Carolina Hurricanes: The glaring hole in the top six

The Carolina Hurricanes have a lot of strengths in their roster. With one of the best bluelines in the hockey world, and a top-line that’s up there with the best of them. While there are questions about the goaltending, I think everyone can see the potential that the new tandem has, and how successful it could be. Which raises the question, where do the Canes need to improve?

For a lot of fans, it’s the forward core. While there is a lot to like, there’s a couple of positions that a lot of people would like to see upgraded within the core itself. While there’s more than one hole in the forward core, I will primarily focus on the one at the 2nd line left-wing spot. If I layout the forward core as it’s currently projected we have:

Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Teuvo Teravainen
Nino Niederreiter – Vincent Trocheck – Martin Necas
Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Jesper Fast
Steven Lorentz – Derek Stepan – Stefan Noesen

There’s a lot to like about this unit as a whole, but one key area that shows a lot of weakness is the 2nd line left-winger. Niederreiter’s inconsistencies show that he’s not enough to be a top-six winger. Ideally, he’d slide onto the 3rd line and there would be a player with better consistency in that position instead. I have talked about this many times.

Niederreiter had 20 goals and 14 assists in 56 games this year. That’s not bad, that’s actually good production from him. However, the year before he had 11 goals and 18 assists in 67 games. He’s wildly inconsistent. Niederreiter has the talent to be a top-six winger for a Stanley Cup winner. Do not doubt his talent, there are just issues with him doing it every year.

So, if you don’t want Niederreiter in the top six, what do you do? One of the names I’ve seen fans demanding is St Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko. However, this is the same issue. Niederreiter was on pace for more goals this year than Tarasenko had games played. If Tarasenko can’t play, is he really an asset worth having?

I’ve talked about countless other options to fill the needs in the top six. The truth of the matter is that it is probably the only question mark with this team going forward if everyone stays healthy. We can sit here and predict the goaltending tandem’s results, or suggest the offense from the blueline might be a little sparse, but this is the major hole in the roster, and it needs fixing quickly.

With the Hurricanes also needing some help in the bottom six in terms of production, it really does show the desperate need for someone in the top six. If you get that piece to sort out the third line, it’s just going to move up into the top six and expose the hole that is still there. It’s a bad situation and something needs to be done.

Thankfully, Sara Civian of The Athletic speculated during her mailbag this week that she expects the Carolina Hurricanes to be active after they complete the re-signing of Svechnikov. When this does happen, we can start to speculate more and more about how the final piece of the puzzle will be. Until then, it’s just continued guesswork and rumors.

Question for Cardiac Cane readers: Who do you want to see fill the hole in Carolina’s top six?