The Carolina Hurricanes organization is not one for making excuses but it was hard to overcome the injury to top scorer, Andrei Svechnikov. The team played strong in the playoffs but any team could use the skillset of Svechnikov, especially after being eliminated.
General manager, Don Waddell, was aggressive this off-season in acquiring new talent and retaining the organization’s assets. An already strong team became even better with the additions of players like Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting.
No team can predict an injury but it is the management’s responsibility to prepare for potential issues and adding depth is the best preparation for injury.
But you can’t have a 30-goal scorer waiting in the press box for an injury nor can any team afford that with the salary cap.
So this brings me to an important question, Can the Canes survive with a long-term injury to a player like Svechnikov?
Not many teams could survive the loss of a top player but a team with Stanley Cup aspirations will need to rebound and stay the course. The problem with the Canes is that they have had a struggle to find goals in the playoffs and none of the new additions will be adding a plethora of goals.
A long term injury can certainly open up cap space to make an addition as it did last season, but Waddell would need to add more punch to lineup than Jesse Puljujarvi.
Ultimately the depth was improved this off-season but the scoring was not addressed. Orlov and Tony DeAngelo can certainly contribute from the blue line but nothing towards 30 goals.
Michael Bunting will help with physicality but it will be more difficult to put up points in this system and without Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.
The 262 goals scored by Carolina were middle of the pack in the NHL and without Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho, the Canes did not have a 20 goal scorer that was healthy.
This team can prevent pucks from going into their own net but scoring goals will be a concern again this year making it very difficult to survive if they lose one of their top goal scorers.
An increase in goals by someone like Seth Jarvis would go a long way in bringing comfort to Caniacs in regard to scoring depth.