June 3, 2025 | 12:55pm ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

HURRICANES PLAN ON BEING ACTIVE THIS SUMMER

Brent Burns, defenceman

The Carolina Hurricanes are expected to be active this off-season as they try to fill some holes and improve their roster going into the 2025-26 season.

During Tuesday morning’s media conference alongside Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour, Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky admitted that he wants to bolster his roster over the summer and has the full support of ownership to spend as he sees fit.

“There’s always room for improvement, right? I’ve said it before, until we have the 20 best players in the league, there’s still room to get better. And we’re going to keep working towards that,” Tulsky said. “Every time we see an opportunity to bring in someone who we think helps us take a step forward, we’re going to take advantage of that.”

With more than $30 million in salary cap space to play with, Tulsky admitted it will be difficult to spend all that money, but he can if the right opportunities present themselves.

The Hurricanes are one of the teams believed to be interested in pursuing star right wing Mitch Marner next month if he hits the open market as an unrestricted free agent, and Tulsky is also expected to pursue other free agent options, such as Brock Boeser and Nikolaj Ehlers, as well as evaluate the trade market.

“People always like to say, ‘we’re not gonna make a move just for the sake of making a move,’ and of course, we’re not. That goes without saying,” Tulsky said. “But if there’s any chance to get better, we’re gonna take it. We have the full buy-in to spend to the cap, if there are ways to do it to get better. We have so much space and such a strong team, there’s no guarantees we can find ways to spend all that money, but we’re going to spend all summer trying.”

Tulsky also outlined three areas he would like to upgrade, which Brind’Amour agreed with, and that will be the focal point this summer.

“I think our team is built on three things: We want to defend really well in our own end, we want to create turnovers off the forecheck, and we want to create offence once we get the puck back,” Tulsky revealed. “I think all three areas, honestly, there’s room for improvement.

“Our goal is to win a Cup, and our goal is to win more Cups after that and keep going. We’re trying to build a team that can compete year-after-year, but competing isn’t enough, we want to win.”

The Hurricanes have five pending unrestricted free agents on the roster: defencemen Brent Burns and Dmitri Orlov, and forwards Jack Roslovic, Eric Robinson and Tyson Jost.

Tulsky confirmed that he has already spoken with each of their agents and are engaged in talks to potentially re-sign each of them.

“We’ve talked to the agents of every free agent we have. Those conversations are ongoing,” he admitted. “We have four weeks left until July 1st to try and get deals done. We’ll see how that goes.”

Brind’Amour acknowledged how important Burns has been to the team’s penalty kill and the club overall and is hopeful the 40-year-old blueliner returns next season.

“No secret, I think he’s phenomenal. I love the guy for a lot of reasons,” Brind’Amour said. “I think he did a great job this year. He’s kind of learning, too, how to change his game a little.

“Where it goes, obviously, there’s business that comes into play, but I’d love to have him back.”