Hurricanes’ Waddell & Brind’Amour Host End-of-Season Presser Takeaways

When it comes down to it, Brind’Amour is Carolina and Carolina is home to he and his family. When a coach like him has a resume of 278-130-44 in six seasons with three division titles, three consecutive 50-win seasons, and is a Jack Adams Award winner, there is no reason to let them go. While they have not gotten over the hump, there is no overlooking six straight first-round wins, two Eastern Conference Final appearances, and the ability to bring the success he has in such a short amount of time. Since that question is finally taken care of, what is next for the Hurricanes went it comes to roster construction for 2024-25?

Keeping the Band Together

One of the other main focuses from the press conference is how Waddell and the front office will be able to build a contender once again for next season. The Hurricanes face a plethora of unrestricted free agents (UFAs) and restricted free agents (RFAs) this offseason. The first player brought up, in the context of whether he will stay, was Jake Guentzel, who they traded for on March 7 to help get them over the hump.

Brind’Amour stated, “Number one, he’s a great player. We don’t want just good people around, we want good people that are good players and he checked both boxes. I think he’s got to want to be here and I think, you know, in the short time he was here, I think he enjoyed it and enjoyed the group and enjoyed the way we do things. So it gives us hope that maybe we can make this work.”

There is a chance the Hurricanes will go after Guentzel, but it all comes down to term and what is best for his family, Guentzel said when asked on the first day of exit interviews on May 18. To be able to keep him will definitely help the team long-term. Furthermore, Waddell even added about Guentzel, “With Jake, I think he played a good role here. I know Sebastian [Aho], talked about how much he liked playing with him, so, you know, we have gotten into those talks and we’ll talk to him also. When the season ends like this, that’s something that everybody really wants to talk about? Now, in the next few days, I know I’m gonna hear from all the agents and we’ll start discussing where these players are at and what they expect.”  

Before that, Waddell answered the first part of the question in regard of the upcoming UFAs, saying “We’d like to sign them all. I mean, as Rod said, we’ve got something good going here and we’d like to keep it going. There’s just this thing called the salary cap that won’t allow us to do that.” While they want to run it back, both guys know that hockey is a business and they have to do what’s best for the team. If they could run it back with the current team, they would.

When asked about Seth Jarvis, Waddell and Brind’Amour gave the 22-year-old winger high praise after his third season with the team. Waddell started off the Jarvis set of questions by stating, “You can’t say enough about this guy other than he does need a new contract so I gotta be careful. But he is something else. I mean, we watch how he plays. Forget about the status of his size, if he’s got a chance to go get that puck, it doesn’t matter who’s going to take him out, he’s going to get it first. It’s just every game he amazes me. He’s got big kahunas there. So he’s a guy that you want to continue to build your team around, that’s for sure.”

Firstly, Jarvis deserves a lot of credit for playing 67 regular season games and 11 postseason games with a torn labrum and a torn rotator cuff. Furthermore, he also played with a broken finger that he suffered in the first round versus the New York Islanders. To say he has “big kahunas” is an understatement for how team-first Jarvis has been in a career campaign where he set new career highs in goals (33), assists (34), and points (67) along with scoring a team-leading 13 power play goals and five postseason goals.

Brind’Amour followed up Waddell about Jarvis, “I can’t say much more than that. I’m not even know if you’re allowed to say all that. Anyway, we get the point. He’s had a good year. What I like about Seth, is he’s just getting better and he’s willing to get better. You just see the progression. I think there’s still another level for him to get to. So that’s a real bright spot for this organization.” It’s clear Jarvis’s head coach and the organization think highly of the Winnipeg native, who is due for a pay raise as he will be an RFA this offseason. He is more than deserving of an extension after the 2023-24 season and playoffs. he had,

Waddell made a funny comment about Jarvis’s summer as he is going to Finland for two weeks for a golf tournament and Sebastian Aho’s wedding. The executive said, “I’m worried about the country of Finland this year though. He’s going to spend two weeks in Finland and they’ve never seen a Jarvis. He’s got a golf tournament and then he’s got Fishy’s [Aho’s] wedding so Finland might be a little different when he leaves.” To the people in Finland: good luck and have fun experiencing Jarvis as the honorary “half-Finn” according to Aho.

Fixing Relationship with Chicago Wolves

The last takeaway involved the relationship between the Hurricanes and the American Hockey League (AHL) side Chicago Wolves. Back on May 2, it was announced that the two sides agreed to become affiliated once again for the next three seasons. Regarding that, what was part of the deal for the Wolves to become the Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate again? Waddell stated, “So the deal we made is that Chicago’s ownership, they run the business of the franchise and we run all the hockey departments. Coaches, trainers, equipment, everybody works for us. So that’s a big change there. We started to talk to some coaches, actually. Darren Yorke, our assistant GM, is leading the charge in that. He’s talked to some guys and we’ll get it down like we did before to a small group and then, Rod and I’ll jump into it. Things are happening, but don’t look for anything to happen in the next few days.”

What it comes down to is that the Hurricanes will control all the organization’s on-ice facets. It means the coaching staff, equipment guys, trainers, and players who are under contract will be handled with by Carolina. The Wolves will take care of the organization’s business side. It will be interesting to see what comes of the Hurricanes being more in control of their prospects’ development which other teams did not have in the past with the Wolves. Either way, it is good to see the Canes having an AHL team once again to have all their prospects in one place, and for the Wolves to hunt for another Calder Cup Trophy in 2024-25 and beyond.

If you want to be able to watch the whole 21-minute press conference, click the link here to hear Brind’Amour and Waddell talk about all of this and so much more. There was so much more that was discussed that it could not all fit here.

All Eyes on the 2024 NHL Entry Draft

Now that the end-of-year press conference is done, all eyes turn to the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. The draft is set to be held on June 28 and 29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The Hurricanes roll into the draft with nine picks (three in the sixth round via the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs) and one pick in each of the other rounds. The questions will now begin on who the Hurricanes will choose with their first-round pick. It’ll be something to keep an eye on as we are just a tad over a month away from the event. As always, The Hockey Writers will be covering the draft and there will plenty of content over the next few weeks.