Hurricanes’ Andrei Svechnikov’s Early-Season Struggles are Glaring

On Saturday night (Oct. 25), the Carolina Hurricanes wrapped up their six-game, 12-day road trip, going 4-2-0 over that span. After eight games into the 2025-26 season, they sit with a 6-2-0 record and are two points back of the New Jersey Devils. The Hurricanes, as a whole, have 17 of 23 skaters who have tallied at least one point over the first eight games. Out of the six who have not, five of them have played three games or fewer, with two making NHL debuts in recent days. However, one has played all eight games and has not tallied a point. Andrei Svechnikov has been struggling at the start of the season, and after eight games, it’s glaring.

Glaring Issues for Svechnikov

Following the 2025 NHL Playoffs, where Svechnikov had eight goals and 12 points, some felt like he had finally found his form. While he has been strong in the playoffs, the regular season has shown more ups and downs for the Russian forward. When diving into the stats, Svechnikov has shown that he thrives on the power play, scoring 10 goals last season on the man-advantage. However, when that translates to 5-on-5 play, he only had another 10 during the 2024-25 season. Out of those 10 even-strength goals, five were scored with an empty net. Ever since his ACL tear during the 2022-23 season, his point total has dropped from 55 to 52 to 48 last season. Svechnikov does get the assists (32, 33, and 28), but his goal total has not reached 25 or greater since 2021-22, when he had 30. Over the last three seasons, he has only scored 23, 19, and 20.

While that is not the be-all and end-all, for a second overall pick in 2018, the hope is that he scores 30 to 40 goals a season and has around 65 or more points. 2021-22 was the last time Svechnikov had over 60 points in a season (finished with 69). So far in eight games in 2025-26, he has not scored a goal or recorded a point.

This is Svechnikov’s stat line after eight games, which includes the recent six-game road trip: minus-3, 15 shots on goal (31 shot attempts), 14:43 average time on ice (TOI), and five hits.

During the road trip, Svechnikov got demoted to the fourth line and onto the second power-play unit. While Rod Brind’Amour does not number his lines, Svechnikov’s ice time shows that, for a guy making $7.75 million a season, he is not getting the job done. Since the home opener on Oct. 9, Svechnikov has not put up more than two shots per game in the last seven games (three games with only one shot on goal). Furthermore, entering the game on Saturday against the Dallas Stars, he had five hits on the season. He left the game with five hits. His stat line after the Stars game was 15:15 TOI, 17 shifts, and one shot on goal.