The system isn\u2019t the problem. The Carolina Hurricanes didn\u2019t exit the playoffs with another loss to the Florida Panthers because of the way they play. Full stop.<\/p>\n
The difference between the teams, the reason the Hurricanes have lost to the Panthers twice in the conference finals in three years, isn\u2019t style. It\u2019s talent. The gap isn\u2019t big, but it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n
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And on Friday, two days after he single-handedly staked the Hurricanes to a 2-0 lead they would squander in season-ending fashion in Game 5, Sebastian Aho threw down a challenge to the front office: Go get us more of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast offseason, to be honest, I was disappointed how it went,\u201d Aho said. \u201cWe lost a couple guys I would like us to keep. At the trade deadline we tried to make a push and we do appreciate the team wants us to get better so there was \u2014 I feel like maybe, making the right choices in the offseason and picking up some pieces so maybe you don\u2019t have to try to throw a Hail Mary at the deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Aho doubled down: \u201cEveryone keeps saying we have a lot of cap space and we have assets. Hopefully we are able to take the next step in that department, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shots fired.<\/p>\n
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The season may be over, but Aho is still going with the \u201cshot-volume approach,\u201d as critics of the Hurricanes\u2019 style like to put it.<\/p>\n
It is unquestionably a big summer for the Hurricanes, albeit a different kind of summer. They don\u2019t face the kind of free-agent exodus they endured last summer when players like Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei and Teuvo Teravainen all departed. First-year general manager Eric Tulsky acted nimbly to fill those voids with players like Shayne Gostisbehere, Sean Walker and Jack Roslovic, but it\u2019s hard to argue the Hurricanes were better than they were a year earlier. At best, they held the line. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour later admitted he was unsure if he even had a playoff-worthy team in September.<\/p>\n
It turned out far better than that. They took a big swing and miss with the midseason misfire for Mikko Rantanen, and salvaged something out of it with Logan Stankoven \u2014 who scored more goals this postseason than Martin Necas ever did \u2014 but when the rubber met the ice, the Panthers had players who made bigger plays and were pressured into fewer mistakes. Aleksander Barkov\u2019s move to set up Carter Verhaeghe for the series-winning goal Wednesday was a superstar play by a superstar player.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to assume Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov won\u2019t be re-signed, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi\u2019s contract has reached the point where a buyout is feasible even if a trade isn\u2019t, and either way the Hurricanes need an upgrade there. Alexander Nikishin is clearly NHL-ready, and Scott Morrow\u2019s baptism by fire in the playoffs should equip him for fill-in duty on the blue line.<\/p>\n
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So the Hurricanes don\u2019t have a lot of work to do, but they have two giant holes to fill: A top-four caliber right-shot defenseman and a center legitimately capable of playing on the top two lines, which Kotkaniemi was not no matter how hard the Hurricanes wished he was. Neither of those needs are easily filled in the free-agent market, which will require some creativity on Tulsky\u2019s part. But he has shown, last summer and with Seth Jarvis\u2019 contract extension and his pivot on Rantanen, an ability to untie tangled knots.<\/p>\n
While outsiders might question the viability of the entire project, the reality is the Panthers pivoted to mimic the Hurricanes after winning the President\u2019s Trophy in 2022 and getting swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the playoffs. The difference is more top-end talent at forward \u2014 Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart and Verhaeghe \u2014 to go with more size on the back end and more depth throughout the lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you think they play?\u201d Brind\u2019Amour said after Wednesday\u2019s loss. \u201cThey\u2019re the standard now. Out, in, forecheck hard, wait for your chances, try to capitalize. It\u2019s hard hockey. If anything, we\u2019ve got to figure out how to get that much to our game. But that\u2019s the standard, right there. I feel like that\u2019s been our game for a long time. They kind of picked it up the last couple years and made it that much better. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to get to.\u201d<\/p>\n
All that said, the Hurricanes rolled over the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals and showed they could outplay the Panthers for long stretches of the series, and were undone by errors of their own making. The gap isn\u2019t as big as a 1-8 record in two playoff series might make it look.<\/p>\n
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There is a gap, though, and if the Panthers are \u201cthe standard,\u201d then the Hurricanes need to get stronger at center and bigger and deeper up and down the roster to meet that standard. With the Burns and Orlov contracts off the books, the money and ammunition \u2014 four first-round draft picks over the next three years \u2014 are there to do it. The Hurricanes will have about $20 million in cap space to play with, and they have to weaponize it.<\/p>\n
Despite Aho\u2019s understandable frustrations at seeing beloved teammates depart, the Hurricanes did about as well as they could have done last summer under the circumstances. The tumblers were always slowly clicking into place to make big moves this summer. The team\u2019s slightly unexpected success moved up the calendar, leading to the ill-fated Rantanen trade, but now the time has come.<\/p>\n
This season, through two playoff rounds, demonstrated the strength of the foundation and just how close the Hurricanes actually are. Then the Panthers could not have shown more clearly the bar the Hurricanes still have to clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some really good pieces here,\u201d Aho said, \u201cbut it\u2019s a really big offseason for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Aho\u2019s not wrong on either count. The assignment is clear. It\u2019s up to Tulsky and owner Tom Dundon to answer his challenge.<\/p>\n
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