, scoring nine goals and 39 points and putting together a strong year.
Ian Cole was also a solid addition on the bottom-pairing, while Brendan Smith ended up exceeding expectations and taking on a much bigger role than projected. Ethan Bear, on the other hand, didn’t necessarily make the impact he could’ve – he had a good shot at taking on a top-four role early in the year but was quickly pushed down the depth chart with DeAngelo’s great play. He was then in and out of the lineup as Smith proved capable in a depth role. Bear’s smaller role was largely due to other players simply stepping up and playing well, though the year was still underwhelming for him overall. He’s still young and there was a lot of upside to his game at times though, so hopefully he sticks around with the Hurricanes.
Carolina’s goaltending situation also worked out better than most people had probably expected. Dealing away a young goalie that seemed poised to be a potential future starter in Alex Nedeljkovic was a bold move, but the tandem of Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta worked out great. Andersen had an excellent bounce-back season, posting a .922 save percentage in 52 games, while Raanta was a very study backup, managing a .912 save percentage in 28 games and proving to be capable of stepping up when needed, especially early in the playoffs. Both are injury-prone but gave the Hurricanes great goaltending and should be key once again next year.
It was interesting to see Carolina’s special teams struggle in the playoffs, given they had a decent power play in the regular season and the top-ranked penalty kill. The power play will certainly be a focus for next season and if the Hurricanes were to make a major addition, a high-end goal scorer could be a big help.
Overall, this season should still be classified as a success. The Hurricanes had a really strong regular season and even despite their exit to the Rangers in the second round, they’re still a very young team with a pretty manageable cap situation and a good number of quality prospects. This is a team that should only continue to improve and while they didn’t go as deep into the postseason as they would’ve liked, their window to compete should stay open for many, many more seasons to come.
Quizwiz 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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