Photo via @Canes on Twitter/X
By Spencer Knight – @stormsurge_pod / stormsurgepod.com
July 24, 2025
On this episode of Storm Surge: A Carolina Hurricanes Podcast, we reflect on the Hurricanes careers of the players who left the team this offseason. We discuss the departures of Brent Burns, Dmitry Orlov, Scott Morrow, and others, reviewing their contributions, sharing some memorable moments, and discussing what their departures mean for the Canes moving forward. If you’d like to listen along, you can find us on your favorite streaming platform here.
Taylor: Hello and welcome in to another episode of Storm Surge: A Carolina Hurricanes podcast. I’m Taylor, I’m your host. I’m here with Dylan and Spencer. We’d like to thank our sponsors, Palace Point and RCE Theaters and Chase Given Music.
It’s still the off season, Still not a lot going on. We don’t have any news. Nothing. Nothing really has changed. So what we want to do tonight is just look at some of the players that are no longer Hurricanes. We appreciate them, at least for the most part.
So luckily this list is not near as long as it was last season. Last season, this probably could have been split up into two episodes. So this will not be a extremely long episode tonight. But a few names, I’ll just go ahead and read them off first, who the names that have parted ways with us and then we may go back through all of them talking about them but we’re at least going to hit the highlights.
So Canes that we saw leave this season. Brent Burns, left, signed with Colorado. Dmitry Orlov, left and signed with San Jose. Jack Roslovic is still unsigned, but at this moment we don’t expect him to be a Cane. Scott Morrow was traded to the New York Rangers. Ty Smith is gone. He’s with Dynamo Minsk. Which, random, and another podcast brought this up but it’s really funny how many Russian teams all use Dynamo. I think it was Nick, and Nick’s like “thanks, that’s not confusing at all.” But it made me laugh. And then Riley Stillman, he’s with the Edmonton Oilers and then we lost a couple backup goalies. So Spencer Martin, he’s now with SKA Moscow in the KHL. And then Tokarski, Dustin Tokarski is still unsigned but once again we, we already signed our a couple one year deals with goalie. So highly don’t expect him to be in the organization. But so first off we appreciate them. It was none of them completely sucked. That’s a nice thing.
Spencer: For the most part, all of them had positive moments.
Taylor: Yeah, I mean that’s the nice thing, that we can absolutely say positive things about every one of them.
Brent Burns
Taylor: Let’s just start with probably the most key. Brent Burns. So just tell me a little bit about his time here and some things you’ll miss.
Spencer: Yeah. I’ll start us off at the beginning of his time in Carolina. So it Started three summers ago. What was supposed to be or seemed like it was going to be a pretty big summer. That was the summer of Pacioretty as well. But swinging a big trade with San Jose sending Stevie Lawrence. Really love that guy. To go from a seventh round draft pick to kind of the key piece in a trade for a name like Brent Burns, pretty good career progression for him. Definitely miss his hard work and everything. But we were able to get Brent Burns back at 30% salary retention by San Jose. So for the last three seasons we had him at just $5.28 million per season which, for the output we were getting especially early on is definitely not a bad cap hit. He was actually 10th in Norris voting his first year here in in Carolina. So definitely not a bad cap hit for that.
He was brought in to replace Tony DeAngelo who was brought in to replace Dougie Hamilton as the offensive minded right handed defenseman to partner with Jaccob Slavin. And it went well that first season here. Obviously he played 82 games each of the three seasons he was here, maintaining his iron man streak throughout. Longest active iron man streak in the NHL. In that first season he had 18 goals, 43 assists for 61 points. Of those 18 goals, he had four on the power play and he also had 19 power play assists. So a total of 23 power play points. He had three power play points this season by the way, but 23 power play points in the first season here in Carolina.
He was a plus 19 after being a minus 15 with San Jose the year prior. So he was able to turn around his defensive play a little bit. Probably helps that he had the best possession defenseman in the NHL and Jaccob Slavin as his partner, stopping things from getting too out of hand. He had a solid first season and he even won a face off believe it or not that first season here. Do you guys remember that?
