Hurricanes & Ronan Seeley Avoid Arbitration with One-Year Deal

Slowly but surely, the Carolina Hurricanes are filling out their roster for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (AHL). On Thursday afternoon, the Hurricanes announced that they re-signed defenseman Ronan Seeley to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will avoid arbitration as the Yellowknife, NT native will return to the Wolves for the upcoming 2026-27 season. What does it mean for Seeley and the Wolves after making the Calder Cup Final last season?

The Last Ronan Returning to Wolves

When taking a closer look at the deal, Seeley will be making $850,000 at the NHL level, while making $100,000 at the AHL level. Furthermore, the deal also includes a guarantee of at least $160,000 for the 2026-27 season. After the upcoming season, Seeley will once again be a restricted free agent (RFA) and will be arbitration-eligible at 24 years old.

During the 2025-26 season, Seeley had 11 goals and 23 points in 69 games for the Wolves. He followed that up with one goal and two points in 21 playoff games, en route to a Calder Cup Final appearance. Seeley did make his Hurricanes debut last season, but didn’t register a point. Regardless of that, it was good to see Seeley finally get that chance to debut in the NHL.

It’s been a long road for the 208th overall pick of the 2020 draft after his second season in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Everett Silvertips. That 2091-20 season saw him finish with three goals and 32 points in 63 games. Eventually, Seeley would become an alternate captain in 2020-21, finishing with five goals and 17 points. That next season (2021-22), he became the captain and had a career season, tallying 11 goals, 33 assists, and 44 points in 52 games.

In his rookie season in professional hockey, Seeley had four goals, 21 assists, and 25 points in 70 AHL games for the Wolves. Over the last two seasons, Seeley has been the alternate captain being a big piece of the leadership group. He set a career high in goals last season (11) and was two points shy of tying his high in points, finishing with 23.

If the Wolves want to make another deep playoff run, they’ll lean on Seeley and his defensive game to get them there. However, he does have some sneaky scoring when the chances are there, and the puck goes in for him. Finishing with 11 goals last season could propel him to possibly having 15 or more in 2026-27. Regardless of how it’ll play out, it’s good to see Seeley back within the Hurricanes organization and being on the Wolves once again.

The Wolves are building a solid team, which has a good chance for another deep playoff run this upcoming season. Now that Seeley is back, he will be rejoining Charles Alexis Legault and Joel Nystrom to form a three-headed monster on the blueline for head coach Spiros Anastas. The Wolves will be one team to watch this upcoming season in the AHL as they’re building another playoff contender.