Goals should not be an issue for 2025-26
The Carolina Hurricanes finished 10th in the NHL regarding goal scoring last season.
They finished with a “Goals For” total of 266. (see chart below).
Goals For
1 Lightning 294
2 Capitals 288
3 Jets 277
4 Stars 277
5 Avs 277
6 Golden Knights 275
7 Blue Jackets 273
8 Sabres 269
9 Leafs 268
10 Hurricanes 266
One interesting thing is that the two Stanley Cup Finalists were not in the top 10. So how important is this stat?
It would seem that scoring goals would be important, so we will continue.
The Canes had a differential of plus 33, the difference between goals scored and goals allowed. That placed them 9th in the league.
The Florida Panthers had a “Goals For” total of 252 and a difference of 29.
The Edmonton Oilers had a GF of 259 and a difference of 23.
Just for reference, in the previous season the Canes scored 279 goals and had a difference of 63.
With the Canes losing Roslovic 22, Orlov 6, and Burns 6, one might wonder, are there enough goals coming in this season to compensate for those losses?
The answer appears to be yes, and then some.
Player Goals For Projected
2024-25 2025-26
Jarvis 32 32
Aho 29 30
Roslovic 22 0
Svechnikov 20 25
Hall 18 18
Blake 17 20
Martinook 15 14
Robinson 14 14
Stankoven 14 18
Staal 13 12
Jankowski 12 10
Kotkaniemi 12 13
Gostisbehere 7 8
Chatfield 7 7
Burns 6 0
Orlov 6 0
Slavin 6 7
Walker 5 6
Carrier 4 6
Jost 4 2
Birnd’Amour 1 0
Robidas 1 0
Miller 0 7
Nikishin 0 7
Ehlers 25
265 281
As you can see, I projected that Jarvis will match his total from last year and that Aho will score one more, to reach that magic threshold of 30.
Svechnikov only scored 20 last season and I am projecting 25 which I do not think is unrealistic.
Ehlers will replace Roslovic’s scoring pretty easily.
Blake and Stankoven should both continue to improve.
Most everyone else is projected to be about the same. Martinook and Staal might regress a bit.
Nikishin scored 17 goals in each of the last two seasons in the KHL, I project less than half that many, but who knows?
Miller averages about 7 goals a season.
This is a rather simplistic way to look at things, but gives us an idea to start the discussion.
What do you think?
(Apologies for the poor formatting, I will look to improve on that. By the way, the SB Nation platform will be changing in early August, so training for that major change is ongoing.)