Dylan: Yes, I do remember that. Actually I was just looking at his career face off stats a minute ago. Actually he’s taken 9 and won 2 so… actually was that the playoffs? Let’s see.
Spencer: No, I think that’s probably the playoffs because it looks like he’s won 72, lost 84 in his regular season career. Mostly with San Jose.
Dylan: Yeah, that was his playoff face off stats.
Spencer: It was mostly 2013-14, he won 61 face offs and lost 70. They had him listed as a right wing on on Hockey Reference for that 2013-14 season. So I guess he played up that year.
Dylan: Yeah. That’s funny. Yeah, I think, obviously that first season was the best one. There’s been a bit of a decline since then, with this season being the most noticeable. He was obviously a big personality and a big influence in the room anyways. Even with the stats declining, he had an influence on the team. No doubt.
Taylor: So I mean over that time, obviously, like you said, the first season was good. Second season we definitely could see a little bit of age creeping in there, but then come to find out later that he was playing through an injury during the playoffs. And so, you know, that’s tough to do. This past season was just all age, age and potentially time on ice. Also, really random, but if anybody has the Carolina Hurricanes calendar, which I have sitting beside me, July is Brent Burns. So he’s staring me in the face right now and that’s a little depressing.
Spencer: It’s funny that they would have a pending UFA as July on the calendar…
Taylor: Oh, I know. That’s what I was thinking too. I haven’t even gone through it to see the the last months and see if they’re even on the team.
Spencer: Oh my goodness.
Taylor: Any, any final thoughts on Burns?
Spencer: Yeah, I wish him luck in Colorado. Like you said, definitely saw the step back, especially later down the stretch this season. You could even kind of see it towards the end of last season. It seems like, and Tripp Tracy talks about this on the broadcast sometimes too, like Brent Burns just wants to keep playing. If he has any time off it takes him, it’s like an old motor, it takes him a minute to get warmed back up and back up to speed. So the long breaks, like after doing super well in a playoff series and then having a long break before the next one starts, didn’t do well for him.
This past season was rough. He only had six goals. He had eight power play goals his first two seasons in Carolina. Only six total goals this past year, none on the power play, and that’s really the main thing we brought him in for. He was still a plus seven this year. He was somehow a plus 45 in his three years in Carolina. He was a minus 21 in his seven years in Minnesota and a minus 13 in his 11 years in San Jose. So being a plus 45 here, got his career plus/minus rating up to plus 11. So he… I think there are definitely some things he benefited from being here, and the team obviously benefited quite a bit. Not just with his on ice performance, but with his veteran leadership in the locker room. I know Seth Jarvis is going to miss his dad this year, or one of them at least. He’s got like three of them on the team. But, yeah, he definitely was very helpful to the younger guys, the up and coming guys in the locker room and hopefully, we can find some internal replacements for that locker room leadership.
Dylan: Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, best of luck to him in Colorado. I think he’s in a much better situation there for the point he’s at in his career. He’ll be on the third pair behind Cale Maker, and probably Josh Manson. I imagine he can still kill penalties if he wants to, probably. But, he won’t be out there 20 minutes a night, that’s for sure.
Spencer: I don’t think I’d have him killing penalties either.
Dylan: Yeah, I guess I probably wouldn’t either. But, I don’t know. Who else on Colorado kills penalties? I guess Cale Makar does. I don’t know. But yeah, I imagine he’ll see a dip in ice time and, he can play the amount of time he should at this point.
Spencer: I think he’s gonna hope for 23 minutes a night. And the reason I say that is for his performance bonuses. So his contract is $1 million in base, but he has performance bonuses $3 million once he hits 10 games played, and then another million if he plays 70 or more games with 23 minutes or more.
Taylor: Wow.
Spencer: He’s gonna be hoping for 23 minutes.
Dylan: I feel like that’s an easy way to get out of paying them some of that money. Just say, like, you have to play 23 minutes a night before I’m gonna play you 18.
Spencer: Right, exactly.
Taylor: On a side note, Jack Drury is November, so that’s. Other than that…
Dylan: Are you looking at last season?
Taylor: No, this. It’s the 2025 calendar.
Dylan: Are you, are you sure?
