Why NHL trade deadline additions have been force multiplier for Hurricanes’ entire roster

After all those years the Carolina Hurricanes mostly sat and watched at the trade deadline — and they had their reasons — it’s been fascinating to see the immediate results now that they have taken a big swing.

Whatever message adding Jake Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov was supposed to send, however it was supposed to make the Hurricanes better, it’s hard to imagine it working out any better than this, at least to start.

The addition of the two forwards has been a force multiplier, helping everyone on the roster take their games to a new level — even the goalies, which may attest to the psychological impact being as powerful as the increased talent level.

This is how it’s supposed to go. The Hurricanes loaded up to try to win the Stanley Cup, and they’re playing like a team with bolstered belief it can be done.

“It’s just exciting,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal told the News & Observer from New York ahead of the Hurricanes’ game at the Islanders on Tuesday night. “They both have breathed a little new life in the room, too, which has really just added to the dynamic on the ice. There’s new excitement around everyone else in the room with what we have now, realizing the squad that we have is really good.”

Since adding Guentzel and Kuznetsov, the Hurricanes are 5-1-0 going into Tuesday’s game against the team they ousted in the first round a year ago, including Saturday’s improbable comeback from 3-0 and 4-2 down in Toronto to win in a shootout and Sunday’s no-mercy 7-2 thumping of the Senators in Ottawa.

Guentzel has five points in four games. Kuznetsov has four points in six games. That checks every box. But it’s hardly just them, as impressive as their impact has been.

Almost everyone else on the roster has chipped in as well, scoring a total of 27 goals in six games, marred only by a 1-0 shutout at the hands of the Rangers, deja vu from 2022. Sebastian Aho has nine points since the deadline, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov and Dmitri Orlov have six each and 12 forwards have recorded multiple points in that span despite the shutout, with only four of those goals coming on the power play.

Guentzel and Kuznetsov have brought a lot, no doubt about it. But they’ve also made everyone else better.

You can’t predict fit. This turned out to be hand in glove.

“You can tell between the two of them they’ve changed the dynamic of our team a bit, obviously for the better, especially offensively,” Staal said. “Obviously, we have to stay with our identity, playing hard and being hard to play against, not giving up any chances. But their ability to put the puck in the net has made us better.”

Throw in the long-awaited return of Frederik Andersen from injury — undefeated in four starts, with a 1.29 goals-against average and .949 save percentage —and it’s like the entire roster is playing with new energy.

Which, in a perfect world, is exactly what’s supposed to happen after making moves like these. The Hurricanes’ big-time deadline additions raised the skill level across the roster, challenged other players to keep their places and sent a message to the dressing room that the time had come to finish the job.

“We have to keep pushing this team,” Staal said, “to do what we all hope we can do.”

This is a better team than it was two weeks ago, and it was already one of the best teams in the NHL.

If this wasn’t true before, there is no question now: There is only one acceptable outcome, and there are no excuses. The Hurricanes have shown who they are, and what they can be, and the gap between the two has never been smaller than this.

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