The Carolina Hurricanes will look drastically different when the 2024-25 season opens on Oct. 11 at PNC Arena against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
For one, Jake Guentzel — the trade deadline acquisition who Carolina tried, unsuccessfully, to re-sign before July 1 — will be making his debut with the Lightning. The Hurricanes will also have a reconfigured defense and some changes at forward.
Things can still change over the next three months, but here’s an overview of what Carolina lost, what they added and what’s ahead for the team.
Goaltenders
In: None
Out: None
TBD: Antti Raanta
The Hurricanes appear to be ready to run back the trio of Frederik Andersen, Pyotr Kochetkov and Spencer Martin, with Raanta as the odd man out.
Carolina has just $6.175 million committed in goal, and the team likely will bury Martin in the minors as long as he clears waivers, bringing the total down to $5.4 million. Ten teams have one goalie making that much or more.
Still, results will matter. The Hurricanes have consistently — outside of the start of last season — gotten reliable goaltending in the regular season, even with various injuries. After Andersen struggled in the postseason, Kochetkov could be in more of a 1A role.
Analysis: Andersen and Kochetkov are both a year older. While that doesn’t bode well for Andersen, who will be 35 when the season starts, Kochetkov made 40 starts last year and should be entering the prime of his career at 25 years old. The Hurricanes also have Martin if needed. That should keep Carolina solid in goal for the upcoming season, though the goaltending will likely be evaluated based on how it performs in the postseason.
Forwards
Re-signed: Jordan Martinook (three years, $3.05 million AAV)
In: Jack Roslovic (one year, $2.8 million), William Carrier (six years, $2 million AAV), Eric Robinson (one year, $950,000), Tyson Jost (one year, $775,000)
Out: Jake Guentzel (Tampa Bay, seven years, $9 million AAV), Teuvo Teravainen (Chicago, three years, $5.5 million AAV), Stefan Noesen (New Jersey, three years, $2.75 million AAV)
TBD: Jack Drury, Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas
Losing Guentzel was a big blow for the Hurricanes, especially given the way it went down. Carolina thought they had given Guentzel and his representation what they asked for — an eight-year, $64 million contract structured however the winger wanted — but come Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas, Guentzel told the Hurricanes he wouldn’t be re-signing.
GM Eric Tulsky salvaged something, getting a third-round pick from the Lightning for Guentzel’s negotiating rights, but it wasn’t how Carolina wanted it to go down.
The Hurricanes also worked on a trade involving restricted free agent Martin Necas, with Columbus making a pitch to both Carolina and Necas on a deal. Those negotiations fell apart, and now it looks more likely than not that Necas — who filed for salary arbitration — will be back for another season in Raleigh, probably on a one-year deal in the neighborhood of $5.5 million to $6.5 million.
The Hurricanes also need to come to terms with RFAs Drury — who also filed for arbitration — and Jarvis. Longer deals for either would carry a bigger cap hit, while bridge deals would offer more cap flexibility but less down-the-road cost certainty.
Carolina would love to get Jarvis on an eight-year extension if they could keep the number down, but the 22-year-old is likely ready to bet on himself after a 33-goal season.
The Hurricanes also lost Teravainen, who had five seasons with at least 50 points during his eight years in Raleigh. He scored a career-best 25 goals last year — not usually his bread and butter, but those goals will be missed nonetheless.
Noesen, who had a combined 27 goals the last two seasons, proved to be a good find but was too expensive to retain. Carolina will miss his ability as a net-front presence, his grit and his timely playoff scoring, but the team made some bottom-six additions to fill the void.
Carrier doesn’t have Noesen’s scoring touch, but he’s big, he’s willing to go to the net and he plays with a motor that will make him a good fit in coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system. Robinson similarly can use his size and speed to be an effective forechecker but has struggled to produce offensively throughout his career. Jost can similarly play a fourth-line depth role.