Spencer: He was traded at the end of January.
Taylor: Yeah.
Spencer: What month was Necas? Because I’m sure he was in there.
Taylor: I’m pretty sure I’ve got it pinned to the wall. I don’t think he was on here. That’s the funny thing. Yeah, Necas. They knew there was already insider information.
Dmitry Orlov
Taylor: All right, so Dmitry Orlov, talk about him.
Spencer: So Dimitri Orlov was here for two seasons. So one fewer than Brent Burns.
Dylan: He made too much.
Spencer: Yeah. He was a surprise signing. He was considered the top free agent going into the 2023 UFA class which tells you the quality of that class. And somehow there’s this notion that no top free agents want to sign with Carolina. But literally the top free agent that year did sign with Carolina. Probably because we paid him 50% more than anybody should have paid him. Gave him $7.75 million per year. At least it was only for two years. But he was still valuable as a Cane.
He was a solid second to third pairing… I mean he was a solid second pairing defenseman that we had playing third pairing minutes that first year because we had Slavin and Skjei. I think the idea was Orlov’s available now and the left handed defenseman available next year are not going to be nearly as good, so let’s go ahead and sign Orlov now to be Skjei’s replacement in case we lose him. That might have been the thought process, but that would also mean that they were thinking that far ahead, which I’m not always certain that that front office was but that could be a thought.
And the idea with Orlov is he’s a decent skater, and though he’s not the biggest guy, he plays bigger than he is. Especially when he leans into that physicality he can be really annoying to play against. The first season with us he had 116 hits in 82 games. which was near the top of that stat category among Canes players. He only had 101 hits this year. His takeaways dipped this year. His giveaways almost tripled this year. So definitely not upset that he’s moving on. He’s not really known for his offense but he still had 54 points in the two years here. He was plus 16 this year, I think mostly due to Chatfield. Those two played very well together early in the season and then kind of plateaued around the plus 16 to plus 19 range. They got there pretty quickly and then kind of stayed there for a bit.
Dylan: I was just thinking, I think he had definitely some highs, definitely some lows. The playoffs, absolutely, he went out on the worst note possible. I can’t think of a worse way to remember Orlov because that was bad.
Spencer: That was really bad.
Dylan: And honestly, he had some really good moments. He was one of the most physical players on the team, as far as hits are concerned. And I think it took him a while to adjust. Like I said, there’s some highs and there’s some very low lows at bad times. But I know there were a lot of people talking about his interview, talking about it made it sound like he hated his time here basically. I think it’s more that he was kind of also just disappointed in himself. He knows he could have played better hockey. I think he was saying a lot of it is on him, with his reduced role and all that. But I was just thinking about that article too. So, just bringing that up. I think what he was trying to say mostly is that it was difficult because he wasn’t at his best.
Spencer: That’s the way I took it as well. I didn’t see it as any sort of slight to the Canes organization. I didn’t see it as him saying that they did him a disservice. I saw it more as he felt like he didn’t live up to what he expected of himself and what he felt like the team expected of him. And as a result he lost out on some of the opportunities that he might have otherwise had, to take on a bigger role. And like you said, that unfortunate playoff performance, specifically game three against the Panthers, where I thought Nikishin had an excellent game, but because of some silliness by Orlov, he ended up as a minus four. The two of them did, in a six to two loss, that kind of put us on the brink there. We were able to get a three nothing shutout in game four to save face. But yeah, that was a rough game and unfortunately it’s one of the last ones and certainly the most memorable of the last few, in our memories. So, unfortunately, that’s probably how he’ll be remembered.
But overall, I thought he had a good career as a Cane. Definitely, tapered off a bit this year, and I’m not upset to see him gone, especially with the way our left side looks now. But, I think my favorite moment of his, though, is, against the Devils last year when, Haula kind of cheap shotted him, and he went to the bench to make sure he was all okay and deposit his broken stick, and then goes back as Haula’s looking the other way, going to the box and just sucker punches him right in the nose. Couldn’t think of a better player to receive a sucker punch like that. So, yeah, not usually big on sucker punches, but I’ll let that one slide.
