The Carolina Hurricanes will look very different heading into next season, with 10 notable players from last season’s roster finding new homes.
While the team has made some additions as well, it's hard to look at the current roster and say it's better on paper. In fact, after some major departures via free agency and trades, the team may be left looking weaker at every position.
Up front, the Hurricanes’ main losses were Warren Foegele, Brock McGinn, Morgan Geekie and Cedric Paquette. I’m pretty indifferent to losing Paquette but Geekie looked as though he could be a quality bottom-six forward with the team in the years to come. A Foegele deal had been speculated for a little while as well, though he was capable of putting up around 30-35 points per 82 games and was still relatively young. McGinn’s departure may be the most impactful loss up front, based on his versatility and the intensity he brought on a nightly basis. I don’t necessarily fault management for any of these losses, but they also haven’t found replacements yet either. The major additions up front have been Derek Stepan, who could be an effective fourth-line center, Josh Leivo, who's a depth forward and Stefan Noesen, who may or may not crack the roster. Based on the additions compared to the losses, the Hurricanes are looking thinner up front.
Defensively, the big loss was obviously Dougie Hamilton. While I’m not sure the Hurricanes should’ve paid him $9 million per year, his departure will certainly be felt. Additionally, Jake Bean was traded and Jani Hakanpaa moved on, meaning half of the defense group from last season is gone. Ethan Bear is a solid addition who could potentially take on a top-four role, while Ian Cole and Tony DeAngelo could end up being the new bottom pairing and Brendan Smith was added as a potential spare. Regardless, though more money is being invested into a potential bottom-pairing, the loss of Hamilton certainly has the team’s blue line looking weaker as well.
In net, the Hurricanes went from Alex Nedeljkovic, Petr Mrazek and James Reimer to Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta. While it wasn’t necessarily expected that the Hurricanes would end up with three capable goalies all playing roles with the team throughout the year, that was the reality, with a potential future starter leading the way and two capable veterans behind him. While Andersen and Raanta do have upside, it’s tough to say Carolina’s situation in net looks better now than it did last year. Also, it isn’t a matter of saving cap space, as the team could’ve gone with a Nedeljkovic/Raanta tandem at an even cheaper price, based on reports of Nedeljkovic’s ask on an extension coming in much lower than Andersen’s $4.5 million cap hit.
You could blame the downgrades on the cap and say that competitive teams will often suffer losses as a result of a lack of cap space, but that isn’t necessarily the case here. The Hurricanes have Andrei Svechnikov as their only key restricted free agent left to sign and will likely still have $4 to $5 million available after the deal gets finalized. Again, they also could’ve saved money by keeping Nedeljkovic over Andersen and probably didn’t need to throw nearly $3 million to Ian Cole in free agency. Perhaps Hamilton leaving was inevitable, but the defense group isn’t the only area looking weaker.
There’s still lots of time before next season but so far, this can’t be labelled as a successful offseason for the team. After many departures and not enough key additions to make up for them, the Hurricanes are arguably looker weaker at every position.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Hurricanes Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Canes for updates on articles, Hurricanes news, etc.***
Which position (if any) do you feel the Hurricanes aren't weaker in than last year?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»