The 2025 NHL Draft is fast approaching and the Carolina Hurricanes currently hold six picks, including their own first-round pick (29th overall).
However, the Canes should absolutely not be making a selection this Friday and not just because they traded down to get an additional pick.
No, they need to be packaging that pick as part of deal for an impact player to improve the roster today.
Carolina is in a high-compete window right now, with heaps of young talent like Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, and more, but that clock is ticking.
The Hurricanes need to be using that pick to improve their team for the present and not be too concerned with looking ahead into the future.
The team has made seven straight postseason appearances, winning at least a round each year, and they've also been to the Eastern Conference Final three times in that span.
They're right there, but they just can't get over the hump.
They need more talent.
There are a couple of notable holes in the team's lineup — namely a 2C and a top-pairing right-handed defenseman — and those are positions you aren't going to be able to get the best options from in free agency or out of a late first-round teenager.
The Hurricanes are loaded with assets, whether that be the picks they currently have over the next three/four years or the loads of prospects currently in the system.
Not everyone is going to be able to make the NHL roster, so they really need to start utilizing those.
If Carolina general manager Eric Tulsky is serious about maximizing this team's current ability to win, then he needs to find a way to make a splash this summer and the team's first-round pick should 100% be a part of that.
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