Hurricanes’ Jesper Fast Will Miss 2024-25 After Neck Surgery

The Carolina Hurricanes announced that forward Jesper Fast will miss the entire 2024-25 NHL season after a successful neck surgery necessary after Fast suffered an injury in the final game of the regular season in a match against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Jesper Fast has undergone neck surgery, and is not expected to play in the upcoming season.

Get well soon, Quickie ❤️

Details » https://t.co/VosgoJ8Fhq pic.twitter.com/sXSfZseS2J

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) August 29, 2024

Fast, 32, is entering the final year of a two-year deal he signed last offseason with the Hurricanes paying him $2.4 million per season. Last season, Fast recorded six goals and 19 points in 73 games.

Fast Is Crucial Part of Hurricanes’ Depth

For the majority of his time over the past few seasons, Fast has been a staple of the Hurricanes’ third line alongside Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook, making for one of the best shut-down forward lines in the league. While they were still able to produce some offense, they were a defensive specialty unit.

While the entire Hurricanes roster has bought into the strong defensive system head coach Rod Brind’Amour has, Fast had some of the best possession numbers in the entire league. With a corsi-for percentage of 63.3, he not only led the team, but the entire league among players with 10 or more games played. Fast is a great asset who will be very difficult to replace in the lineup.

Once the playoffs hit for the Hurricanes, the defending wasn’t a problem for them, but scoring was. While Fast doesn’t have a huge impact on the scoresheet every night, he has 27 points over 80 playoff games in his career, and takes a lot of the defensive responsibilities away from the top players so that they can focus on scoring more.

It is expected that the Hurricanes will place Fast and his contract on long-term injured reserve and give themselves an additional $2.4 million in cap space. Despite Seth Jarvis remaining unsigned, they have the cap space to ink him to a new deal, as well as finding a replacement for Fast in the bottom-six as it is a big hole to fill and a lot of responsibility for a rookie like Bradley Nadeau of Felix Unger-Sorem, who could compete for NHL roster spots.

Related: Carolina Hurricanes 2024-25 Stat Leaders Prediction

With this being the last year of his deal, it would make sense for Fast to get another shot with the Hurricanes. For the right price, the club should be more than happy to bring back Fast, who is arguably their best defensive forward outside of Jordan Staal, and Fast knows how well he fits in the system.