Cory Lavalette on where the Carolina Hurricanes fell short of winning the series against the Florida Panthers

Carolina hurricane season came to an end Wednesday. We do not start the Stanley Cup finals until Saturday. The Florida Panthers will sit around for not sitting around. I'm sure they're practicing nine days between games.

That is not good for anybody. But the NHL was at the mercy of the Western Conference Finals and to an extent, the NBA Finals, which has tons of days between games. There's only one. There's only two games. That are separated by just one day off in the NBA Finals. Games three and four will be played on, I believe it's Wednesday and Friday in Miami. Everything else has two days off in between games. There will be a lot of rest in the NBA Finals, which is fine. NHL doesn't generally play that. Anyway, we were hoping the Hurricanes could get there, but they did not.

Got swept by the Florida Panthers in the closest sweep I have ever seen. And how does Carolina go forward on this? I will say this. There's obviously no way that Jordan Stahl won't be part of this team next year. And if it was up to me, the second order of business of the free agents this year is a no brainer. Jesper Faust must be on this team. Let me bring in my friend Corey Lavelette, North State Journal and the Athletic, who joins us on the Adam Gold Show. Would you concur that Jesper Faust must be part of this group?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a kind of a no brainer. He's going to play as a third line center. And where does Jesper Faust fit if he's going to play alongside Jordan, which I think is what we should assume will happen at least in the regular season. Corey Lavelette is joining us here and Corey is around the team more than I am and still is falling into the trap of numbering the lines. If the head coach is listening, Corey, he's not going to be very happy.

Well done Corey Lavelette, North State Journal and the Athletic at Corey Lavelette on Twitter. Assuming that you have to assume that Stahl is probably, you know, pretty close to half of what he got paid in the last 10 years, 6 million a year, right? Yeah, I think three or three and a half seems like it makes sense. I don't know if Tom Dundon is not an overly sentimental type when it comes to giving out contracts. So maybe somewhere else he gets a little more, but I think they get it done.

I don't think it's going to be that big of a problem. You know, it's, you know, he wants to be here. They want him here. Obviously, the coach, I don't know if the coach could go on without him, but I think it's going to be a little bit of a problem. You know, he wants to be here. They want him here. Obviously, the coach, I don't know if the coach could go on without him.

So I think it gets worked out pretty easily. Odds that Max Pacioretti is back here on a one-year deal. I feel like that's probably going to happen.

I mean, he hung around the team all season long, even after the second Achilles tear. The big question becomes, you know, what's the number at? And, you know, I've seen some of those prognosticators who try to guess what contracts are going to be worse than it's shown up in like the million and a half range. And if it's that much, then it's, you know, it's a no brainer. That's pretty much the risk you took on Andre Kasha last year, right? Knowing that, and he did that he could, you know, be off the team in any, in any second. So there's no real harm in, in trying to do that and keeping him around. I don't think you, I just don't know that you can rely on him to be a big addition.

It's more anything you get out of him will be crazy. Corey Lavallett, North state journal and the athletic. All right. Where do you feel like this team fell short of B of winning any of the games against Florida, which all could have gone either way. I do think that Florida was the better team, but I think any of the games could have gone either way.

Where do they fall short? And is it as simple as they didn't have Spachnikov and Pacioretti? I mean, that's certainly part of it. I mean, you would have liked to see the power play come through and a couple opportunities when it didn't though. I think overall, the power play was okay in the, in the playoffs. At times it was good. At times it wasn't. It didn't feel like it was ever the reason they lost. Unlike sometimes during the regular season. So, you know, there were some opportunities there where they could have, you know, scored on the power play and they didn't, you know, Seth Jarvis hitting the post in game one comes to mind.

That's not a, you know, a situation where you've done something wrong and it didn't work out. It's just, you know, he gets a chance. He hits the post. He probably thinks about it for the off season and comes back and is better because of it. So, I mean, that, that kind of jumps out to me, but certainly you miss Spachnikov.

You miss his physicality, I think more than anything because that was definitely something they didn't have a whole lot of in the lineup. Corey Lavelette is with us here. Hurricanes, the real, the business for next year starts now. So if you were making the list of priorities for Don Waddell and company in this off season, we already talked about stall and fast.

