RALEIGH — There’s nothing quite like the sound of 20-ish pairs of skates cutting into the ice at the same time, ice shavings spraying into the boards as players finish off a sprint across the rink.
It’s the sound of training camp, which officially opened Thursday for the Carolina Hurricanes as they hit the ice for the first time in preparation for the 2025-26 NHL season — veterans anxious to attempt another run at the Stanley Cup, prospects eager to make an impression and battle for a roster spot, and newcomers feeling out their new teammates and franchise.
It’s just one day, but here are some of the more interesting things from the first practice of camp.
1. As I reported throughout the summer, coach Rod Brind’Amour seems poised to try to solve the void at second-line center internally. Logan Stankoven started camp in the middle, in between Andrei Svechnikov and Jackson Blake, returning to the position he played in junior.
Brind’Amour said the team’s abundance of wingers, along with Stankoven’s history playing center and also his willingness to give it a shot in the NHL, led to the decision. He was also quick to temper down expectations.
“I don’t know that it’ll go past a couple practices … who knows?” Brind’Amour said. “But you’ve got to try something.”
A primary concern with moving Stankoven to center is whether he can handle the rigors that come with the position, especially as a player listed at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds. Brind’Amour said there’s even more to it than that.
“There’s a lot of work that has to get in to play center,” Brind’Amour said. “There’s a lot of little things people don’t really understand. And you have to be willing to take the bumps a little bit.”
2. There were two players in no-contact jerseys and one missing from the first day of camp. Mark Jankowski and newcomer K’Andre Miller both wore yellow but fully participated in Thursday’s practice. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin didn’t practice.
“Those guys were a little nicked up in the summer, so everything’s slow play,” Brind’Amour said. “(Slavin), we’re just holding him off because he trains pretty hard in the summer, and he was feeling a little sore.
“So I said, ‘Good, you’re not going out.’ And it might be a few days. Until he says he’s 100%, we’re not going to put him out there. He could have come out there, but it’s just how we’re going to do that.”
Otherwise, the Hurricanes look healthy to start camp.
3. Miller admitted that it got noisy in New York last season as the Rangers floundered and he became a scapegoat for the team’s struggles that went well beyond his performance. He said he’s motivated to prove those critics wrong.
“I think throughout my five years there, I had a lot of doubters, had a lot of people voicing their opinion about my game,” he said. “So I think I’m excited to use that as fuel.”
Still, it’s a fresh start for the 25-year-old whose size, speed and athleticism had Brind’Amour nearly salivating after the first day of practice.
“We’re all excited with K’Andre, with just that athletic ability,” Brind’Amour said. “I mean, you notice it that first day of practice. He moves pretty well. So that’s pretty exciting.”
Much has been made of the adjustment period newcomers to Carolina’s defense have run into in recent years, and Miller said he’ll lean on his new teammates to help him adapt.
“I’m going to try to bounce my ideas off of them and try to get as much experience away from the ice as I can so that when I get on, I feel comfortable with all 20-something guys,” Miller said. “So yeah, just asking questions, making sure everybody’s on the same page and really just trying to pull the rope in the right direction.”
4. Nikolaj Ehlers started camp exactly where most expected, flanking center Sebastian Aho on the left side, opposite Seth Jarvis. The rest of the lines and defense pairings, however, offered some new looks.
William Carrier was reunited with Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook on the team’s shutdown line. That’s where he started last season until an injury and the arrival of Stankoven at the trade deadline led to him playing on the fourth line.
But Stankoven’s move to the middle — which helps solve the glut of wingers Brind’Amour has at his disposal — opened up that spot for Carrier again, and it would be no surprise if that’s where he is on opening night.
Jankowski and Kotkaniemi took turns centering the other line, with Taylor Hall and Eric Robinson filling the wings.
But as Ehlers said after the practice, it won’t be that way the whole year.
“In this league, you very rarely have a line that plays together for every shift, so you want to create chemistry with a lot of guys out there,” he said. “I’m excited to find the chemistry with guys. It’s going to be fun.”
On defense, the absence of Slavin left things a little murky, but the pairings were Miller with Jalen Chatfield, Shayne Gostisbehere with Alexander Nikishin, and Sean Walker skating alongside Mike Reilly.
If Reilly is a placeholder for Slavin, that would mean Gostisbehere will play his off side. That’s not Brind’Amour’s preference, however, he didn’t seem as against it as he has sometimes been in the past.
“That’s not ideal,” Brind’Amour said, “but maybe it is. There’s also advantages to it. There are certain areas of the game where it doesn’t benefit you, but there are, offensively, areas where you’re now set up to shoot pucks better and quicker
“There’s a lot of things. So we’ve got a lot of talent, which is good, guys that can handle it because it is a little tougher spot to put people in, but I think we’ll be fine.”
There wasn’t much to report from the prospect group that skated second Thursday. The Prospect Showcase top line of Justin Robidas, Felix Unger Sorum and Bradley Nadeau was broken up, with veteran Tyson Jost taking Nadeau’s spot and Nadeau playing with Skyler Brind’Amour and Juha Jaaska.
One player to keep an eye on is Dominik Badinka. It would take a Herculean effort for him — or any of the younger players, really — to make the Hurricanes roster this season, but his performance in Tampa at the Prospect Showcase was encouraging. It will be interesting to see how he does in preseason games against some NHL-caliber talent.
5. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported Thursday that the Hurricanes have shown interest in two of the recently acquitted five players who stood trial for sexual assault stemming from their time on Canada’s World Junior team in 2018.
The NHL opened the door for the players to return to the league, saying they will be eligible to sign contracts on Oct. 15 and return to play Dec. 1.
Pagnotta said on X that he believes Michael McLeod — a 6-foot-2 center who was drafted 12th overall by the Devils in 2016 — will end up in Carolina once his quasi-suspension ends.
Per sources, there is an expectation free agent forward Michael McLeod will be joining the Hurricanes this season. Carolina also checked on Carter Hart, as I and others have previously reported.
— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) September 18, 2025
Fit-wise, pursuing McLeod — or even Carter Hart — would make long-term sense for the Hurricanes, but there will certainly be backlash toward any team that brings in one or more of the players.
Carolina faced criticism both times it signed Tony DeAngelo in recent years. DeAngelo avoided major controversies during his time in Raleigh, but the reaction figures to be stronger should the Hurricanes bring on McLeod or any of the other players involved in the trial.
It’s all conjecture at the moment, since the players cannot sign for nearly a month. That said, Carolina is known for exploring any and every opportunity, and I’m sure this will be no different.
