‘He’s a bull’: Hurricanes’ Andrei Svechnikov healthy, ready to take on 7th NHL season

Andrei Svechnikov was pushing himself, hard, on the day the Carolina Hurricanes began preseason training camp.

The second day, more of the same.

Svechnikov has always been a relentless worker and all-effort kind of player, but this year is a little different for the forward. He’s older, now 24. He’s beginning his seventh NHL season. He knows his place on the team. He knows what’s expected of him.

“My goal is to have the best year since I’ve been in the league,” Svechnikov said Thursday in an N&O interview. “Play well every game, have consistency.”

Svechnikov’s teammates have a good handle on how good No 37, at his best, can be.

As winger Seth Jarvis put it, “The sky is kind of the limit.”

A year ago this time, Svechnikov was still rehabbing his right knee, injured in March 2023 against Vegas. It was an ACL tear, knocking him out of the last 18 games of the regular season and all of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Svechnikov had hoped to be ready for the start of the 2023-24 season, but when preseason camp began last September, he wore a yellow, no-contact jersey. On opening night, he could only watch.

“When he feels 100 percent and they give him the green light, then he’ll be in the games,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

This year, there will be no wait. Svechnikov is on full go.

“Very different, yes,” Svechnikov said, smiling. “Last year, I didn’t know when I was going to play, and all those things kind of stress you out a little bit.

“Obviously, last year was very tough. At the beginning I thought I was going to play right away, but there wasn’t a chance. Then I was thinking maybe a couple of more games, a couple of more games …”

Svechnikov missed the first eight games of the season, later saying he probably rushed his return, before jumping back into the lineup Oct. 27 against the San Jose Sharks. He played 59 regular-season games — missing another 10 games with oblique injuries — and scored 19 goals, including eight game-winners.

Svechnikov then had 11 points in 11 playoff games before the Canes were knocked out in the second round by the New York Rangers.

The first couple of days of camp have had Sebastian Aho centering Svechnikov and Jarvis on the top line. Brind’Amour typically downplays the line combinations early in camp, but the feeling is it could well be Svechnikov-Aho-Jarvis on opening night — Oct. 11 against Tampa Bay at Lenovo Center.

“As a player, he’s a bull,” Aho said of Svechnikov. “He works his tail off every single night. He’s physical. Fast, powerful. He can score, he can make plays.

“I like how we play together. I think we kind of feed off each other pretty well. We both play fast, play north-south. Yeah, I like our chemistry.”

At 6-2 and 195 pounds, Svechnikov can motor. Named to the 2023 NHL All-Star Game roster, he won the fastest-skater competition, turning a few heads.

“Being healthy now, I think we’re going to see another jump in his game,” Jarvis said. “We’re going to see someone who helps the team, not only in scoring goals and creating offense, but imposing himself physically.”

Opposing defenseman know when Svechnikov is on the ice and in their zone. They know he’s a banger, one with a big body who can leave bruises.

“He can make defensemen second guess,” Jarvis said.

Svechnikov set career highs in goals (30), assists (39), points (69) and plus-minus (plus-19) in 2021-22, playing 78 games. A year later, he was an All-Star, potentially on his way to a more productive season.

Then, the injury. And surgery, and a long rehab.

But that was then.

“With him being healthy now, it’s great because he can build,” Aho said. “Sometimes, when you’re out that long, you get back and you’re in shape but it might catch up with you later. I’m not saying he slowed down (last season), but it helps to have a healthy summer of work where you build on it.

“He’s ready to go this year. All that work he puts in over the summer, it’s going to pay off later on.”

Svechnikov said he spent a couple of months in the summer in Russia with his family. He also spent five days in Dubai, he said, hanging out by the pool. That was his vacation. Mostly, he trained.

When Svechnikov was ready to return, he left behind his older brother, Evgeny, and a veteran NHL player he has long admired, Evgeny Kuznetsov. Both now are in the KHL, Kuznetsov leaving the Hurricanes after last season to go back to Russia.

“I always looked up to him and enjoyed playing with him and learning from him,” Svechnikov said. “It was sad to see him leave, but he’s doing what’s best for him.”

Kuznetsov was one of several departures as the Canes have restocked and taken on a different look. But Svechnikov looks the same – big, fast, tough. And now healthy.

Brind’Amour includes him in his group of younger “go-to” guys He said they’re not yet superstars, but can be stars.

“And it’s going to be their time to really step up,” Brind’Amour said Friday.

Svechnikov’s goal: Do just that.

“This year, full health,” he said, smiling again. “I’m ready to go and I’m excited about it.”