Taylor: I can’t help but wonder just thinking about his performance. I wonder what those conversations were like with Rod, between the two of them. Because if it’s… Obviously, Rod just loves effort. You know, he loves hard work. And I wonder if that’s what we were seeing is just lack of… not talent, but, I wonder if he really wasn’t putting in the effort. And so then that’s where Rod’s like, You know, it just doesn’t cut it. Because Rod still said really great things about Rantanen in his time here. He was like, look, he was working hard, even though we don’t necessarily feel that way, but Rod said he was working hard and the stats just weren’t showing up. And so, you know, I wonder if that was… Yeah, I don’t know. That’s… Obviously nothing can come out of that. We’ll never know the answer to that, but that was my thought anyway.
Scott Morrow
Taylor: All right, so let’s see. We’ve already talked about them way longer than I thought we would have. Let’s go to Scott Morrow. He’s the only other skater that did more than a season here. And then we’ll go from there, and see if…
Dylan: You’re gonna completely ignore Jack Roslovic like that.
Taylor: Well, we might come back, but it’s… Let’s talk about Morrow. And then because we’re already almost at 20 minutes, like, I didn’t think we’d go… I almost wondered if we wouldn’t go that long.
Dylan: Scott Morrow, the guy who played two regular season games.
Spencer: He played 16 regular season games, actually.
Dylan: It’s, two seasons, I guess.
Spencer: Yeah. Yeah. Across two seasons. So he played two games his first season, 14 this year. He’s primarily in the AHL this year. Last year, you can barely call that one of his two seasons here. He played the entire year in college and then signed at the end of the college season and got into two regular season games down the stretch. Didn’t play in the playoffs last year. Probably for the best, seeing the way this year went, unfortunately. He got into 14 games this year during when there was some injuries going on and just kind of helping to fill the gap a little bit. He had one goal, five assists for six points. He was a plus four in the regular season. He was also an AHL All Star this year.
I thought he was definitely on the verge of a breakout, and the playoffs happened and I wanted to be more patient. He was a minus five across five games, but nobody looked good in that Florida series. So you can’t really blame too much on him. Especially when he was paired with Gostisbehere, neither one of which are known for being elite defenseman, on the defensive side of the puck especially. So I was definitely willing to offer some grace there, let him get through a full training camp with the team before regular season with the team before just being thrown into the fire of “we’re going to judge your NHL future based off of how well you do against the Florida Panthers and the Eastern Conference Finals.” Because I think a lot of players would fail that test.
But yeah, he ended up being a valuable piece in a trade to improve the blue line for now, versus for the future, and I think it also does pretty well for the future too. In a trade a couple of weeks ago where the Cane sent him as well as a first and a second round pick to the Rangers for K’Andre Miller. I’m sure you guys have heard about that one. It’s pretty big news recently. But I think being able to turn that asset, who was… He was a third round pick, in 2019 or 2020. I forget what year. 2021 actually. So only four years ago. Second round pick, actually. I don’t know who I was thinking of. Oh, Nikishin was a third round pick in 2019. That’s what I was getting crossed up. Second round pick back in 2021.
So he’s only two years younger than Miller, and Miller’s definitely farther along in his development. So I think it was a good way to upgrade for now without sacrificing too much of the future either. I appreciated his time here, loved watching him as a prospect and seeing his all star year in the AHL this year. But hopefully he doesn’t burn us like another right handed defenseman we traded to the Rangers. That’s Adam Fox, by the way.
Taylor: I knew that! I debated on saying it I was like, but then I was like, wait, that is who he’s talking about, right? And I didn’t want to sound like an idiot.
Dylan: Different situation, obviously, since he was only willing to play for the Rangers.
Spencer: Totally different situation.
Dylan: Yeah, I’m still kind of sad that we no longer have Scott Morrow because I think I think he will be very good. And it would be fun to see him paired with someone like K’Andre Miller or Nikishin in the future. Who knows? But yeah, yeah, I have nothing really to add.
