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Justin Poirier, Baie-Comeau Drakkar (Photo Credit: Kassandra Blais Photographie)

Hurricanes Prospects: Forsmark, Poirier & the New Guy

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Alex Ohari | Last updated Jan 29, 2025 11:15 AM ET

Welcome to the fifth installment of the revived “Future Canes” prospect series. In this column, we take a look at Carolina Hurricanes prospects who are standing out and enjoying success, whether they’re playing in Canadian juniors, the American Hockey League (AHL), Europe, Russia, or anywhere around the world.

Today, we’ll look at a defender in Sweden who’s turning heads, as well as one of the most exciting forward prospects on the planet Earth. Finally, we’ll finish off with the newest addition to the Hurricanes’ pipeline. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Simon Forsmark

Forsmark is a player who’s grown leaps and bounds over the past couple years playing in Sweden’s Timra IK program. At age 21, he has good size at 6-foot-1, 195 pounds and is playing top-four minutes on a competitive squad. With 18 points in 34 games, he is now just one point short of matching his career-best total of 19 despite playing 18 games less than he did last season. He currently sits right in the top 15 of league scoring amongst defencemen, just behind another Hurricanes prospect in Joel Nystrom.

The offensive progression in Forsmark’s game is very exciting because he’s mostly been considered to be a strong two-way defender. He’s a strong and smooth skater. He makes great breakout passes and zone exits, and uses his stick and positional awareness to his benefit in the defensive zone. Overall, he’s proven already to be a consistent and reliable player, but if he can add another element of offense to his game, which he is seemingly doing, it could take his overall game to another level. My guess is that the Hurricanes will look to sign Forsmark over the summer and bring him over to North America so he can start refining his game on smaller ice.

Justin Poirier

So far on the season, Justin Poirer has got 36 goals and 66 points in just 43 games, which puts him as the co-league leader in terms of goal scoring. I predicted before the season that I could see him reaching the 60-goal mark, and honestly, I still think he’s within reach. He needs to pick up his pace just a bit, but he’s a guy who can score in bunches when he gets hot.

Luckily for me, Poirier is one of the prospects that I have the luxury of watching live every season because he plays in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). His presence on the ice is electrifying. He’s a smooth and sharp skater, very dangerous on the puck and makes things happen with ease. His knack for finding open space and lightning-fast release are two of his traits that I think give them the best chance of finding success at the next level down the road.

It’s not exactly fair to compare a player who was drafted in the fifth round to guys like Alex DeBrincat and Cole Caufield, but I genuinely look at those guys as the comparables for Poirier, stylistically. He might not be as dynamic as those guys — I’m a bit worried about his skating stride. While he’s a burner and flies around, his stride is extremely short and a bit wonky, which could present an issue for him at the NHL level. But maybe it won’t, and his shot is as lethal of a weapon as you will find. The kid just has that “it” factor — and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for him when he eventually turns pro.

Nils Juntorp

If you didn’t know who Nils Juntorp was just a couple of days ago, don’t worry — you’re not alone — even though I’m somebody who avidly follows prospects around the NHL. I’d also never heard of this player. He was acquired in the deal that brought Mikko Rantanen to Carolina, but it’s kind of fair to consider him a throwaway piece from the Chicago side of things. He was added to the deal as a way to bypass the NHL’s rule which now prevents future considerations from being used as a placeholder in salary-retention trades. So, basically, he was deemed by the Blackhawks to be their most expendable asset.

A big part of the Blackhawks’ willingness to move a 21-year-old winger for nothing in Juntorp was likely his performance with the United States Hockey League’s Dubuque Fighting Saints in the 2022-23 season. As an NHL-drafted player in his draft-plus-one season, his statistical production — 12 goals and 27 points in 59 games — in a league of that caliber can be considered absolutely dismal. He finished ninth on that team’s scoring list, and none of the players ahead of him had been drafted. After that season, he headed back to his native Sweden where he’s currently playing in the country’s third tier. Don’t get me wrong — he’s obviously a good hockey player, and he has a future in the sport if he chooses to continue with it. But 99.9% of the time, a player with this profile is just not an NHL-level prospect — and legitimately might not even be ECHL-level. So this will likely be the only report I ever write on him, but hey, who knows!

As always, the important thing to remember with prospects is that development is non-linear. Some players take longer to figure it out than others, and some players never do. Wisely, the Hurricanes’ philosophy over the past few drafts has been to trade back and add more picks, therefore adding more players to their system, which has helped this prospect group grow into one of the deepest in the NHL.