Among Carolina Hurricanes fans, a debate has been ongoing for years. Does head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system hold back the Hurricanes’ offensive firepower? The system Carolina practices is an exhibition of simplicity. A combination of controlled possession entry and dump-and-chase to force the puck back to the point. Firing shots through traffic is the Hurricanes’ stereotypical goal. Carolina’s shoot-on-sight philosophy is great for this because it allows the Hurricanes to retrieve the puck in unique circumstances. In the seven years since Rod Brind’Amour became the head coach, Carolina has been in the top ten in shots annually. They’ve been in among the top five on five occasions, and in the top three four times. So, does this hold the team back?
Hurricanes’ Offense
Carolina was second in the league in shots in the 2024-25 campaign, with only the Edmonton Oilers posting more. In the postseason, they were third to only the two Stanley Cup Finalists. That philosophy of firing the puck at the net was well and truly exemplified despite the changes in the Hurricanes’ front office. In a transitional season with so many new faces, Brind’Amour continued to convey his message, but there is a deeper layer to this.
According to NHL Edge, the Hurricanes’ shooting gallery is extreme. The Hurricanes were credited with 2,598 shots in 2024-25. Carolina had 573 shots from the point last season—198 from the left, 170 in the middle, and 205 from the right. Carolina had 207 from the left wall and 177 from the right wall. Carolina was also credited with 22 shots from behind the goal. That’s a total of 929 attempts on goal from “low-danger areas”.
For those that are unfamiliar with this term, a “low-danger area” or “low-danger attempt” is a shot from an area that a goaltender is always going to feel comfortable from. Shots from the point he can see all the way, or shots from the boards you have no angle for. Scoring from behind the net shouldn’t be possible, for example, so they are low danger. That’s 36% of Carolina’s shot attempts coming from low danger areas.
One benefit of all those shots is that they force rebounds. Carolina had 84 shots in the crease, and 578 from the edge of it or the low slot. If you want to include the 97 shots Carolina had from the left side of the goal and the 67 from the right side, that’s 824 shots from the front of the net. Not all of those will be rebounds, but because of the system employing a shoot-first mentality, the vast majority will be.
Carolina then had 687 shots from the high slot and the inside parts of the circles. Those are not quite high-danger shots, but they help paint a picture that Carolina’s preferred method of reaching the scoring areas in front of the net is through shot volume. With a goaltender who can control rebounds, that strategy crumbles. It’s why the seven playoff eliminations under Rod Brind’Amour have come to some of the best goalies in the league.
Tuukka Rask, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Igor Shesterkin, and Sergei Bobrovsky have been the ones to eliminate the Hurricanes in this system. They all possess great individual qualities, but they’re strong in rebound control. If you compare that to someone like Jacob Markstrom, who the Canes bested in five games in Round 1, his pads can feel like pinball flippers with the bounce out he gets. That’s not the case with the goalies that beat Carolina.
Hurricanes’ Analytics
Analytically, a high shot volume is excellent. Those low expected goal shots, with enough of them, will elevate the stats to show a better quality in Carolina’s offense than it is. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Hurricanes had an expected goals for (xGF) of 288.09. That’s across all situations. If we limit this to just 5-on-5, that number drops to just 199.56. The Hurricanes scored 176 5-on-5 goals last season, so they’re underperforming that number quite dramatically.
It is the result of shooting from everywhere. Across the entirety of the 2024-25 season, the Hurricanes had 5,760 shot attempts, 4,665 at 5-on-5. For those who aren’t analytically inclined, this is also referred to as Corsi, or specifically Corsi for. If we then take their Corsi For percentage (CF%), which is how many shot attempts the Hurricanes had compared to the number they gave up, that comes in at a CF% of 58.52 in all situations, or 59.14 at 5-on-5.
That’s a lot of numbers without much context, so what do they mean? It highlights that Carolina has around 60% of the shot attempts when they play. Now, part of this is due to their swarming defense, of course. Carolina annually yields the fewest shot attempts against every season, which we’ll come back to. However, the philosophy of shooting from everywhere often gives its players a boost in analytical performance. The trade-off is that they perhaps don’t create as many “Grade A” chances as they’d like for their star players. So, does this hold back their players? Well, let’s take a look.