Spencer: I wouldn’t have minded him as a Slavin partner, not this season. I don’t think he could handle that, that much ice-time and responsibility. But with his ability on the offensive side… I know that what we didn’t really see a ton of development on, even at the AHL level, his defensive ability. And maybe there was a thought internally that that poor defensive ability was not gonna ever get to NHL caliber, and so they wanted to move on. I don’t know. I know Nick talked about it a couple weeks ago.
Taylor: That’s what I was about to bring up is that’s that I’m… I don’t dislike Morrow. I still am grateful to. And there’s tons of potential. Like when I think of him leaving, that’s just what I think of is, what potential have we lost? But after, you know, after what Nick said, I feel a lot better. Like this is the… Obviously he could be wrong. But I trust Nick pretty good. And Nick doesn’t seem to have super high hopes anymore.
Dylan: All I’m saying is Brent Burns had a long career, not being very strong at defense.
Spencer: But he was also fairly elite offensively.
Dylan: He definitely was. Yeah. no doubt. I mean there’s a lot of guys who don’t play defense who are long career defensemen.
Spencer: Yeah. It did take a while though for him to become elite offensively though. He did start as a forward, but took until his age 29 season for him to really break out there where he had 60 points. I’m talking about Brent Burns here. 60 points as a 29 year old, 75 points as a 30 year old and, 76 points as a 31 year old. Followed, up two seasons later by 83 points as a 33 year old. So defensemen do take time. And Morrow’s still young, 21 or 22 if I remember correctly. yeah, 22. Almost 23, in November, so still pretty young. He could get there. But yeah, I too am kind of sad on the perceived missed potential, but also, Miller is an upgrade now, and I think he’s an upgrade in the future as well.
Dylan: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think he’s got a much higher ceiling. Well, I don’t know if it’s a much higher. He’s got a higher ceiling, I think.
Spencer: Yeah. Much higher floor and a higher ceiling.
Dylan: Yeah, yeah, we’ve seen the floor. Well, I guess. I hope we’ve seen the floor. But I guess to be fair to Brent Burns, he was drafted as a forward, so… Talking about defenseman developing. But anyways, yeah. Scott Morrow. As much as I can wish a Ranger good luck. I hope they don’t destroy you, I guess.
Taylor: Just, if you’re listening, go to Joe’s. Joe’s Pizza. It’s good stuff.
Jack Roslovic
Taylor: All right, well, now we’ll come back to Jack Roslovic. Dylan, I’ll go and let you start off that one. Any thoughts on him?
Dylan: He, was exactly what I thought he would be when we signed him. 81 games, 22 goals, 17 assists, 39 points. That actually may be… No, that’s about exactly right in line with what I expected, from that signing. He was a minus 10, though,
Spencer: Which is not surprising considering his career.
Dylan: Right. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I think he would have stayed on the goal scoring pace he started the season at, he’d probably no doubt have a contract. I’m actually surprised he doesn’t already have at this point, I feel like he should.
Spencer: Almost a half point per game, playing in a bottom six role.
Dylan: Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t really have much to add other than he was exactly what I thought he would be. And that’s, I’m good with that. I was happy when we signed him. I don’t think anyone regrets that they signed, him as far as Canes front office goes.
Spencer: Yeah, he was one I was interested in at the previous trade deadline before he ended up in New York and was actually part of that Rangers team that knocked us out of the playoffs two years ago. So he’s lost to the Panthers twice in a row in the Eastern Conference finals, whereas for us we at least had a year in between the two losses… Not that that’s any better but…
I honestly was hoping for a little bit more. His last two seasons in Columbus he had 45 and 44 points. Last year he had only 31, Or rather two years ago, when he got traded from Columbus to New York he had 31 points, but that was only in 59 games played. So I was hoping for something more. That was a 82 game pace of 43 points. So that would put him at 45, 44, 43. So I was hoping for 42. Only got 39. again it’s not a major drop off, but it is kind of a decline especially after the way that he started off the season so hot. But yeah, I was, was hoping for more. I definitely thought that the move to center wasn’t great. I preferred him as a winger than as a center. Though he did win 54 of his face offs which is better than his career average by 10 points.
Dylan: is that the Rod Brind’Amour effect?
