Five Important Things To Remember
About Canes’ Opener, Banner And Beyond
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Sept. 29, 2026)
Below are five things to remember about the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes as they open the National Hockey League’s 2026-27 regular season with a home game — Tuesday, at the very unusual weekday start time of 5 p.m. — against the Florida Panthers.
(NOTE: Our 2026-27 Hurricanes coverage is brought to you by the “Huge Caniacs” at Randy’s Pizza, now with eight locations in Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Morrisville and Holly Springs.)
#1—This year’s season opener matches the franchises that have combined to win the past three Stanley Cup championships.
Florida, led by former Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice (1997-98 through 2003-04, plus 2008-09 through 2011-12), won it all in 2024 and 2025, and the Panthers are expected to be a top contender again this season.
The Hurricanes, of course, led by living legend Rod Brind’Amour, captured the Cup in June, just a little more than three months ago, with one of the most dominant postseason records (16-3) in modern NHL history.
The unorthodox 5 o’clock start time on Tuesday is designed to accommodate ESPN, which is launching its season-long NHL coverage with an opening-night tripleheader — first Canes-Panthers, then Rangers-Bruins at 8 p.m. and Chicago-Vegas at 10:30 p.m.
#2—Both Carolina and Florida are ranked among the eight teams with the best chances to win the Stanley Cup this season.
Just to give one example, at the MoneyPuck.com website, the top eight in the preseason this year are — in order — Colorado, Carolina, Vegas, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Edmonton and Florida.
If you’re rolling your eyes at the entire idea of preseason projections, just remember that the same website — one year ago, in September — listed the NHL’s top three teams as Edmonton, Carolina and Vegas.
In the end, of course, all three of those teams made the playoffs, and it was the Hurricanes beating the Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup finals.
#3—Whereas the Hurricanes’ new roster has only a couple major changes from last season, Florida’s new roster has a bunch of major changes from last season, when the Panthers were among the biggest disappointments in the NHL and failed to make the playoffs.
First, Florida has moved on from 38-year-old Sergei Bobrovsky, who was the team’s primary goaltender for the past seven seasons. The new #1 netminder is 36-year-old Jacob Markstrom, who played for the Panthers as a backup more than a decade ago but is more well-known as a former starter for Vancouver, Calgary and — these past two seasons — the New Jersey Devils.
Among Florida’s other major changes are the return of team captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed almost all of last season with a major knee injury, and the arrival of long-time Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, who now gets to play with his similarly disliked brother, Matthew Tkachuk, just as they previously played together with Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin on the United States Olympic team that captured the 2026 gold medal.
#4—The Carolina Hurricanes are truly “running it back,” as the kids like to say, because their roster this season has only two significant changes from last year’s roster.
The Canes’ goaltender for the past five seasons, 36-year-old Freddie Andersen, left for Edmonton in free agency in a move the Canes completely expected.
This year, Carolina’s goaltending rotation will start with 28-year-old Brandon Bussi, who took an unusually long time to make the NHL but made quite the splash last season, unexpectedly leading the team in starts with 39 and wins with 31 and also coming off the bench to help the Canes clinch their Cup-winning series against Vegas.
Bussi’s backups are 27-year-old Pyotr Kochetkov, who’s entering his sixth season with the franchise, and 27-year-old Cayden Primeau, who has some NHL-level experience but last season was the best goalie in the AHL for the Canes’ farm team, the Chicago Wolves.
The only other major change is the absence of third-pairing defenseman Alexander Nikishin, a restricted free agent who — at least for now — remains without a contract and without a team.
The two candidates for that sixth defenseman slot are 23-year-old Charles-Alexis Legault, a 6-foot-4, 215-pounder who was a fifth-round draft pick of the Canes in 2023, and returning veteran Mike Reilly. Legault, who played 12 games for Carolina last season as an occasional injury replacement, wears #62 and is one of the biggest players on the entire Canes roster.
#5—A few reminders as everyone heads to the Lenovo Center.
There will be a banner-raising ceremony Tuesday, so get there early for that 5 p.m. start.
Also, all fans in attendance Tuesday will receive a miniature replica Stanley Cup banner, so that will be a nice keepsake.
Finally, although you won’t see Hurricanes star Seth Jarvis on the ice — he’s still recovering from the shoulder surgery he had in June — you will see the rest of the Canes’ nucleus, with Sebastian Aho, Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Martinook and captain Jordan Staal leading the way among the forward group, with the sensational line of Jackson Blake, Taylor Hall and Logan Stankoven trying to build on their playoff magic from last season, and with Jaccob Slavin, K’Andre Miller, Shayne Gostisbehere, Sean Walker and Jalen Chatfield serving as the core defensive group.
It should be another fun ride.