What is priority one for you? I think if you have to hammer out an extension with Sebastian Ajo, I don't think they're going to go into this season with his contract expiring and let him potentially walk away for nothing. So I think that's like the stall deal. I think, you know, everyone wants to get worried about it because of what happened last time around with his contract. But, you know, I don't think he's looking at $10 million a year and here and given what he makes now, you know, he makes just shy of eight and a half. If he gets a million dollar raise, the bigger thing might be, you know, how long is the contract? Are the hurricanes willing to commit to eight years? Does Sebastian even want to commit to eight years? Would he rather be a free agent again at 30?

So I think that's your number one thing is figuring that out. And then, you know, you have other guys with one year left on their deals that you have to think about. You know, you've got to think about what's the future of the defense with Brady Shay and Brett Pesci.

Are you going to keep both of them this year unless they both walk to free agency or try to sign one of them or trade one of them? There's a lot that could be done here, especially with the amount of cap space they have. They do have among the leaders in available cap space. And there are a lot of players who already have contracts for next year. So they are in a good spot, except they're looking at the cap the following year when they have so much business that has to get done. Let me before we get to goaltending Corey Lavelette is here. Let me let me address two quick things that they don't have to do, but they probably should do or at least try to do this offseason. You mentioned Sebastian Aho and I agree that isn't job one because I feel like he is the first piece that must be in place for you going forward.

Jalen Chatfield is making a league minimum contract next season. I think we both agree that he can he should be part of the defensive core going forward, whether it's in his current role as a third pair defenseman, or we've seen him play up and he has been very effective playing up. Would you like to see them sign him to a long-term contract now?

Well, yeah. And I mean, that goes back to the whole idea of Brady Shay and Brett Pesci. If you're not going to keep both these guys and thinking the way the hurricanes think, you know, those are guys who are closing in on 30 now, and that's not something they generally like to do too much. You know, is Jalen Chatfield even ready for a top four role next year? So if you do decide to pull the trigger and let's say you trade Brett Pesci and I don't think anybody wants to see Brett go because he's a been a big part of everything this team has done.

And obviously the really kind of a bedrock of their defensive efforts there, but you know, you always have to think long term now at the same time. He's only a year older than Jalen Chatfield. So I mean, you're younger rather. You're older than Jalen Chatfield.

So, you know, it's all going to come down to that. The good news on Jalen Chatfield is even if you do get him signed to an extension, it's not going to be $4 million or maybe even $3 million. You know, if you can get him signed now before he hits free agency, maybe there's a chance to lock him in at a cheap deal. Oh, I think there's every opportunity. He loves it here. This is the place he really got an opportunity to play.

And I think you and I probably agree there. There's some offensive upside with him, especially in the system that Rod Brind'Amour employs. What do you do with Seth Jarvis? Do you try to get ahead of it like they didn't really do with Aho because of the negotiation not working out? By the way, same agent, Jerry Johansen is the agent for Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis. Do you get ahead of Seth and try to go long term? You know, I asked him just that I said, you know, coke, you know, coconutty, find the big extension.

Is that something you're interested in? He's, he actually said to me, we got to get fishy signed first. So even within his own agency, he's, he's, he's number two on the on the to do list for the off season.

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, everyone go look at the numbers and say he took a step back this year. I think he took a huge step forward.

I agree. Just as became a really magnificent two way player says he plans to get stronger so he doesn't get pushed around as much. You saw that little reverse hit he had on red so good in the Florida series.

He's not afraid to throw the body and be physical and go to hard places. He's the kind of guy to me that you should be a centerpiece of the organization going forward. Man, he's just 21 and I think just I think he's, he's going to be a star in this league and if you can find a way to tie him down now before he has that big breakout season that I think is coming that was that could be huge for the future of, you know, the hurricane situation and the franchise as a whole.

Yeah, your, your, your point is one I absolutely share and that the numbers didn't improve but Seth improved greatly. I thought he was, you know, he wasn't their best forward in the postseason, but he might have been one of their best two or three forwards in the postseason just for the way he played and how he impacted the game. Would, would you try to sign Martin natures would you try to just make him play a prove it season or would you take that contract and that value and try to parlay him into a legit number two center who could play really good heavy top mid top six minutes in your forward line. Yeah, I mean I think the options are all there like you said I'm not sure that signing him will be a priority just because he'll have arbitration rights that makes things a little stickier because he'll have a little bit of leverage after next year. So, to me, I think that probably the plan would be to let him play out this year and see where he's at but to your point, he's never going to have higher value than he has right now, because of the season he had and because of the number he has on his, you know, on his spreadsheet right now $3 million. That's a bargain for the hurricanes, don't get me wrong but that's also going to be a bargain for a team that is in a cap crunch that's like well maybe we can swap mark, you know, player x that makes $6 million for nature that $3 million. You know you look around the league you look at teams like Toronto that could be making a big change if they said, you know, you know, we want to make William Meelander part of a package for Martin nature.

