The mood is almost always the same on the first day of training camp, no matter how high (or low) the expectations, no matter how many (or few) changes and new faces. If you don’t start the first day with the optimism you’ll be playing on the last day, no matter how realistic or misplaced that optimism may actually be, why start at all?
Many of the Carolina Hurricanes have been skating together at Invisalign Arena for some weeks now, as long ago became custom in the NHL, so neither unfamiliarity nor fitness should be an issue, once the reasons for having a training camp.
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Nevertheless, there’s still that new-car smell on this morning, when the first group takes the ice for the first time and the season begins in earnest. Opening night is only three weeks away. The first preseason game looms in four days. Veterans will pace themselves. Prospects and fringe players will grind from the first shift. The hockey calendar flips another page.
Mar 9, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere (4) and Winnipeg Jets left wing Nikolaj Ehlers (27) battle over the puck during the second period at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
For the Hurricanes, there are both high expectations and new faces, not to mention a new realization of where the bar is set having watched the Florida Panthers go on to win a second straight Stanley Cup after eliminating them in the conference finals for the second time in three years. So: Enter Nik Ehlers on offense, another skilled weapon on the wing, a little more firepower, not to mention starting fresh with trade-deadline acquisitions Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall.
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The defense has been retooled with trade acquisition K’Andre Miller and Calder Trophy candidate Alexander Nikishin replacing Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov. There figures to be a more even split between Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov in goal. And there’s always a chance another Jackson Blake could emerge unexpectedly over the next three weeks and make himself essential to the cause.
New York Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller (79) jostles with Carolina Hurricanes center Seth Jarvis (24). The Hurricanes traded for Miller on Tuesday and signed him to an eight-year deal.
What’s interesting about the Hurricanes, unlike years past and perhaps unlike any other team in the NHL, is the awareness — if not expectation — that Ehlers and Miller and defenseman Mike Reilly may not be the only new faces.
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After years bumping up against the salary cap, they have managed their roster in a way where they actually enter the season with more than $10 million free, enough to make a big move now or down the road. So as things drag out with Minnesota Wild and Kirill Kaprizov, of course the Hurricanes are kicking the tires, just as they did with Mikko Rantanen and Matthew Tkachuk before him and any number of stars who have unexpectedly become available.
Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon believes in star power, and Kaprizov fits that bill as well as anybody. That doesn’t mean he’s ticketed for here if the Wild — who have reportedly offered Kaprizov a record $16 million per season — decide they have to cut bait the way the Avalanche did with Rantanen, but it does mean the Hurricanes will try to insert themselves in the conversation if it comes to that. It’s what they do.
Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov (97) takes a shot on goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period in game six of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center.
Now, as good as Kaprizov is, there’s an argument to be made that if the goal is to get past the Panthers, the Hurricanes would be better served keeping their powder dry and waiting to see if a center becomes available, because it’s the matchup down the middle with Florida that most desperately needs upgrading. They hung onto Jesperi Kotkaniemi because they didn’t think they could replace him with anyone better. (And it’s another big season for Kotkaniemi to try to live up to the promise of his draft position.)
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But if someone better at center does become available, that would potentially move the Hurricanes closer to a Stanley Cup than any other move would or could.
Then there are the suspended players who become available to sign on October 15 and play on December 1 after being acquitted in Canada in July of rape charges dating back to the 2018 World Junior Championships. The Hurricanes have been linked by NHL insiders to center Michael McLeod and goalie Carter Hart, who have not played in the NHL since February 2024. As with the Hurricanes’ decision to sign Tony DeAngelo in 2021, they would potentially be swimming against the current of public opinion should they go that route.
That possibility, at least, remains a month away.
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New Jersey Devils center Michael McLeod (20) tries to hold off Boston Bruins center Jakub Lauko (94) during the second period at TD Garden.
The open opportunity for more moves to come is an interesting undercurrent to a day that’s almost always about the collection of players on the ice for the first time together, and in the case of the Hurricanes, the core group of players that’s been on the ice together for many years now: Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis, Jordan Staal, Jordan Martinook, Andersen, Jalen Chatfield.
They start again at the very beginning of what they hope is a very long run. There are only a few boxes left to check, but they’re the biggest and most difficult ones. There are new faces to help. There could yet be more.
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