Hurricanes’ Individuals Affected
So, the golden goose here is Mikko Rantanen. Yes, he was only a Hurricane for a second, but his tenure in Raleigh highlights the very issues that have long been suggested with the system. In 13 games, Rantanen had 40 shots, more than he had in the 20 games he played with the Dallas Stars before the end of the regular season. However, Rantanen had six points in Carolina compared to 18 in Dallas. Some argue that perhaps Rantanen never truly had a fair shot in Raleigh, though, given the chaos from the January trade leading to the 4 Nations and then his second trade to Dallas. That’s a fair argument, so let’s look at who the Canes got back in that trade to Dallas.
Logan Stankoven had an excellent postseason in Carolina after being one of the points of return for Rantanen, but even he highlights the shortcomings of this system. In 83 games in Dallas, Stankoven recorded 15 goals and 28 assists for 43 points. That’s 0.52 points per game. He also had 199 shots as a Star. In Carolina, Stankoven recorded five goals and four assists for nine points. That’s 0.47 points per game, but it’s a smaller sample size with a young player. Fine. But he also had 46 shots in Carolina. That’s 2.89 shots per game as a Hurricane compared to 2.39 in Dallas. He’s consciously throwing more shots on goal because of the Brind’Amour teachings.
Related: Is This Ryan Suzuki’s Last Chance to Break Into the NHL in Carolina?
Some may argue that those players are not good representations because they were acquired mid-season, so let’s look at someone who had time to embed in Carolina and has started to thrive elsewhere: Vincent Trocheck. He was initially acquired at the 2020 trade deadline, spending three seasons in the City of Oaks. He recorded 39 goals and 57 assists for 96 points in 135 games. That’s 0.71 points per game. Since moving on to the New York Rangers, Trocheck has 73 goals and 127 assists for 200 points in 246 games. That’s 0.81 points per game.
Trocheck’s playing more in New York than he did in Raleigh, but that’s also partly on Rod’s system. It suggests that those who cannot play the way Brind’Amour wants them to get punished with less ice time, which then harms production even more. Trocheck has gone on to become a reliable crutch for the Rangers.
Even if you don’t like these three, there are others. Nino Niederreiter, Teuvo Teravainen, Warren Foegele, and even Stefan Noesen – all of them found more reliable success after leaving than they did in Carolina.
Hurricanes’ Perks
This system isn’t without its benefits, clearly. As the Hurricanes remain one of the titans in the Eastern Conference, there must be some positives, or the team wouldn’t use this system. The benefit is that it’s a very plug-and-play system. Carolina can set this up with almost anyone who’s got NHL talent in one facet. Whether it be the shot, skating speed, or passing, they can play in this system. Some NHL-American Hockey League (AHL) in-betweeners, like Eric Robinson, find Carolina a very suitable home. Even the beloved Jordan Martinook wasn’t assured of his NHL future when the Hurricanes acquired him. It’s great at getting more from the bottom six.
That leads us into the next benefit of the system: It’s defensively superb if deployed correctly. It’s incredibly aggressive and in the face of the opponent, which leads to turnovers and rush chances. It requires the Hurricanes to have players, especially forwards, who are all competent in their own zone. There isn’t room for someone who makes a lot of mistakes or blows coverage in the defensive zone, because it is a man-on-man system—a unicorn in the modern NHL.
It’s a double-edged sword because of this. It gives the Hurricanes that aggressive style and a lot of different arrows to pierce an opponent’s defense with, but it’s also their own downfall. When a team like the Florida Panthers marches into the building, equipped with a good goaltender and an equally good defensive setup, the Hurricanes don’t have a plan B. When that lack of firepower gets pushed into the limelight, the flaws the system hides become fatal.
It’s a unique situation because not many coaches in the NHL played at the level that Brind’Amour did: a two-time Selke Trophy winner, and someone permanently on the fringes of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Perhaps only Martin St. Louis, head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, boasts a better playing career. The system Brind’Amour deploys is an embodiment of what he was as a player. One of the best two-way players of his generation, he wasn’t flashy; he wasn’t the most skilled. He was the ol’ reliable for his coaches. That’s what he asks his players to be.
Is this enough to get the Hurricanes over the hump as a coach? Right now, it’s a resounding no. Time is ticking with this core, and while Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has said he wants Rod to be a Hurricane for life, the players this organization has put together to form this team do not have an infinite number of tries at this.
