NHL teams
Matthew Coller, Special to ESPN 10y

Summer Skate: Hurricanes

NHL, Carolina Hurricanes

Summer Skate series index

Although the weather outside doesn't necessarily make us think of winter pursuits, it's a good time to take the temperature of every NHL team. Hockey Prospectus will guide us through the league-wide tour and spotlight one player trending up and one player trending down for each club, as well as a key statistic as we look ahead to the 2014-15 season. References will be made to goals versus threshold (GVT), a Hockey Prospectus proprietary statistic; for more on GVT, click here. All other advanced stats are courtesy of Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.

The best places to be in the NHL are competing for the Stanley Cup or competing for the top pick in the draft lottery. The Carolina Hurricanes have been stuck in the middle. They entered the 2013-14 season with expectations of making the postseason, but finished 10 points behind the two Eastern Conference wild-card teams.

Carolina has a group of aging veterans led by Eric Staal and Alexander Semin, and several promising young players, but their roster is lacking in depth both up front and on the blue line, and it is tough to envision them being a contender this season.

New general manager Ron Francis will not make a good first impression by selling off aging players and aiming for the first overall pick next summer, but that may be the best option.


Trending up: Justin Faulk, D

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