The Daily Faceoff Show: What’s next for the Carolina Hurricanes?

In today’s episode of The Daily Faceoff Show, Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna took a retrospective look at the 2021–22 Carolina Hurricanes and attempted to project which of the team’s pending free agents could return next season.

Frank Seravalli: When you look at the way in which their season ended, pretty disappointing, I would imagine, for a team that’s been knocking on the door the last couple years to lose to an upstart New York Rangers team. They’ve also got a lot of decisions to make this summer, Mike, and they revolve around some of the guys whose contracts are up. What happens to Tony DeAngelo? What happens to Vincent Trocheck? What happens to Nino Niederreiter?

The one big question I have for you is, how do they find a real difference-maker, a real star up front that they can plug into their lineup?

Mike McKenna: That’s the hardest question, no doubt about it, man. This is a team that’s missing star power. I think Sebastian Aho, if he played in a bigger market, would be known across the country. […]

They weren’t able to break through with the Rangers, and they had a tough time in the playoffs because they don’t have the game-breaking ability. So they’re going to have to walk that fine line — are the Hurricanes willing to shell out and get somebody who’s a premier scorer in free agency, or are they gonna hope it comes from within? Who are they willing to let go? They’ve got $19 million in cap space, but we all know that goes quickly, Frank.

I look at Nino Niederreiter; that’s a player that I really want to keep around. He’s an identity piece of that team coming off a great season with 44 points, his hits — what he does is huge. [Jesperi] Kotkaniemi is probably gonna play an elevated role. I think they have to keep DeAngelo, though. [Dougie] Hamilton’s out the door; they replaced him with DeAngelo on a cheap deal … you don’t get defensemen with that type of production off the scrap heap very often. I don’t know if they can do that twice in a row. And I also think they’ve got an interesting piece from within, Frank. Jack Drury’s ripping it up in the American League; he had 52 points in 68 games as a rookie. […]

FS: I just don’t know if they can find a way to keep and afford Tony DeAngelo. I think he’s gonna be expensive. What kind of term is he gonna get out there on the market? Is someone willing to give him a five-year deal or a four-year deal that would probably price the Hurricanes out? I think if he’s only looking at one-year deals, maybe they can be competitive, or two-year deals, in terms of trying to keep him, but that probably makes the cost a little bit higher. He’s still a 60-plus-point defencsman over an 82-game season.

You can watch the full episode here: