- Daily Faceoff picks Carolina to win the Metropolitan Division again and sees a real path to a repeat
- The Hurricanes did not add a single outside NHL player this offseason
- Read below for the Seth Jarvis timeline and the Alexander Nikishin question
The Carolina Hurricanes did not add a single NHL player this summer. That was the point.
Daily Faceoff’s 2026-27 team preview has the defending champs winning the Metro again and joining a group that has gotten crowded lately. Kyle Morton pointed out that the Penguins, Lightning and Panthers have all gone back-to-back in the last decade.
Morton explained why he isn’t worried about the division:
“The much-improved Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils have given it their best shot this summer, but no team in the Metro has done enough to have more than a puncher’s chance at dethroning Carolina atop the division.”
Take a look at the night the Cup came back to Raleigh:
The additions column in that preview reads none. Frederik Andersen signed in Edmonton and Mike Reilly is still unsigned, and that covers the roster turnover on a team that just won it all.
Everything else came back. Seven Carolina forwards hit 20 goals last season in Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, Nikolaj Ehlers, Logan Stankoven, Jackson Blake and Jordan Staal. Only Colorado scored more.
Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov will split the crease at a combined $3.9 million cap hit, a tandem that got a lot thinner the day Andersen left for the Oilers.
Jarvis will not be in the lineup for the opener. He had shoulder surgery in late June on a four-to-six month timeline, which lands his return somewhere between late October and the new year.
That opens a top-six spot for Bradly Nadeau. The 2023 first-rounder put up 56 points in 52 AHL games last season and scored three times in 12 games with Carolina, and the only thing keeping him down has been the organization’s depth on the wing.
Alexander Nikishin is the other loose end. Carolina’s restricted free agent remains unsigned, cannot be offer sheeted, and the club has spent the summer weighing trade offers on him after an 11-goal, 33-point rookie year.
Then there’s the calendar. The Cup Final ended June 14, and the banner goes up Sept. 29 against a Florida team that already called the Canes the team to beat.
Carolina is counting it down:
Rod Brind’Amour is 8-0 in playoff series against Metropolitan opponents. The rest of the division has five weeks to come up with an answer.
