Hurricanes Favorites for Presidents' Trophy, Stanley Cup per THN Poll

It's no surprise that after five years of post-season appearances and three straight division titles, the Carolina Hurricanes are regarded as one of the top teams in the NHL.

Last season, the Canes finished second overall in the regular season standings and then made it to the Eastern Conference Final before falling in four games to the Florida Panthers.

This year, with nearly the full team returning on top of adding a few key pieces — particularly on defence with the acquisitions of Dmitri Orlov and Tony DeAngelo — the Hurricanes are looking to push even further and it seems the THN team sites think the Canes will do it too.

In a pre-season poll conducted by team site editors, Carolina was the Presidents' Trophy favorite — receiving 10 of 34 votes — and tied the Edmonton Oilers as the odds-on favorites to win the Stanley Cup with nine votes. 

In fact, 21 out of the 34 site editors believed that the Hurricanes would be the team to make it out of the Eastern Conference and compete in the Stanley Cup Final.

With the backing of the THN team sites, maybe this will be the year for Carolina.

If the Canes do win the Cup, THN also predicted that Sebastian Aho will win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. He picked up six votes, which tied him with Connor McDavid for the most. Andrei Svechnikov received two votes as well.