Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Shaye Gostisbehere (04) skates by a rat, a symbol of victory thrown on the ice by Florida Panthers fans, following their 5-3 victory over the Hurricanes on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
For nine straight years, the Carolina Hurricanes players faced a variation of the same question at their end-of-season media session: what will it take to get over the “hump” and get to the Stanley Cup playoffs?
That was the postseason narrative beginning in 2010 and “hump” an often-used word until 2019.
Now, it’s a different time. The Hurricanes, with Rod Brind’Amour as coach, have been in the playoffs each of the last seven years. They’ve had unprecedented success in regular seasons, won division titles, hosted an outdoor game, and sell out the Lenovo Center for each game.
Now, there’s a different “hump” to clear. The Canes have reached the Eastern Conference final three times under Brind’Amour but not made the next step and played for the Cup. This year’s end-of-season interviews came Friday, two days after a 5-3 loss to the Florida Panthers that decided the conference final in five games.
‘You look at what has been accomplished over the last seven years that we have been in the playoffs consecutively, but I think at the same time that just raises the standard for how we want to be as a team and where we want to be as an organization,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said Friday. “Anything short of winning is going to feel like a little bit of a defeat, I think.”
Shorthanded against “the standard”
The Canes won one game against the Panthers, their first victory in the ECF since 2006. They also played with two of their defensemen, Jalen Chatfield and Sean Walker, injured and missing games.
Chatfield said Friday he was dealing with “something in the hip” but said he was “super close” to a return had the Canes continued in the playoffs. Walker said he had a shoulder injury that would not require surgery.
Could the Hurricanes have beaten the Panthers with a healthy Chatfield and Walker? No one will ever know. The Panthers won the Stanley Cup in 2024. They’ve now been to the conference final each of the past three years while adding such players as Matthew Tkachuk to a core group led by an elite center in Barkov and world-class goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour called the Panthers “the standard” in the NHL and noted his team needed to close the gap between the team at the top and those trying to reach the top.
General manager Eric Tulsky will be making the decisions – with owner Tom Dundon’s approval – on who to add and who to let go, and at a time when the NHL salary cap will bump up to $95.5 million in 2025-26.
“We’ll see how it plays out,” center Sebastian Aho said Friday. “The last offseason, I was kind of disappointed because we lost a couple of guys I’d like to see us keep. ... But yeah, it’s exciting. I’d like to think we have really good pieces here but I think it will be a big offseason for us.”
Offseason needs
The Canes’ biggest need seems obvious: a second-line center, preferably with good size, who can consistently be productive. Another scoring winger would help. More depth on defense always is appreciated by the head coach, especially in the playoffs.
Defensemen Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov are due to become unrestricted free agents on July 1. Burns said Friday he has been so consumed with the playoffs and finishing out this season that he had not had time to think about his future. Orlov said he could not say if he would return while adding he had become comfortable with the organization, team and the city in his two seasons with the Canes.
Defenseman Alexander Nikishin is now in the position of learning more about his new team, his surroundings. Rushed out of Russia soon after the KHL playoffs to join the Hurricanes, Nikishin made his NHL debut in the Stanley Cup playoffs and got in four games as he attempted to go through a crash course on Brind’Amour brand of hockey.
Nikishin had Andrei Svechnikov acting as a translator Friday for the media session. Asked about the quick transition, he said: “It was a big experience. I will know what to expect now next season. I’m glad I came now and played in the playoffs.”
With Nikishin and defenseman Scott Morrow being thrust into the playoffs, gaining invaluable experience, a replacement for Burns or Orlov, or both, will be available. Nikishin was voted the best defenseman in the KHL the past two years by the league’s general managers.
If anything, it should be an interesting, perhaps intriguing offseason for the Hurricanes. But the emphasis now in in making them a stronger Cup contender, not just reaching the playoffs.
Becoming a Cup contender
For a bit of perspective, flash back to the 2015-16 season.
The Canes were 35-31-16 with Bill Peters as coach and finished sixth in the Metro Division with 86 points, 10 points out of playoff position. Jeff Skinner was the team’s leading scorer with 51 points, and the Canes had three players with 20 or more goals: Skinner (28), Victor Rask (21) and Jordan Staal (20).
The Canes traded away their captain, Eric Staal. The roster included Riley Nash, Chris Terry, Ryan Murphy, Andrej Nestrasil and Brad Malone. The goalie: Cam Ward and Eddie Lack.
At the exit interviews in April 2016, defenseman Justin Faulk said, “This is not a place we want to be, and we’ve been here for a while and it’s tough.”
That Canes team also had two rookie defensemen in the lineup for much of that season: Slavin and Brett Pesce. The Canes also had another rookie D-man, 19-year-old Noah Hanifin, and the threesome played a combined 211 games.
“That doesn’t happen, it’s unbelievable,” Peters said then of playing three rookies on the back end.
As the Hurricanes prepare for the 2025-26 season, so much has changed: ownership, management, head coach, rosters. expectations. The questions now are more about the makeup of the team, the system used by Brind’Amour, and whether it translates to the grind and demands of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Everybody talks about it as ‘our style, our style,’ and you look at the way Florida plays,” forward Jordan Martinook said. “We play very similar to that. If they can win that way, I think we can win playing that way.”
Some in the national media called the Canes’ play “boring” this season.. Canes captain Jordan Staal disagreed.
“The idea that we’re boring ... I mean we’re literally chasing pucks all game long and we’re not sitting back and it’s a fun game,” Stall said. “If you step in the Carolina Hurricanes building and watch the game, you won’ t be bored.”