Carolina was able to re-sign unrestricted free agent forward Jordan Martinook to a three-year, $9.15 million contract and filled some of their holes by signing defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere (three years, $9.6 million) and Sean Walker (five years, $18 million) and forwards William Carrier (six years, $12 million), Jack Roslovic (one year, $2.8 million) and Tyson Jost (one year, $775,000).
The Hurricanes also believe younger players such as forwards Seth Jarvis, 22, and Jack Drury, 24, and goalie Pyotr Kochetkov, 25 can take on bigger roles.
Much of Carolina’s core remains intact, though, including forwards Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Martin Necas, Jordan Staal and defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Brent Burns. Slavin is locked up long-term after signing an eight-year, $51.69 million contract that begins in 2025-26 on July 1.
Perhaps Carolina’s biggest offseason transaction was re-signing coach Rod Brind’Amour to a multiyear contract. The Hurricanes have not missed the playoffs during Brind’Amour’s six seasons as coach, and their 278 regular-season wins during that span are third in the NHL behind the Boston Bruins (289) and Tampa Bay Lightning (283).
“One thing that’s amazing about this organization, this team, this leadership group that we do have is we’re a great culture to come into,” Slavin said. “Guys are going to come in, they’re going to feel at home right away, they’re going to feel confident in how they play the game and how we play the game. … So, I don’t see this as a setback losing those guys.
“It’s different personnel, but we still have the same culture, same identity and the same confidence looking forward.”
Whether that will be enough for Carolina to win the Cup for the first time since 2006 remains to be seen. But that remains the objective.
“We’re chasing the Stanley Cup and if you ask anybody on our team right now, that’s the goal,” Martinook said. “It’s not anything else. So, as much as the fans are probably worried that we lost some guys, we’ve got guys coming in that wouldn’t have signed here if they didn’t think that they had a chance to win.”