Spencer: Yeah, 100%. But yeah, I do think he is deserving of a contract. I think he’ll probably get more than the $2.8 million I think we gave him on one year last year. I think he probably deserves more than that though at this point. I’m sure he’ll take whatever legit offer he’s getting. But yeah, kind of surprising. He’s kind of one of those guys that’s not quite good enough for your top six and not quite the style you want for your bottom six. And so it’s kind of tough to find the right role for him, unless you’re a retooling team. He’s only 28 though, so he’s not even really a veteran yet either. So kind of kind of in a tough spot in his career and in his development to make his way onto a team. But I feel like a team like Pittsburgh or Anaheim or one of those could use a player like him right on their wing. Apparently there’s interest from Vancouver, but we’ll see where that goes.
Goaltenders
Taylor: Cool. Well so let’s just combine real quick and talk about Spencer Martin and Dustin Tokarski and then we’ll close out with that. But any thoughts on those goalies?
Dylan: …thoughts on those goalies. I’m glad they only…
Spencer: Spencer Martin had a good game this year. He got a shutout at one point.
Taylor: Tokarski got a shutout this year too, didn’t he?
Spencer: Yep. I think the Canes led the league in the number of goalies with shutouts this season. Which is a weird stat, but…
Dylan: It’s because they had to play so many goalies.
Spencer: Yeah. Total of five shutouts. We had four goalies with a shutout. Kochetkov had two, Freddie had one, Spencer Martin had one, Tokarski had one. Perets Did not play a full game. So every goalie that started a game had a shutout this season.
Dylan: That’s actually pretty funny.
Spencer: Yeah. But yeah, not upset that Spencer Martin’s moving on. He was nice in a fill in role last year. Played it in six games, had four wins. Didn’t look great in them, but was good enough to get the wins. This year, not great. But there was a time when both Freddie was out and Kochetkov got hurt. And I think we went to Spencer Martin in a back to back with travel. I’m pretty sure that’s who played in Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving and Saturday. Home against Florida, then on the road in Florida. A combined 12 to 1 defeat across those two games. and I’m pretty sure he started both.
Dylan: Don’t remind him. That alone is probably enough to where he’s playing in the KHL and not under an NHL contract.
Spencer: 12 to 3 combined. I’m sorry, I discounted our scoring ability there. We scored three goals in that first game, not one. Yeah, Spencer Martin, 24 saves on 29 shots against in the first half of that back-to-back and then in the second half in Florida the next night, he had 23 saves on 28 shots before getting pulled. And Yaniv Perets made his only appearance of the season.
Dylan: Would you rather play in the KHL than the AHL, Spencer, if you were Spencer Martin.
Spencer: I’d rather speak American. So I probably would stay here.
Taylor: That’s what I was thinking, that I wouldn’t want to go to Russia.
Spencer: The KHL is a higher quality of opponent, and in the AHL you’re going to be fighting against prospect goalies for starting time.
Dylan: Yeah, that’s true.
Spencer: So it’s more professional league there versus, like a semi… Not semi professional, but like hybrid professional slash developmental league.
Dylan: Yeah, for sure.
Overall Thoughts
Taylor: Cool. Well, any thoughts before we close out tonight?
Spencer: Nothing else.
Dylan: Yeah, I don’t have anything else. I think the Canes have improved by letting all of these people walk.
Spencer: Yeah, there’s not a one of them I’m sad about.
Dylan: Yeah. Yeah, this isn’t like last, last off season where, you know, like, a hundred points walk out the door or whatever.
Spencer: Guentzel, Terevainen and Noesen, Pesce and Skjei. That was rough.
Dylan: Yeah.
Spencer: Just for the big names, right?
Dylan: Yeah. So I think these are all kind of additions, by subtraction, improving, the spots where these people walked, where these guys walked from. So, I think it’s been a good off season so far. I’m interested to see what else the Canes do. So we’ll see.
Taylor: Sounds good. Well, thank you all for listening to another episode of Storm Surge: A Carolina Hurricanes podcast. We really appreciate you. Don’t forget to leave us 5 stars, comment, do all the fun stuff. Subscribe if you haven’t. Yeah, we appreciate you, and we will talk to you again soon.
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