The most important ingredient for any successful NHL team is good goaltending. That’s not a secret, and it’s one the Carolina Hurricanes know better than anyone. Next, and not far down on the list, however, is strength down the middle.
A good team must have quality center play. That’s something else the Hurricanes know all too well, with the failure to find an adequate solution at the top of the depth chart upon Eric Staal’s decline playing a major role in the Canes spending nine years in the hockey wilderness. Those days are long past.
In the past couple years, Sebastian Aho’s move to center and development into a bona fide No.