Sebastian Aho’s surprising boost for club management

The Finnish center was not satisfied with the club management’s decisions.

The Carolina Hurricanes’ season ended in the Eastern Conference Finals, when the team lost the playoff series to the Florida Panthers, 1–4.

Hurricanes’ Finnish center Sebastian Aho said in his end-of-season interview that he was generally satisfied with the organization, but at the same time gave a surprising jab at the club’s management.

– To be honest, I was disappointed with last summer’s transfer market. We lost a couple of players that I would have liked to have continued in the team. We tried to strengthen the team during the transfer window, which I appreciate. But if you make the right choices in the summer and pick up reinforcements, then you don’t need to try magic tricks during the transfer window, Aho said with difficulty.

Last summer, the Hurricanes released Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teräväinen, Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce, among others.

At the end of January, the Hurricanes made a big move by acquiring superstar Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche. Rantanen did not want to commit directly to Carolina, so he was quickly traded away.

The biggest name the Hurricanes got from Rantanen in the trade was Logan Stankoven, 22, who has shown occasional flashes of his excellence.

Big summer

Amidst the big changes, Aho is nevertheless hopeful about the future.

– I think we have good pieces, but this summer is really important for us. We have room in the salary cap and a lot of transfer blocks, Aho said, referring to the reserve rotations and young players.

Hurricanes players including Brent Burns, Dmitri Orlov, Jack Roslovic and Jesper Fast have contracts expiring in the summer.

According to hockey website Puckpedia, the team has over $28 million in salary cap space for new player acquisitions.

– There are a lot of things I can be excited about. We have young promises like Stankoven and Aleksandr Nikishin. Also, young ones like Seth Jarvis and Jackson Blake are only getting better, Aho said.

Big names are expected to hit the NHL free agent market. According to Sportsnet’s list, the most interesting names this summer are Mitch Marner, Sam Bennett, Nikolaj Ehlers, John Tavares and Aaron Ekblad.