Heading into the season, Carolina Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen was hoping to leave 2022-23 in the review mirror. The 29-year-old struggled for most of last season before getting hurt in the playoffs. In 68 games, Teravainen tallied 12 goals and 37 points – a significant drop from the season before when he scored 22 goals and 65 points in 77 games.
However, throughout training camp and the preseason, Teravainen looked refreshed and locked in. During practice, he was one of the last ones to leave the ice, which wasn’t his usual thing. As the season drew near, there was a sense that he wanted to focus on getting back to the player that the Hurricanes knew he could be.
In the past, Teravainen has visited teammate Sebastian Aho during the offseason, but this year, he opted to do more training. That being said, on Oct. 11, in the team’s season opener against the Ottawa Senators, Teravainen put last year to bed and woke up ready to challenge himself.
Getting the First Out of the Way
Entering Wednesday’s contest, it was unclear where Teravainen would fit into the lineup. However, with fellow winger Andrei Svechnikov on the injured reserve list, he was given a chance on the second line. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour slotted him in on a line with fellow Finn Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Czechia-born Martin Necas.
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As the game progressed, there was a sense that Teravainen would score. However, as hard as he tried, he could not figure out Senators netminder Jonas Korpisalo. In the second period, their line kept pushing, and finally, late in the frame, his hard work was rewarded, and he gave his team a 2-1 lead.
The second line created scoring chances through most of the first two periods, but this play was the one that came to fruition. Necas, with a Senator all over him, managed to find a wide-open Teravainen inside the right faceoff circle and passed him a beautiful feed. Teravainen got down on one knee and slotted the puck past an outstretched Korpisalo for his first goal of the season. There was a sense of relief after he scored, and it must certainly have felt good to get the first one out of the way early.
He struggled a ton last season to find his scoring touch. It got to the point where Brind’Amour had to take him out of the top six. The Hurricanes were hoping at some point the goals would start to go in for him. Some nights it felt like Teravainen was just there. The only thing that he was doing well for the most part was his role on the penalty kill.
Despite the lack of scoring, he is known as a solid defensive forward who was a mainstay on the special teams. Throughout the season, he was tasked to kill off penalties for the Hurricanes, which was top three in the league last year. His defensive game was never in question. The hope coming into the 2023-24 season is that he can find that finish to his game that saw him get 22 goals back in 2021-22. However, last night, he found the scoring factor that he missed last season, and it helped the Hurricanes in the end.
Carolina finished their season opener with a 5-3 win over the Senators, and Teravainen had a goal and an even plus-minus rating.
Hopes for Teravainen in the 2023-24 Season
While no one knows how the rest of the season will go for Teravainen, tallying the first goal in game one helps. He is in the last year of a five-year, $27 million deal that includes a 10-team no-trade list. While his $5.4 million annual average value only takes up 6.79 percent of the Hurricanes’ cap space, if he can get close to replicating his 2021-22 season when he tallied 22 goals and 65 points in 77 games, there is a great chance he will earn an extension to stay in Carolina. As mentioned before, if he can get back to the 20 or more goal mark while getting back to the 200-foot game that is known for, he could receive close to a similar contract that he signed four years ago.
In seven seasons with the Hurricanes, Teravainen has tallied 362 points (113 goals, 249 assists) in 479 games. He is a fan favorite and has been an integral part of the franchise since being traded from the Chicago Blackhawks in June 2016. There is a feeling that he will have a bounce-back campaign, and if that is the case, he could earn himself a three or four-year extension to stay in Raleigh.