The biggest addition up front is Roslovic, who should help with the team’s lack of right-handed players to take faceoffs and could be a replacement for Jesper Fast should the forward’s neck injury preclude him from playing. Roslovic has twice reached 40 points in a third-line role, and he’s capable of being a fill-in player on both the power play and penalty kill.
Analysis: The forward group isn’t as good as it was a year ago. While the depth additions could perform up to Noesen’s level offensively — and be more valuable as all-around players — Roslovic is a downgrade from Teravainen. Guentzel was a deadline rental, and in most situations, those players move on. But Carolina getting close to re-signing him makes his departure sting. There remain question marks down the middle — neither Jesperi Kotkaniemi nor Drury have proven to be good enough point-producers to center the second line, and Evgeny Kuznetsov will need to prove he can still play a top-six role at 32. The Hurricanes’ ability to score up front could come down to how well Necas — if he remains with the team — bounces back and the growth of Jarvis, Drury, Kotkaniemi and Andrei Svechnikov.
Defense
Re-signed: Jalen Chatfield (three years, $3 million AAV)
In: Sean Walker (five years, $3.6 million AAV), Shayne Gostisbehere (three years, $3.2 million AAV), Ty Smith (one year, two-way deal), Riley Stillman (one year, two-way deal)
Out: Brady Skjei (Nashville, seven years, $7 million AAV), Brett Pesce (New Jersey, six years, $5.5 million AAV), Dylan Coghlan (traded to Winnipeg)
TBD: Tony DeAngelo
Carolina lost a top-four pairing with the departures of Skjei and Pesce, and it will be interesting to see how Brind’Amour deploys his new-look defense. Jaccob Slavin — who signed a bargain eight-year extension worth just over $51 million extension that will kick in for the 2025-26 season — will anchor the defense and likely have Brent Burns running shotgun with him on the top pairing for one more year.
Dmitry Orlov will step into a bigger role alongside either Chatfield or Walker. Orlov and Chatfield feasted on lesser competition as the third pair last year and could remain together.
Brind’Amour will have options. Carolina knows the Orlov-Chatfield pairing works, but the minutes will be bigger and the competition tougher as a top-four pairing. Walker played more than 19 minutes a game last season in Philadelphia and Colorado, and could slide up next to Orlov to fill out the second pairing. The Hurricanes also know Gostisbehere and Chatfield can play together, since the duo were paired up after Gostisbehere was acquired by Carolina at the 2023 trade deadline.
Rookie Scott Morrow, Smith and Stillman will push for time in depth roles, while DeAngelo remains on the open market.
Analysis: The defense will look different. Carolina loses size in replacing Pesce and Skjei with Walker and Gostisbehere, and the Hurricanes will need a lot to go right for its defense to be as good as it has been in recent years. Getting a full year of Orlov, without the early-season growing pains he had last year, will help. The defense also has better overall mobility than it had last year, and Walker and Gostisbehere should be able to at least match Skjei and Pesce’s combined offensive production. The Hurricanes could take a step back on the penalty kill, and Slavin and Burns will likely see more top matchups.
Overall
If the Hurricanes had emerged from the start of free agency a better team, it would have been one of the great master classes in front office history. They lost four big pieces and some depth but filled most of those holes with cheaper talent that is a step below what they had. Carolina did it without getting entangled in any long-term, expensive deals.
That gives the team plenty of cap space — probably $13 million to $14 million, based on how the roster shakes out in training camp — to sign Necas, Jarvis and Drury. The Hurricanes have also done plenty of deals later in the summer in recent years, so don’t rule out another shakeup before September.
Are the Hurricanes as good of a team as they were when their season ended in mid-May? Probably not. Is Carolina still one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference and the NHL? Probably.
Cory Lavalette is a freelance writer covering the Carolina Hurricanes. He is senior editor for North State Journal, a statewide newspaper based in Raleigh covering North Carolina, and has written about the Hurricanes for several outlets since 2008. He is a graduate of Utica College (now Utica University) and has lived in the Triangle since 2000.
