Top Prospects: The NHL System Rankings

#18: Carolina Hurricanes

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Number of Ranked Prospects: 39

Number of Forwards in the Top 50: 0

Number of Defensemen in the Top 50: 3

Average Rank of Top 10 Prospects in Pool: 94th

Top Forward Prospect in The System: Nikita Artamonov (69th)

Top Defenseman Prospect in The System: Dominik Badinka (28th)

System Score: 3

Since 2018, the Carolina Hurricanes have added just three full-time NHL skaters via the NHL entry draft, Andrei Svechnikov (406 games, 316 points), Seth Jarvis (231 games, 146 points) and Jack Drury (114 games, 37 points), despite having used 16 first- and second-round picks. Former general manager Don Waddell watched over the drafts for those years--save the 2024 draft--and despite not having pulled many players who have made an impact on the NHL squad, he was able to stock a pipeline with some quality talent, particulary on the defensive side of the puck. Waddell and his scouting staff leaned heavily on European players over the past several years, and that tactic has allowed the Hurricanes to keep top prospects in the system while they develop in European professional leagues. Eric Tulsky took over the GM duties in May of 2024, and of the Hurricanes ten draft picks in the 2024 draft, nine of them were used on European players, so the trend continues in full force. 

The Top of The Pool:

One of those nine players was defenseman Dominik Badinka, drafted 34th overall from the Malmo Redhawks of the Swedish Elite League. The Czech blueliner moved to Finland at 17 to play for the Jokerit U20 team, where he put up 5 goals and 21 assists in 43 games before moving to the Malmo system for his draft year. There, he split time between the U20 team and SHL. He played in 33 games in Sweden's top men's league, one of just two blueliners to play more than a handful of games in that league last year (the other was Axel Sandin-Pellikka, the player taken 17th overall in the 2023 NHL draft). Badinka is a tall, smart defenseman who skates with excellent four-way movement and speed, and is an incredibly fluid skater. He plays with a ton of energy, always working with his positioning and an active stick to keep net-front fowards too hassled and outworked to find any effectiveness around the crease. Badinka is fast enough, and agile enough, to be an excellent man-to-man defender against even the most ellusive forwards. His main weakness at this point seems to be his overall puck handling and transition game, as he tends to want to be rid of pucks quickly or handles himself into trouble. Still, there is good offensive upside as he continues to work on that aspect of his game.

Russian defenseman Alexander Nikishin has drawn a lot of focus in recent years after putting up startling numbers in the top Russian men's league. Since being drafted 69th overall in 2020, the 6'4, 216-pound blueliner has amassed 122 points in 168 KHL games and for the last two seasons he has captained the powerhouse SKA St Petersburg squad. Nikishin would be ranked much higher on the Hockey Prophets Top Defensemen prospects list were it not for the fact that he has yet to play in North America and is unlikely to do so before he ages out of the list. The question is not whether he will be an effective--and perhaps prized--NHL defender, but when or if he will actually leave Russia to play for the Hurricanes. His contract with SKA St Petersburg expires at the end of this season, and Carolina hopes to be able to sign him at the end of the KHL season. If so, Nikishin will bring size, intensity and his legendary booming shots and body checks to the ice each shift.

Of the forwards in the Carolina system are three players all ranked closely in the Hockey Prophets ranking: Nikita Artamonov (ranked 69th), Gleb Trikozov (78th) and Bradley Nadeau (80th). Artamonov was drafted 50th overall in the 2024 draft after playing 54 games (7 goals, 16 assists) for Nizhny Novgorod in the KHL. So far this season, the hard-working 5'11, 187-pound winger is near a point-per-game pace for the Torpedo. Artamonov plays with a lot of confidence, skill and he will outwork every other player on the ice on each and every shift. He could become a dynamic scoring winger in the NHL if he refines his game just a bit. Fellow Russian Gleb Trikozov has come to North America this season after bouncing between the various levels of Russian hockey in the Avangard Omsk system. Last season was spent mostly in the second tier VHL where he scored 21 points in 39 games. The Hurricanes will get a closer look at the second-round pick from the 2022 draft as he develops in the AHL. 

Bradley Nadeau--the best of the rare North American prospects in the Carolina system--was drafted late in the first round of the 2023 draft from the famed Penticton club of the BCHL. Last season, Nadeau played for the University of Maine where he led the team in scoring with 19 goals and 27 assists in 37 games and received Hockey East all-rookie team honors. At season's end, Nadeau signed his first professional contract, and saw one game of action in the NHL. He will almost certainly play the majority of the 2024-2025 season in the AHL, but his NHL shooting abilities and great game awareness, he should be seeing more and more NHL ice time in the near future.

Return to the Team System Rankings

Below is the full list of the Carolina Hurricanes' ranked prospects.

Top Forwards 

Top Defensemen