What Lack of AHL Affiliate Means for Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes are regarded as one of the savviest and best-run organizations in the National Hockey League. 

They are consistent postseason contenders, have won three straight division titles and they are the current odds-on favorites to win the Stanley Cup this year.

However, everything isn't perfect in paradise.

Due to the Chicago Wolves decision to go independent, the Canes no longer have an AHL affiliate for the 2023-24 season.

While the announcement did catch the Hurricanes by surprise a little bit, the plan is still for the team to have their own AHL affiliate again in time for the following season.

"The long-term plan is for us to have our own affiliate for the 2024-25 season," said Carolina general manager Don Waddell back in May.

However, the disruption in the organizational flow has already started to be felt by the team.

For starters, the Hurricanes currently do not have any AHL veterans signed to two-way contracts. 

Last season, the Canes had 10 two-way contracts, meaning they had plenty of organizational depth.

Furthermore, of those 10 two-way players, four played in at least one game for the Hurricanes over the course of the season, with two of them - Jalen Chatfield and Stefan Noesen - becoming NHL regulars out of training camp.

The bottom line is that the lack of veteran depth will be a big hurdle that the team will surely have to face at some point during the season.

The whole point of having those AHL vets is to 1) provide some dependable culture and experience for your prospects to learn from and, most importantly, 2) have dependable players that you can call up in the case of injuries.

Without those players, your options when things start to go sideways are not promising ones.

The Hurricanes have done a bit to address that concern though, with the signings of Tony DeAngelo, Caleb Jones, Dylan Coghlan and Brendan Lemieux and that's also probably the reason why the team is currently carrying nine defensemen; because of the need for that accessible depth.

"We might be in a position next year where we have to carry 22, possibly 23, and have those guys here with us on a regular basis," Waddell said in July.

Another big detriment to Carolina is that their young players will not be getting valuable reps in the Hurricanes' style of play.

Everyone knows that the Canes play their system to a fault.

It's what has brought them consistent success and a large part of that development cycle for players in Carolina's system starts in the AHL.

That development isn't just for prospects either. The Hurricanes have the same approach for veterans as they do their younger guys and that's why they were able to develop players like Noesen, Chatfield and Mackenzie MacEachern into effective Hurricanes right away.

The Wolves were tasked with molding future Carolina Hurricanes, and the Canes were confident that any callups and future players wouldn't have as much of a learning curve thrown at them when they made it to the NHL.

Now that perfect flow will take a hit.

Well, what about the prospects that had been playing in the AHL? Where do they end up?

Currently, the team has 14 players signed to ELCs that they will need to figure out where to put. 

The current plan is to spread some of their talents to other AHL clubs through loans and for some of the European players to return to various European clubs.

That process has already started with Alexander Pashin returning to Russia and Tuukka Tieksola, Ville Koivunen and Aleksi Heimosalmi all loaned back to the Finnish Liiga.

However, there are still a good amount of players that the Hurricanes need to find playing time for.

“We already have a couple of deals with NHL teams where we’ll put two or three players," Waddell told The Hockey News before the draft. "It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s the cards we were dealt this year, so we’re going to make the best of it and hopefully put ourselves in a position to be back with somebody for the start of next season.”

The difficulty with trying to find players ice time has also perhaps hampered their willingness to not only sign AHL veterans, but their own prospects as well.

With the rights to select prospects expiring this offseason, the Hurricanes chose to let most of those players go.

Kevin Wall, who led Penn State in scoring the last two seasons, seemed like an easy candidate to develop in the AHL, but without a team, his rights came and went.

Kevin Wall Becomes Free Agent After Hurricanes Allow Rights to Expire

In fact, Justin Robidas was the only prospect with expiring rights that was offered an ELC this year.

But even if all the Canes' prospects find a landing place for the upcoming season, there's no guarantee they get the deployment or playing time Carolina would like to see.

"You no longer control your own fate or your own destiny with your players," said NHL.com reporter Patrick Williams on The Hockey News - On the 'A' podcast. "You're now depending on the goodwill and the grace of other NHL clubs and their general managers to help you out." 

Teams are going to prioritize their players when it comes to things like top deployment and special teams and the Canes players aren't going to get as much out of these loans as they previously had with Chicago.

The Hurricanes have been dealt a bad hand and while they are confident they can work something out for the 2024-25 season, there's no guarantee that will even happen.

There are currently 32 AHL teams so the Canes either have to hope a team comes up for sale (unlikely given that another team would wind up in the same position) or fork over a ton of money to start up a new one which delves into even more problems such as finding a suitable home with an appropriate stadium, an amicable local government, a convenient transportation hub and so many more.

There isn't a straightforward solution for Carolina at this moment and it may be a while before one reveals itself. 

Perhaps the AHL does expand and the Hurricanes create their own affiliate as the 33rd team, though that will take quite a few years and quite a lot of money.

Maybe the NHL gets involved and strongarms the Wolves somehow or perhaps Chicago decides going independent isn't all that it's cracked up to be and the two sides reunite.

Regardless of what the future may hold, the reality is that currently the Hurricanes are stuck in a tough situation that will only continue to provide a plethora of headaches.