Retooled Hurricanes still have some work to do — and a lot to prove this season

With Evgeni Kuznetsov apparently headed out and Martin Necas apparently staying, the Carolina Hurricanes’ offseason of upheaval is more or less complete, leaving a dramatically altered roster in its wake.

Brett Pesce, gone. Jake Guentzel, gone. Brady Skjei, gone. Teuvo Teravainen, gone. Stefan Noesen, gone. Antti Raanta, gone. Tony DeAngelo, gone again. Kuznetsov, reportedly headed back to Russia or, at the least, elsewhere if and when his contract is mutually terminated.

It’s a lot. These were important players, some of them longtime franchise stalwarts, one of them having played only for the Hurricanes in a nine-year career. Of the major potential departures, only Jordan Martinook ended up staying.

The Hurricanes went for it, and they swung and missed again, and now they have to deal with the consequences after failing to sign Pesce or Skjei to an extension over the previous 12 months and Guentzel deciding he’d rather play in Tampa Bay, not that there was a ton of evidence he was a $9 million player in his time here. The Hurricanes already have an empty-net specialist.

If you didn’t see this coming, that’s why some of us were screaming so loudly about missed opportunities the past three seasons. The macro window to contend remains open. One micro window closed. It may be a minute before another opens.

So where does this leave the Hurricanes, their roster essentially set two months away from training camp?

“It was a tricky offseason, for sure,” new Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky said. “We had a lot of really good players reaching free agency and ready to collect big paydays, that they’ve earned. A lot of them are really good people who we really like and wanted to keep. There is a reality in a salary-cap world. You have to be cautious with the team budget and make sure you’re setting yourself up to compete now and sustain going forward.

“We had to make some tough choices. We had to let some players go we would have liked to be able to keep. But we were very happy to able to pivot and find players we could bring in who are excellent fits for the way Rod (Brind’Amour) plays. We believe they’ll fit in nicely and help the team continue to take steps forward into the future.”

It’s hard to argue that the Hurricanes are a better team today than they were on May 16, even after moving smartly in free agency, especially without filling the Michael Bunting-slash-Guentzel spot on the roster. But the additions of Sean Walker, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jack Roslovic and William Carrier — all good value signings — actually more or less replace the other five-on-five scoring the Hurricanes lost, while a less-heralded signing like Eric Robinson may have an immediate impact in a bottom-six role because of the way he fits the system.

There’s some work still left to do, to be sure, starting with Necas, Seth Jarvis and Jack Drury, all restricted free agents who aren’t going anywhere but need new deals. Kuznetsov’s departure would open the cap space to sign them, but they still have to actually sign. Jarvis, obviously, is the most pressing.

“We’re trying to get a deal done and I’m confident he will be here for a long time,” Tulsky said. “The only question is what the deal looks like when we get it hammered out.”

And for all the chatter about how both Necas and the team needed a fresh start, he went undealt at the draft and has filed for arbitration, so both sides will have to figure out a way to make it work. Necas shined two seasons ago when he had everything to prove, and he’s back in the same position again, but the Hurricanes won’t be in a position to carry him as a passenger this season.

“There’s still a couple months left in the offseason and I don’t know what our roster will look like for sure, but right now we have him penciled into our lineup in pen,” Tulsky said. “We’re working toward a contract and preparing for the start of the season.”

There’s no doubt about the kind of player Necas can be, but he has to be that player every night. (The same goes for Andrei Svechnikov, for that matter.) This time, it isn’t just his career hanging in the balance. It’s the Hurricanes’ season.

That’s true up and down the lineup. It’ll be Pyotr Kochetkov’s team in goal, turning the page from Frederik Andersen, although with the Hurricanes that’s a matter of degrees, always more of a 55/45 split than 80/20.

And Dmitry Orlov and Jalen Chatfield are going to have to play like they did in the playoffs, because their safety net is gone with the departure of the entire second pairing. Walker and Gostisbehere are capable, but they’re not Pesce and Skjei. Nor are they expected to be.

Across the board, the Hurricanes are going to need improvement from all the players they still have, just to get back to where they were last season. Such is the way of the world in a salary-cap league. The bill always comes due.

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