The Canes definitely need to change up who runs the PP. The PP has always been the Canes Achilles, and the only time that I remember when the Canes had an elite PP were in the Central division in the regular season and in 2006 playoffs. I do think Necas is gone for a roster upgrade. Ideally the lack of scoring gets addressed in FA. Forsberg would be an excellent add, and so would Burakovsky and Nichushkin. The rotational 3rd pairing of Smith, Cole, and Bear is very likely going to be changed up. I loved the Cole signing, so I would not be opposed to bringing him back, but guys Keane, Chatfield, Sellgren, Seeley, and maybe Reunamen could get a shot on that 3rd pair. Trocheck likely gets priced out, and I do think Nino gets brought back to play with Staal and Fast. With the way Raanta has played this playoffs, I think the tandem going into next season will remain as Freddie Raanta. Kochetkov likely starts in the AHL, but if he continues how he played with Chicago this year, I wouldn’t be opposed yo a deadline move of trading Raanta to bring up Kochetkov. I do think the penalty issue needs to be addressed, but I also know that it really isn’t up to the Canes anymore, but how much the officials have it in for the Canes on a given night. I won’t be surprised if this off-season is another roster turnover, much like last offseason.

Where should we go? Increasing the quality of the top 6 and decreasing the quality of the 4th line. We have to stop trying to be so balanced from top to bottom. We worry about not wanting to lose the match ups on the road more than we worry about creating our own matchup issues.

Out of all the games where the canes were eliminated, this has to be the most painful. I knew it was over as soon as they gave up that second PP goal.

They’re always getting a ton of shots and can never get it in the back of the net when they need to, they make it too easy for the goalie to stop them. I agree the power play was abysmal and they could make some changes there, including a new PP coach. Raanta was good for most of these playoffs but he was horrible in the last couple games. Hopefully Andersen will be able to play in next year’s playoffs so we can see if he’s any better. I still wish RBA would have pulled him in that Avs game before he could get injured cause he was having a terrible game.

I think the main piece the canes need this offseason is an elite goal scorer. They could try to trade for Fiala, or sign a free agent like Forsberg but he may be more expensive. And RBA needs to learn from this series for the future, you need to be better on the road. Otherwise, whenever you lose one home game, it’s gonna bite you in the butt. He didn’t acknowledge that which caused them to collapse last night.

I just hope we can at least win one cup during this era, because it’s like the first time we’ve ever been a true contender for multiple years in a row.

Very insightful and agree with just about everything you said. The power play has failed us consistently and was the reason we lost the series. We are the better team in this series. Our PK also struggled, even after a historic season. This series ends in 5 games if our PP gets going. But here are some things I expect to see, and then some things I want to see.

I expect Nino, Trocheck, Smith to be resigned. (I know a person who is close to Trocheck and he loves Raleigh, just got to have the number both sides can agree on)

I expect Domi, Cole, TDA, and Bear to be moved on from

I have no idea what will happen with Necas, Lorentz, and Stepan. I would imagine Stepan may not be brought back and Necas and Lorentz qualified for short term deals.

Personally I really like Bear, Lorentz, and Stepan, and I wish they were at least leaned on a little bit more to change things up. I also think Necas was snake bitten this year. He has a lot of potential and hopefully the 2021 season wasn't an anomally, that he can get back to that level. I honestly could see him traded, as well as Bear.

I am super excited to see Jarvis and what he will become. He is as tough as it gets and is pure goal scorer. and a playoff performer. I am also a Skjei fan, as he showed a ton of improvement this season and really came to form. I really don't understand the hatred for Skjei by some of the Canes fans. He has been a steady guy on the best defense in the league. I am real interested to see how much this team changes. I hope they don't blow it up, but just make a couple of minor changes, bring up some guys who are ready from the AHL.

Agree that this is the most disappointing loss / exit since they came back to relevance the last 4 seasons, but I also think the dust needs to settle a bit because it's not as if they're that far off. Canes played far from their best and the series was still a coin flip with Igor standing on his head. I don't think HUGE changes are needed but the roster will obviously look different and there are some tweaks which make sense (a lot of which you touched on).

The PP is the biggest concern like you said - it's been probably our biggest issue these last 4 seasons and dries up when we need it most. Largely because we're playing top teams / players at this stage but need to at least be average among playoff teams to have a real shot, especially with the way we play 5v5. I'd expect a coaching mix-up on that front and hopefully they move away from relying on umbrella / top side passes and focus more on north / south, behind the net action which is how most strong PPs generate high grade chances.

Necas was the x factor for me personally. Everybody expected him to break out this year and I think if he did that's probably the missing piece up front that potentially wills us deeper into the playoffs. Jarvis was a great surprise but still need that one extra elite player up front. Whether that's Necas (probably not sadly) or somebody else remains to be seen. I don't think Canes should / will dump him for pennies on the dollar. If there's a good deal (hockey trade or assets that can be packaged for somebody else) they'll make it, otherwise a cheap bridge deal wouldn't be a bad option since Canes hold the leverage in this situation imo.

I think we move on from Cole, Bear, Troch, maybe Smith & Domi. Cole was fine but seemed like he made the dumb mistakes / penalties we brought him in to teach the other guys not to make - if he wants to stay on as 7th D for minimum I'd be fine with that but don't care for him too much. Troch probably gets priced out as this is his last big deal - Pit / Bos seem like natural fits for him. Bear never worked out which is a shame b/c we could've used him on PP2. Smith & Domi I'm pretty neutral on. Neither are really difference makers but for cheap depth signings we could do worse. Would love to find a way to keep Nino and think TDA should be re-signed without a long-term deal (3ish years ideally).

There's some high-end talent available in FA this year but not sure Canes will want to commit long-term years to guys in their late 20s. Will be interesting to see how it plays out - lot of moves likely just b/c of how this team was structured. I just hope the moves made are sensible and not an over reaction - I don't think this years version was that far off from the other 4 teams left and sometimes it's little tweaks / adjustments that are bigger than massive wholesale moves.