You know nature is a dynamic player, William Meelander is a point for game player. But there's risk involved in all that obviously there's not a, you know, there's not a contract beyond next year but I love guys like Travis connect me and I don't know that center has to be the priority I think you and I diverge on this a little bit on how good yes very close to me and he's going to be. I think he had a good half of the second year and I think you give that one more shot. But, yeah, I mean I think Martin nature's value is never going to be higher so if you're, if you don't see him in that same Seth Jarvis mold as this is a guy we have to go forward with and we can't win without.

You have to at least look around, I mean they look they use them last year and looked around you know that the guy who carried the Panthers. At least up front into the Stanley Cup finals was, you know, the guy that was Martin nature's was dangled for so, you know, we'll see what what happens with with nature's but good year for him and if he does come back and plays it's it's on a great deal. Oh, and that's, that's what you and I both know the organization pretty well they love value contract which is why Jalen Chatfield is going to be part of this team going forward, and honestly, why Martin nature's was never going to move. Unless he was in a blockbuster and I don't think they'd move him now unless it's for in a blockbuster deal, because at the very least nature is going to be worth 60 points at 3 million per and that is incredible value for that type of player the first two thirds for three quarters of the season for nature's were spectacular. It's the end of the regular season in the postseason that everybody is surprised at or disappointed at I was frankly shocked that in the athletic Corey, when they did the worst players of the priests of the postseason, that it was yes it pull your RV, who I don't know what it what anybody's expectations were for plea RV, he is what we thought he was nature's was the guy who was really disappointing for me in the postseason, but I look at him and I say if he just gets stronger and plays with a little just a little bit more determination in the middle of the ice.

That could be that's that's a guy that could be game changing. Yeah, and you know, I, I don't think anybody missed Andre section across more than Martin nature's because they played together a lot, such the cough creates a ton of space on the ice, and just because of his skill because he's not only a threat to shoot and then his physicality. And that's where the drop off happened to me is such went down and they just kind of, you know, unless he was playing three on three when you know he can use dating and there's a lot of space out there.

There just wasn't a lot of space for him to do a lot of damage on the perimeter. Yeah, and pull your RV I mean we'll see what happens with all that but obviously that was a, you know, shot in the dark, it didn't work out right. I agree. And honestly I could see them bringing them back on a, on a proven deal, you know, you know, a million million and a half, and have no problem moving on from him if they, if they had to final thing very quickly, Frederick Anderson, or aunty Rotta, or somebody else to pair with Piotr could check off next season. I think it comes down to what the numbers are, you can afford to give Frederick Anderson the same contract he just had at least dollar wise you know four and a half million dollars is not going to be too much right at him, and it gives could check off the season to ease into being a full time NHL guy could check off the future, I think I don't think there's any doubt about that. So, you're not going to go and bring in somebody like Tristan Jari who's going to want multiple years or whatever. And there's not a great market of guys out there, you know, if you believe could check off the play 50 games, then maybe you look at a guy like semi environment off who helped usher Ilya Sorokin into a number one role, but that's not a guy who's going to play 40 games himself, and that's the question with for me with anti rancid to is he really kind of maxes out at 30.

And can you count on could check off the play 52 if you're if he's playing 30. So I think, you know, you see what's out there, you know, you see what's out there for Anderson from other teams. He probably boosted his value a little bit with with his postseason. But I think a priority also has to be a really legitimate number three goalie, they were fortunate to have to check off this year to jump in, you're going to need to go get an Alex Lyon type to, you know, be able to play if Anderson goes down and you're down to just to check nobody's bullish on Yanni parrots.

I like like the kid from Quinnipiac. We'll see if he has some sort of a future two year entry level deal. Corey level.

Maybe maybe a little, but I mean, he doesn't give up goals. And that's kind of that's kind of a good thing. Corey level it.

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