2 Upgrades Carolina Hurricanes Need In The New Year

The Carolina Hurricanes have turned things around, and that started with goaltending improving a bit. They have a strong overall team that wasn't expected to struggle at all this season. They will be firmly in a playoff spot by the trade deadline and will want to make a couple of upgrades to the lineup to better their chances at a Stanley Cup. This is what areas can be addressed.

Forward Depth

The Hurricanes are always dealing with a number of injuries, whether that be to their forwards or elsewhere. This season they have had to deal with some key injuries to their forward group. Despite it being a deep group, there isn't much past what is on their NHL roster. It makes things complicated not having an AHL affiliate to easily access the next in line players. At the moment, Martin Necas and Jesper Fast are injured and out of the lineup. Andrei Svechnikov already missed 15 games this season, and at any time, he could get unlucky and have another injury occur as it happens more frequently than many other players. It is not a bad idea at all to add one more depth player who has a good amount of NHL experience for the fourth line to fill in sometimes.

1B Goalie

The Hurricanes had Antti Raanta in the minors for a short time, but just because he has been recalled and done well in a couple of games, this doesn't mean that the team isn't still looking for a better option to help Pyotr Kochetkov in the net this season. The young goalie has completely turned his game around and been the go-to guy in net while Frederik Andersen is out. I don't see Andersen coming back soon and there are options out there for the Hurricanes to jump on earlier than the trade deadline to help themselves.