Today, writers at HockeyBuzz are looking at the biggest need for each NHL team.
For the Carolina Hurricanes, I think there’s one need that’s fairly obvious: a starting goaltender.
Petr Mrazek has been used as the team’s starter for the last two seasons, with some pretty mixed results. At times, he's shown flashes of brilliance and can look like a star in net. He’s one of the most athletic goalies in the league and can make saves that you would’ve assumed he didn’t have a chance on. Having said that, he consistently lets in weak goals (often at key times) and this issue has dated all the way back to his junior hockey days. With Mrazek now 28 years old, we probably shouldn’t hold out hope that anything’s going to change.
James Reimer was brought in last offseason and was an effective backup goalie, posting a .914 save percentage. He can also play a high number of games, which makes him a good partner for a goalie like Mrazek, who can be inconsistent and doesn’t really take on a huge workload. Despite Reimer’s solid year, however, he shouldn’t be counted on to be more than a strong backup. The Hurricanes still need a legitimate starter.
It seemed like this offseason was the perfect opportunity to address the issue, based on the stacked goalie market. However, the Hurricanes passed on the opportunity and it seems as though nothing will change in net ahead of the 2020-21 season.
The Hurricanes have a solid defense group and while they can still give up their share of scoring chances, the team couldn’t count on their goaltending to make a save when they needed one. If Carolina was to address one issue ahead of next season, it would have to be their goaltending situation.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Hurricanes Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Canes for updates on articles, Hurricanes news, etc.***
Here’s today’s poll questions (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Do you agree that a starting goalie is the Hurricanes' biggest need?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»