As it’s been over 24 hours since the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline closed, all the league’s eyes now turn to the sprint for the 2025 NHL Playoffs. There will be tight playoff races for placement and seedings for the first round. Regarding the Carolina Hurricanes, they are poised to make their seventh straight playoff appearance. For them, it all comes down to where they will finish in the Metropolitan Division. However, this looks past the playoffs, the Stanley Cup Final, and even the draft. The Hurricanes have set themselves up for a huge reload for the summer of 2025, even after trading away Mikko Rantanen to the Dallas Stars for Logan Stankoven and four draft picks.
Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky had to make the tough decision to pivot from Rantanen after it was known he was unlikely to re-sign in Raleigh. That led to the team acquiring a young player in Stankoven, who will join a young core of players, with some even waiting in the wings with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (AHL). That being said, what does the 2025 offseason look like, and why could the Hurricanes be in for a massive reload going into the 2025-26 season?
Show Us the Money
The NHL and NHL Players Association (NHLPA) announced earlier this season that the cap would be going up to $95.5 million next season. Currently, it is set at $88 million, and the Hurricanes have $4.284 million after the trade deadline (minus $156,123 projected). Going into the 2025 offseason, they will open up to around $37.093 million in cap space with some huge contracts coming off of the books. The departures of Dmitry Orlov ($7.75 million), Brent Burns ($5.28 million), Jack Roslovic ($2.8 million), Frederik Andersen ($3.4 million), and other smaller deals will open a ton of space for the Hurricanes. It would give them the option to re-sign players they feel should be coming back. Taylor Hall is making $6 million for the 2024-25 season, and he could be one of those players to return. Furthermore, it would give the Hurricanes flexibility to acquire some big-name unrestricted free agents (UFA) who will be available on July 1 for the start of free agency. Also, there has been some dialogue about the team bringing up some of their young star players to slot into the lineup next season as well.
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Tulsky mentioned that defenseman Alexander Nikishin will play out the rest of his contract with SKA Saint Petersberg in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) but that he, his agent, and the Hurricanes are on the same page that he will be in Raleigh as soon as it’s possible once his contract is over. Furthermore, with the idea of defenseman Scott Morrow playing well with the Wolves, he could slot onto the blue line, too. With the addition of Morrow’s deal, the Hurricanes will be around $36.177 million before they factor in Nikishin’s contract. That being said, even adding Nikishin and Morrow will give the Hurricanes plenty of space to re-sign players like Hall, Eric Robinson, and whoever else they want to run it back with. Also, it will give the team the flexibility to make their usual summer splashes that they’ve been known to do over the last few seasons. While the past two seasons have been different as they went big-name swinging, their bread and butter have been off-season acquisitions.
As of now, the big-name UFAs who could be potential targets are Nikolaj Ehlers ($6 million, 2024-25) from the Winnipeg Jets, Brock Boeser ($6.65 million) of the Vancouver Canucks, Mikael Granlund ($5 million) of the Stars, and Sam Bennett ($4.425 million from the Florida Panthers just to name a few. Either way, the Hurricanes having around $37.093 million in cap space for the upcoming offseason could give them a chance to add some high-end talent to fit in with the current veterans and the young core.
When adding Stankoven, he joins a young core that already has Sebastian Aho (27), Jackson Blake (21), Seth Jarvis (23), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (24), Pyotr Kochetkov (25), and Andrei Svechnikov (24). Also, even looking ahead, the prospects of Bradly Nadeau (19) and Nikishin (23) give the sense that the contending window for the Hurricanes has been opened for several seasons.
Tulsky during his post-trade deadline stated about the youth movement, “We have tried to make sure there is always opportunity for younger players who are in the lineup to keep moving up as they earn their ice time, and those who are not yet in the lineup to move in as they show that they’re ready. I think that’s an important part of how we build and part of how we keep things moving forward year after year, so that we can stay where we want to stay and not just hit a quick peak and then fade.” The Plan A all along was for the 2024-25 season to be the retool, transition season for the Hurricanes. Their 14-4-0 start kind of changed those plans, but after the deadline, it’s back to the original plan. They are poised for a huge 2025 offseason, and acquiring the four draft picks gives them draft/trade capital to make even more moves if they feel like they could flip those picks.
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While the Rantanen swing did not work, Tulsky and the Hurricanes pivoted to add a young, talented player in Stankoven to an already solid young core with a mix of great veterans. The Hurricanes have always been a short and long-term forward-thinking team, and they have just done that with this trade. Yes, it stinks that it didn’t work out, but the Hurricanes always have a plan, and now they have a massive amount of cap space to go out on July 1 and build around an already great team who are on their way to a seventh straight playoff appearance. While there are 19 games left until then, there is a ton to hope for with the rest of the 2024-25 season, the playoffs, the draft, and even the free agency/re-sign phase on July 1. Either way, changes had to be made, and the Hurricanes did what they thought was best. Now it’s time for them to build on that for the rest of this season and the upcoming 2025 offseason.
Keep the Focus on the 2024-25 Season
All of that being said, the 2025-26 season could be previewed very differently with a possible massive offseason for the Hurricanes with draft/trade capital and a vast amount of cap space to reload this summer. While it will be a long time until then, let’s see how the rest of the 2024-25 season goes. There are 19 games left in the regular season and then, hopefully, 16 more wins in the NHL Playoffs as the Hurricanes are in the hunt for their second-ever Stanley Cup.
