Is This One Factor Holding Back The Carolina Hurricanes?

After reaching the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, the Carolina Hurricanes yet again enter the 2025 Exit Interviews on a sour note.

In a 4-1 series loss to the Florida Panthers, the Hurricanes managed to win their first game in the Eastern Conference Finals since 2006. For reference, current Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour scored the game winning goal in that game.

What is the reason for these premature eliminations, despite being one of the most consistent teams in the Eastern Conference since 2018?

For this, let’s look into the consistencies of these seven teams.

The 2018-2019 season was the first for Brind’Amour at the helm. He took over for previous head coach Bill Peters, who failed to reach the playoffs in his four seasons behind the bench.

In year one, he led the team to 99 points on the season and their first playoff berth since the 2008-09 season, by largely changing the team’s identity.

As a team, they improved from 22nd in goals against to seventh.

This adjustment came with the same defensive core, as Jaccob Slavin and Justin Faulk led the team in time on ice in both seasons.

Instead, the defensive efforts from the forwards came to fruition, with a unique strategy.

Typically, when more defensive responsibilities are given to a team’s forward group, you will see the team’s blocked shots and hits increase overall. This was not the case in 2018, nor has it been noticeably in the six seasons to follow.

Instead, the Hurricanes made an effort to increase the tempo of the game, capitalizing on the team’s overall skating abilities.

Carolina achieved this philosophy in two ways. First, when defending in their own zone, the Hurricanes pressure the puck handler more than most teams in the NHL, pushing back to the blue line after an entry.

Then, when the puck transitions to the offensive end, the Hurricanes shoot more than any other team in hockey.

They started leading the league in the statistic in the 2018-19 season, and over the seven year stretch only the Florida Panthers put the puck on net more often.

This pesky style of hockey requires a roster compiled of open-ice skaters with enough endurance to keep up with the workload. Based on the team’s ability to reach the postseason in each of those seasons, it is safe to say they found a group of skaters with those abilities.

Another reason the philosophy is not more widespread, outside of its difficulty, is because it slightly counteracts with the typical formula for a championship.

As the playoffs begin, the physicality of the games significantly increases.

So, even though the Hurricanes increase their level of physicality with the rest of the league, the makeup of the team that is built to outskate their opponents are often neutralized by the physicality mismatch.

Plus, when Carolina is unable to maintain position in the slot, screen the goaltender or get rebounds, their offensive philosophy of shoot now, think later becomes less effective.

This is not to say the Hurricanes fail to adjust or are complacent with their track record. For example, if Mikko Rantanen were to have signed a long-term contract with the Hurricanes instead of declining their offer, who knows if their physicality and offensive production would have been different this postseason.

But, in as long of a stretch as Carolina has seen without a Stanley Cup berth, it may be time for a significant change to their philosophy.

And to achieve this, the team may be forced to cut ties with Sebastian Aho.

Aho has objectively done all that could have been asked from a former second-round pick. In nine seasons, the Finnish forward has 631 points in 677 career games, all while never playing less than 68 games in a full season.

In the postseason, Aho has continued his point-per-game pace, with 85 in 89 career games, and 15 in this year’s postseason.

Aho has not been the team’s Achilles Heel by any means, nor has his contract withheld Carolina from being able to surround him with talent.

But, for being the top-paid player on the team and the potential replacement to Jordan Staal’s captaincy once he hangs up the skates, there may be hesitations in believing that Aho can lead a team to hoist the Stanley Cup.

So, entering an offseason with only four defensemen on contract and questions at the goaltending position, Carolina’s forward depth is a position of strength for the team.

If the Hurricanes want to begin their retooling by swinging big for bigger defensemen with postseason experience, in players like Aaron Ekblad, Vladislav Gavrikov or Cody Ceci, this could quickly eat up their current $32 million in cap space next season.

If that is the case, then that would limit their options in an already-limited pool of free-agent goaltenders.

Could this be the scenario where Aho is traded? Or if not Aho, could another forward on a team-friendly contract like Seth Jarvis or Andrei Svechnikov be a player the team would consider parting ways from.

Regardless of which domino falls, the 2025-26 Carolina Hurricanes could have an entirely different look to them after this offseason. And the changes to the roster are warranted given their ceiling in the Brind’Amour era.

But even though trading away a forward of these three’s talent levels has plenty of risk, with Brind’Amour’s coaching and the chemistry of the roster, they could be one player away from escaping the Eastern Conference Final roadblock that they have been unable to navigate.