The Carolina Hurricanes 2023-24 season is here, and there is a lot of hype around this season as there should be. The Hurricanes’ season ended last year just short of a berth in the Stanley Cup after they were swept by the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Carolina Hurricanes 2023-24 Additions and Subtractions
Additions:
- F – Michael Bunting – signed 3-year contract
- D – Dmitry Orlov – signed 2-year contract
- F – Brendan Lemieux – signed 1-year contract
- D – Tony DeAngelo – signed 1-year contract
- D – Caleb Jones – signed a 1-year contract
Subtractions:
- F – Ondrej Kase – signed with HC Litvinoc (ELH)
Carolina Hurricanes Projected Starting Lineup
Forwards
Line 1: Michael Bunting – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis
Line 2: Andrei Svechnikov – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Martin Necas
Line 3: Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Teuvo Teravainen
Line 4: Stefan Noesen – Jack Drury – Jesper Fast
The Hurricanes’ offense adds Michael Bunting to the top line and provides scoring to a line that includes Sebastian Aho, who finished first on the team in goals and second on the team in points with 67 behind Martin Necas. Adding Bunting, the Hurricanes are bringing in a 23-goal scorer and a 49-point player. The second line is expected to feature Andrei Svechnikov, assuming he is given the green light on Monday, Martin Necas and Jesperi Kotaniemi, who combined last season for 169 points, with Svechnikov only playing in 64 games. The Hurricanes also will look for some scoring from their bottom six, which last season was led by Teuvo Teravainen, who had 37 points in only 68 games. The lineup to start the season doesn’t feature someone of Brendan Lemieux’s talent, so that tells you how deep the Hurricanes offense will be in 2023-24.
Defense
Line 1: Jaccob Slavin – Brent Burns
Line 2: Brady Skjei – Brett Pesce
Line 3: Dmitry Orlov – Tony DeAngelo
The defense has gotten a significant upgrade; they have a lot of big names on the blue line. They will have Jaccob Slavin, Brent Burns, Brady Skjei, and Brett Pesce back, but when you have Dmitry Orlov and Tony DeAngelo on the third line of your d-core, you know you have some solid depth. The pieces on defense for the Hurricanes will make them much better than last year when they finished second in the Eastern Conference in goals against. It’s hard to imagine getting much better than that, but they did.
Power-Play
Line 1: Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis –
Tony DeAngelo – Brent Burns
Line 2: Michael Bunting – Martin Necas – Stefan Noesen –
Teuvo Teravainen – Dmitry Orlov
The Hurricanes last season scored 50 power-play goals in the regular season and were led by Martin Necas, who had nine goals, followed by Sebastian Aho and Stefan Noesen, who each had seven. They will add Michael Bunting, who had seven power-play goals last season, and Tony DeAngelo, who had four last year when he was with the Flyers. The Hurricanes finished 2022-23 20th in power play with a 19.8%; look for them to be much better this season on the man advantage with the additions they have made.
Goalies
Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta
The Hurricanes, this offseason, retained both goalies from last season, who combined to go 40-14-4. Andersen finished 21-11-1 with a .903 save percentage, a 2.48 GAA, and one shutout in 34 games. Raanta finished 19-3-3 with a .910 save percentage, a 2.23 GAA, and four shutouts in 27 games. Carolina also will have Pyotr Kochetkov, who is the goalie of the future in Carolina, but it remains to be seen where he will start the season; Kochetkov last season went 12-7-5 in 24 games with a .909 save percentage, a 2.44 GAA, and four shutouts. The Hurricanes have a lot of depth regarding goaltending entering the 2023-24 season.
Carolina Hurricanes Schedule
The Hurricanes will face five of the other seven teams in the Metropolitan Division four times and the other two three times; those four teams are the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, and Columbus Blue Jackets. The two teams they will face three times in the division are the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. The Hurricanes will also face all eight teams in the Atlantic Division three times each. They will also meet each Western Conference team twice, once at home and once on the road, to complete the 2023-24 schedule. The first game of the season for Carolina will be on Wednesday when they take on the Ottawa Senators at home. Some other notable dates: they will face Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on November 22nd and December 6th, and they will also meet the defending Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights on December 19th and February 17th. The Hurricanes will have a rematch with the Florida Panthers, which knocked them out of the Eastern Conference on November 10th, February 22nd, and March 14th. They will also get their first taste of the number one overall pick, Connor Bedard, on February 19th and April 14th.
Bottom Line: 2023-24 Carolina Hurricanes
The Hurricanes enter the 2023-24 season looking to return to the Eastern Conference Finals and win the series to advance to their first Stanley Cup since 2005-06 when they hoisted the Cup for the first time in franchise history. The Hurricanes will be a fun team to watch this season, and they have a good chance of winning the Stanley Cup.
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