Sebastian Aho and the Hurricanes are hearing a blunt message from head coach Rod Brind'Amour: preseason hockey may have run its course.
Brind'Amour made his stance clear during an appearance on TSN's OverDrive, taking aim at exhibition games while discussing Carolina's preparation for the new season.
“I'd say go to 86 games and 0 preseason. Why waste games on the fans that don't count? Let's play for real.”
The comment carried some humor, but the idea behind it fits how Brind'Amour handles his roster. Carolina has little incentive to push established veterans through meaningless games when the regular season is right around the corner.
The Hurricanes already have a shorter exhibition schedule this year, playing four preseason games instead of six. That gives Brind'Amour fewer nights to evaluate his roster before the games start counting.
It also changes how veterans are deployed. Carolina can use those games to examine younger players, depth options and blue-line candidates without loading its core with unnecessary minutes.
Brind'Amour wants meaningful hockey sooner
That approach carries extra weight after Carolina reached the top last season. Brind'Amour isn't trying to discover what Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin or Jordan Staal can handle when the pressure rises.
His bigger challenge is getting the locker room physically ready while using camp to settle the final roster decisions.
The Hurricanes entered training camp with 41 skaters and six goaltenders split into two groups, giving the coaching staff plenty of players to evaluate without leaning heavily on established names.
Brind'Amour has been Carolina's head coach since 2018, and his preference for preparation over exhibition results has become easy to recognize.
The NHL has already trimmed Carolina's preseason workload. Brind'Amour is suggesting the league could go much further and replace those dates with games carrying actual points.
For fans, players and coaches, that would create a very different September. Training camp would become even more about roster competition, conditioning and practice before puck drop arrives for real.
And Brind'Amour has made his preference unmistakable: if his Hurricanes are going to play, he wants something riding on the result.
Should the NHL eliminate preseason games completely?
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