Here at Broad Street Hockey, we look at all other Metropolitan Division teams with disgust. They’re nasty! But we should always know our enemy. So, let’s take a gander at what each divisional rival of our Philadelphia Flyers looks like heading into the 2025-26 NHL season.
The Carolina Hurricanes used to be everyone’s dark horse pick to go far into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You were so cool thinking that Jordan Staal would unlock something extra as the team’s third-line center. But now, after years of missteps and not even sniffing a Stanley Cup Final appearance, the Hurricanes got a little fed up with trying to be cute with their roster building and went out and made some big splashes last season and this summer.
They might just be a sizeable problem each time they play the Flyers.
Their offseason, in one sentence
The Hurricanes spent lots on players who should fit right in with the hopes of making more noise in the playoffs, while also keeping their future in mind.
Hurricanes’ biggest addition
It is extremely tough to choose between Carolina’s two significant additions. Winger Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman K’Andre Miller are obviously the ones we’re mentioning — and really the only ones they made. Last summer, they did all their subtle additions with securing depth pieces such as Eric Robinson and William Carrier, but after making the Mikko Rantanen splash at the trade deadline, general manager Eric Tulsky was hungry for some more and made the two significant additions, one via trade and the other free agency.
Still, it’s hard to pick between them. Ehlers is such a Hurricane it is almost weird that he wasn’t already traded there years ago, and Miller fits right into the mold of being a hyper-athletic defenseman that should gel in extremely well with the likes of Jaccob Slavin, Jalen Chatfield, and our ex-Flyers duo in Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker. Mix in rookie Alexander Nikishin in there and they’re cooking up something tasty on the back end.
We might just cop out and say that they’re perfectly equal additions. Because even when it comes to Ehlers, there is a real possibility that he shows more than he ever did in Winnipeg and proves that he was underutilized during his several seasons as a Jet. He was simply never one of their go-to forwards and now with a sizeable commitment, the Hurricanes are almost obligated to give him as many opportunities as possible. He’ll be that perfect supporter for scorers like Andrei Svechnikov, or create an annoying-as-hell duo with Seth Jarvis, or just actually be an offensive contributor alongside Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Either way, wherever he slots into the Hurricanes’ top six will mean a forward line the other 31 teams will be envious of.
Hurricanes’ biggest loss
Maybe the beautiful thing about the Hurricanes’ offseason is that they really didn’t lose anyone of note. Both Brent Burns and Dmitri Orlov were easily replaced by Miller and Nikishin and we would confidentially say those are very good upgrades. Carolina wasn’t even using Brent Burns for what he’s best known for — Gostisbehere was their quarterback for the top power-play unit last season.
Neither loss meant anything, and they easily made up for it by getting even better. Some sort of maneuvering that only a former writer for Broad Street Hockey dot com could pull off.
Other stuff they did
While making some strong additions that they hope to push them to shed the “win a couple playoff rounds but never a true Stanley Cup contender” label, the Hurricanes also solidified their future by committing a whole lot of years to two young forwards Jackson Blake and Logan Stankoven. Two forwards who are, to put it lightly, maybe the most Carolina Hurricane players we have ever seen in our lives. Undersized but willing to get in the mix anywhere on the ice, very solid underlying numbers and typically undervalued around the league — these two should be quintessential supporters for the top players on this team for years to come. And locking them up until 2034 (fake year) for a combined cap hit of just over $11 million will look like a bargain in a few years with the salary cap increasing.
Are they better or worse right now than when they started the offseason?
It might be a blog bias, but they are very clearly better compared to just a few months ago. Making those two large additions, securing the future, and we didn’t even mention that they have over $10 million in cap space right now thanks to having just $4.75 million tied up in their goaltenders. It’s just some moves that people wish their favorite team did and while they are better, they still have the unproven label about them.
Can they continue getting Very Solid players while not having that game-breaking talent, and expect to win a Cup with that? Is Sebastian Aho a good enough first-line center for a contender? They certainly are deep enough and that was addressed, but some of the questions still remain and we might find out the answer this season.
The long-term outlook
Good. That’s basically it. The Hurricanes are maybe the only team that is considered among the best in the NHL that can realistically claim that they will remain there for several years. With all this talent they currently have, their stars are still under the age of 30 and they have a prospect pool with players like Bradly Nadeau, Felix Unger Sorem, Dominik Badinka, and Nikita Artamonov, that should sustain this success for so many years.
The Hurricanes just grade out well in almost every category when it comes to an organization — and that’s so annoying.
