Examining the potential Achilles heel of each Metro Division team - Part 1

I dove into flaws that could prove fatal for Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, and New York (I).

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With the 2022-23 NHL season just a month away, season preview content is going to be kicking into high gear at Infernal Access.

Up next on the to-do list is examining the potential Achilles heel – or fatal flaw if you want to say the New York Islanders, for example, are not otherwise perfect – of each team in the Metro Division.

This will be a two part mini-series, with four teams being featured in each post.

Carolina Hurricanes — center depth

The Hurricanes are a well-oiled machine. They have high-end talent at every position, great special teams, and their goaltending tandem of Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta has proven to be quite good; especially considering they only cost a combined $6.5 million per season.

I think a lot would have to go wrong for the Hurricanes to stumble to the point they aren’t one of the top seeds in the Metro Division.

The one spot that’s a little vulnerable is the center position.

As of now, the Hurricanes are likely to trot out Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi as the team’s top three centers. That’s a reasonable plan; Aho is a star offensively, Staal is very good defensively, and they’re hoping Kotkaniemi can pair with a couple solid wingers and take advantage of opposing team’s depth lines. It all checks out.

But they are legitimately one injury away from arguably the most valuable position in the sport becoming a glaring weakness. Let’s say Aho goes down with a longer-term injury.

Suddenly you’re relying on Staal, Kotkaniemi, and perhaps shifting 36-year-old Paul Stastny back to the middle.

Staal’s even-strength offense was worth 0.8 GAR last season. Kotkaniemi’s career high is 12 goals, and Stastny is obviously well past his peak. A very good Hurricanes team would suddenly look vulnerable without Aho.

The good news for Carolina is Aho’s missed double digit games once in six years. He’s a durable kid. But the nature of this article is a glass-half empty approach looking at what could happen that’d really cause problems, and an injury to Aho probably tops the list.

Carolina is a well built team that, in a cap world, has their bases covered about as well as realistically possible.

Columbus Blue Jackets — team defense