2025-26 Puck Drop Preview: Carolina Hurricanes

Last Word On Hockey’s Puck Drop Previews are back for the 2025-26 season! As the regular season approaches, Last Word will preview each team’s current outlook and stories to watch for the upcoming year. We’ll also do our best to project how things will go for each team throughout the campaign. Today, we’re previewing the 2025-26 Carolina Hurricanes.

2025-26 Carolina Hurricanes

2024-25 Season

The Hurricanes finished second in the Metropolitan Division last season with a 47-30-5 record. The team clinched their seventh consecutive playoff berth and a deep postseason run, falling in five games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Centre Sebastian Aho led the team in scoring with 29 goals and 74 points through 79 games. Seth Jarvis led the team in goal-scoring with 32 goals alongside 67 points. In net, Pyotr Kochetkov emerged as a viable starting option in the absence of Frederick Andersen, going 27-26-3 through 47 games.

2025 Offseason

The Hurricanes were busy this summer. Following the mid-season acquisition and subsequent loss of Mikko Rantanen, general manager Eric Tulsky wasn’t deterred from making big moves. The team acquired New York Rangers defenceman K’Andre Miller in a sign-and-trade and quickly secured him to an eight-year extension with an average annual value of $7.5million. The team also extended Andersen to a one-year extension for $2.75million. Finally, the organization made a large splash in free agency, signing free agent Nikolaj Ehlers. The 29-year-old winger was signed to a six-year deal with an average annual value of $8.5 million.

Projected Lineup

Ehlers – Aho – Svechnikov

Hall – Jarvis – Blake

Martinook – Staal – Stankoven

Carrier – Kotkaniemi – Robinson

Forwards

Top Six

The top line of Ehlers – Aho – Svechnikov is a premier scoring threat. The newly acquired Ehlers brings the type of playstyle that will excel in the Hurricanes system. He’s scored at a point-per-game rate of 0.50 or higher throughout his entire career. Aho and Svechnikov are both 20-30 goal, 50-60+ point threats.

The second line is far more experimental, but has high upside. Veteran forward Taylor Hall looked rejuvenated in his 31 games with Carolina, scoring nine goals and nine points for 18 points. Seth Jarvis has developed into a two-way Swiss Army Knife. He scored 32 goals and 67 points last season. Finally, Jackson Blake impressed in his rookie season. The 22-year-old scored 17 goals and 34 points in 80 games last season. This line is capable of scoring and playing elite defence, as is the Hurricanes’ mantra.

Bottom Six

The Carolina Hurricanes have one of the strongest bottom-six groups in the league. Most, if not all of the forwards in it are capable of moving up into the top six if needed. Staal and Kotkaniemi form a strong middle, while Martinook, Carrier and Robinson are impact level bottom six forwards. Logan Stankoven is the highlight of this unit. With 14 goals and 38 points last season, he and the rest of the bottom six will be constant scoring threats.

Defence

Slavin – Miller

Nikishin – Chatfield

Gostisbehere – Walker

Top Four

The theme of the defence is similar to the offence, every player is capable of giving meaningful minutes up and down the lineup. The highlight of the defence is Jaccob Slavin. The left-handed defenceman has emerged as the one of the league’s premier defensive defencemen. He’ll likely be paired with recent acquisition K’Andre Miller. Miller scored seven goals and 27 points last season. He’s shown the ability to play up to elite partners like Adam Fox in New York, and will benefit from playing time with Slavin.

The biggest X-factor for the Hurricanes will be the development of blue-chip prospect Alexander Nikishin. Only 23-years-old, Nikishin is yet to play in an NHL regular-season game. In four playoff games last season, he mustered just one assist and a minus-5 rating. Nikishin is an offensive dynamo, however, scoring 45+ points in each of his last three seasons in the KHL. He’ll be paired with Jalen Chatfield. Chatfield is a tremendous defensive presence that figures to give Nikishin the space he’ll need to develop his offensive game in the NHL.

Bottom Pair

Pairing Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker on the bottom pair shows the amount of depth the team has. Gostisbehere played in 70 games last season, scoring seven goals and 45 points. Similar to Chatfield, Sean Walker is an incredible defensive defencemen. He’ll provide Gostisbehere with the space he needs to work his magic offensively, as Chatfield will do for Nikishin on the second pair.

Goalies

Pyotr Kochetkov

Frederick Andersen

Goaltending is certainly a question mark for the Hurricanes. While Kochetkov and Andersen both put up winning records, this looks to have been more symptomatic of the Hurricanes system than the quality of their netminders. Kochetkov put up a .898 save percentage, while Andersen’s was just .899. This places both goaltenders slightly below last season’s league average of .900. Without any prospects in the pipeline that figure to debut this season, goaltending will be a large question mark all season long. However, with $10.6 million available in cap space, it’s possible Eric Tulsky makes a move once teams begin falling out of the playoff race.

Players to Watch

Nikolaj Ehlers

Up-front, Nikolaj Ehlers is a massive boost for the Carolina Hurricanes. With 520 points in 674 games with the Jets, he possesses a track record of consistent NHL production. Ehlers was also the subject of questionable deployment in Winnipeg. He’d often end up playing with lesser teammates or on the bottom lines with little justification, potentially stifling his production.

In Carolina, Ehlers will get the chance to carry the torch alongside Aho, Svechnikov and Jarvis. Expect Ehlers to push for and potentially surpass the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career this season

Alexander Nikishin

Defensively, the Carolina Hurricanes lost Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov to free agency over the offseason. Orlov contributed six goals and 22 points in 2024-25, while Burns scored six goals and 29 points. While veteran Shayne Gostisbehere will help offload the lost points, the Hurricanes need Alexander Nikishin to take a jump in his development.

There is little reason to believe Nikishin won’t be able to reach these expectations. Over his past three seasons playing for SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, he’s appeared in at least 60 games per season. Over the cumulative 193 games, he’s scored 45 goals and 157 points. This shows that Nikishin has the ability to surpass even the scoring ability of Gostisbehere if he’s able to continue developing well. His scoring and development may make a difference in a deep playoff run in the spring of 2026.

Prediction for the 2025-26 Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes have made back-to-back conference finals, only to be thwarted by back-to-back Cup champion Florida Panthers. A lot of the moves the organization made in response to these losses have been in support of finding players that fit the Hurricanes’ system while having higher potential and offensive upside.

The Hurricanes look to be favourites to make their third-straight Conference Finals appearance. However, the additions of Nikolaj Ehlers and K’Andre Miller, along with the development of Alexander Nikishin and Jackson Blake, will be crucial for this new look Hurricanes team. As long as the team’s system can integrate and develop these players and others like Stankoven and Jarvis further, the Hurricanes possess the ability to beat their Conference Finals demons and capture their first Stanley Cup since 2006.