The Carolina Hurricanes are officially into the first weekend of their 2024 training camp. 46 players descended onto the triangle as 41 skaters and five goalies will spend the next few weeks gearing up for the 2024-25 season. Early on, there have been some interesting defensive pairings with some new faces (one returning), the status of what to expect from the prospects, and unfortunate early camp injuries. Talk about a busy and story-filled first weekend of camp for the Hurricanes. Let’s dive into the first-ever edition of Hurricanes’ 3 Up, 3 Down.
Plus One: Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker Already Working on Chemistry
Over the offseason, the Hurricanes had to address the turnover on the roster, especially on the blue line with Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce leaving for new places to call home. General manager Eric Tulsky and the front office went into free agency looking to bring in quality talent to replace the talent leaving the confines of Raleigh. In the end, they did exactly that because it was not long before Sean Walker‘s name was linked, and he officially signed to the team for $3.6 million per year for the next five seasons. Later that afternoon on July 1, Shayne Gostisbehere was officially announced for making his return to the Canes on a three-year, $9.6 million deal of his own. Early on in camp, the duo have been paired together as the third defensive pairing and are already working on their chemistry.
When asked about being paired up for the first couple of days while finding familiarity early on, Gostisbehere stated, “We were lucky enough that, since I played in Philly and (Walker) played in Philly, we had some mutual friends and we actually met at a wedding this summer. It’s great, he’s a righty, I’m a lefty, I feel like we’re kind of the same player in the sense that we’re pretty offensive and we can skate pretty well. I think Walks is a heck of a player, it’ll be a pleasure to play with him and I think we’ll use each other very wisely.”
Walker echoed those comments when asked about being paired with another newcomer to the Hurricanes, “We’ve been paired up together these first couple of days, so just working through it, having that trust together and just buying into the game plan is going to really help us be successful. I think bringing in Shayne and I – they just want us to play our games. They don’t want us to change our identity, just be the players we can be out there, stick to our strong assets and buy into the game plan and I think we’ll be successful.”
While it is exciting to have Gostisbehere and Walker on the team, they have some huge holes to fill when replacing Skjei and Pesce. However, it’s already clear that Ghost (Gostisbehere) will be manning the top power play unit as expected after having 10 goals and 56 points in 81 games last season for the Red Wings. Walker could be used on the penalty kill after having some defensive upside to his game while playing for the Flyers and Colorado Avalanche last season. While they still are new, sort of for one of them, these two will be fun to watch this upcoming season.
Minus One: Early Injuries Sideline Morrow and Carrier
While we are still in the early stages of training camp, the last thing you want to see is injuries no matter when or how they occurred. After the first day of bag skating, it seemed that William Carrier, another new addition to the team, was laboring. He did miss the Saturday, Sept. 21 practice with Rod Brind’amour providing an update on Carrier missing time, “He’ll probably be out a couple of days, I don’t anticipate it being very long. This time of year you’re being really cautious on everything. Nothing serious.”…