Hurricanes know they need to get better. Here's what they could look to do this offseason.

The Carolina Hurricanes — accustomed to playoff success but unable to break through with a Stanley Cup Final appearance in almost two decades — entered the offseason Thursday with plenty of cap space, a few roster holes and lingering questions about their ceiling and style of play. 

Florida eliminated the Hurricanes from the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday night with a 5-3 victory in Game 5. The Panthers, the defending Stanley Cup champions, have won the Eastern Conference three years in a row, twice knocking out Carolina in the conference final.

Carolina has lost 16 of its last 17 games in the semifinal round, including 11 of 12 under coach Rod Brind’Amour, who has guided the Hurricanes to the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons. Three of those seasons have included trips to the conference final. 

“It’s the craziest thing that we’re this far, and all we’re hearing is negativity from everybody,” Brind’Amour said after Wednesday’s loss.

Brind’Amour, 54, is 325-160-49 in seven seasons and 47-42 in the playoffs. As a player, he captained the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup win in 2006. Of active NHL coaches, he has the fifth-highest points percentage over his seven seasons at the helm. He is a franchise icon.

But there are questions, especially after Florida dominated the early part of the series, if Brind’Amour’s grinding, forechecking style can win big in the playoffs.

“A big part of it is going to come back to: Whether or not this system under Rod Brind’Amour is a Stanley Cup system?” Liam McHugh, the host of TNT’s postgame show, said after Carolina was eliminated.

In his postgame press conference, Brind’Amour was asked a similar question: Do you think it requires some level of change in terms of the way you guys play? Brind’Amour responded by noting that Florida had adopted — and improved upon — a system similar to the Hurricanes’ style.

“How do you think they play?” Brind’Amour said, referring to Florida. “They’re the standard. I see out-in, forecheck hard, wait for your chance, try to capitalize. I mean, it’s hard hockey. If anything we got to figure out how to get that much to our game. But that’s the standard right there. I feel like that’s been our game for a long time. They kind of picked it up the last couple years and made it that much better. So that’s what got to get.”

Everyone, it seems, has ideas for what the Hurricanes need to get to the Panthers’ level — or who the franchise needs to get rid of. 

TNT analyst Rick Browness on Wednesday shared his list: a second-line center, a top-end offensive defenseman and, perhaps, an upgrade in net.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 24, who is signed through the 2028-29 season, played that second-line center role on Wednesday and for much of the playoffs. He took a critical penalty in the second period of Game 5, helping to fuel Florida’s comeback win. Kotkaniemi had zero goals and four assists in 14 postseason games. He was a healthy scratch in Game 2 of the Florida series.

The Hurricanes have taken big swings for talented scorers in recent years, trading for prolific left-winger Jake Guentzel during the 2023-24 season and for high-scoring right-winger Mikko Rantanen during this season. Guentzel left as a free agent after Carolina traded his rights in the offseason, and when it became clear Rantanen wouldn’t sign a long-term deal, the Hurricanes pivoted and dealt him to Dallas.

The Hurricanes have the ability to reach high again for a missing piece or two in the offseason. The core of the Hurricanes remain under contract — and the franchise has more than $28 million in cap space entering the offseason. Carolina also has four first-round picks in the next three drafts, including two in 2026 — picks that could be used as trade chips or to bolster the team’s corps of prospects.

“There’s always an opportunity to get better,” captain Jordan Staal said after Wednesday’s game. “I’m sure as an organization and management, they’re going to try to get better. Obviously, we have to be better. There’s still room for improvement. I think with the group we have here and players adding to it will only make us more dangerous.”

Hurricanes forwards Mark Jankowski, Jack Roslovic, Eric Robinson, Tyson Jost and Jesper Fast, who missed the entire season, are unrestricted free agents. Everyone else is signed, including 27-year-old Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, 25;  Seth Jarvis, 23; and Kotkaniemi, who are all signed through the 2028-29 season.

Veteran defensemen Brent Burns, 40, and Dmitry Orlov, 33, are unrestricted free agents. Carolina has ready-made replacements for them in rookies Alexander Nikishin, 23, and Scott Morrow, 22, who were forced into playoff action due to injuries along the blue line. Orlov struggled in the series against Florida. Nikishin, considered one of the top prospects in hockey, could become the high-scoring offensive defenseman noted above. All-world defender Jacob Slavin is signed through 2028-29.

Carolina’s top two goaltenders — Frederik Andersen, 35, and Pyotr Kochetkov, 25 — are under contract for a combined $4.75 million for next season.

Toronto center Mitch Marner, 28, is the top unrestricted free agent, a list that also includes Florida center Sam Bennett, 29, Vancouver winger Brock Boeser, 28, Winnipeg winger Nikolaj Ehlers, 29, Florida winger Brad Marchand, 37, Colorado center Brock Nelson, 33, and Toronto center John Tavares, 34. Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad, 29, is the top defenseman available.

The Hurricanes’ first-year general manager, Eric Tulsky, shrewdly remade the roster last offseason, generally adding low-cost players who played big roles for this season. The Hurricanes lost Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen and Stefan Noesen and the defensive pairing of Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei in free agency last year and entered the year expected to take a step back.

“With the pieces that left this organization, I was like, ‘I don’t think we’re making the playoffs.’ I was that worried about it because it was such a mass exodus of good players to free agency,” Brind’Amour said Wednesday. “And then we were able to find good players to fill in. And then I was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re that good.’ But they hung in there. I got nothing but pride for this group. And, yeah, we didn’t love how this went, this series, but again, that’s the standard right there. You’re not giving Florida enough credit.”

Only two NHL coaches have been with their teams longer than Brind’Amour, who was hired in May 2018: Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper, who won back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021 and coached in two other finals, and Colorado’s Jared Bednar, who won the Cup in 2022.

Hurricanes players and fans are hopeful the offseason acquisitions can put Brind’Amour in that company. 

“We didn’t get near what we planned on,” Jarvis said. “Our goal is always to be the last team standing, no matter who we have on the ice. And we have that confidence in ourselves all year … It’s the hardest trophy to win. And when you’re feeling like this, you wish you could go back in time, but you can’t, and now you got to sit on it for a whole summer.”