The Carolina Hurricanes have some business to handle as the 2026-27 season approaches, and three names stand out as the most obvious extension priorities: Jordan Martinook, Shayne Gostisbehere and Jalen Chatfield.
Martinook feels like the easiest call of the bunch. The 33-year-old Brandon, Manitoba native is in the final season of his three-year, $9.23 million deal with a $3.12 million AAV, and AFP Analytics projects him for a two-year contract at a $3.434 million AAV, or $6.868 million total. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and even though he’ll be 34 when that deal expires, a two- or even three-year extension makes plenty of sense for the first player acquired under owner Tom Dundon.
The production still backs it up. In 2025-26, Martinook finished with 12 goals and 29 points in 77 games, added a plus-6 rating on the top shutdown line and chipped in three shorthanded goals and three game-winning goals.
He averaged 14:50 of ice time and didn’t see power-play time, but he made his mark anyway. Then came the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where he posted two goals and five points in 19 games and helped deliver his first Stanley Cup.
His double-overtime winner in Game 2 of Round 1 against the Ottawa Senators is the kind of moment that sticks. After eight seasons in Carolina, the fit is obvious: Martinook should finish his career as a Hurricane.
Gostisbehere is the other blue-line extension that makes immediate sense. He’s entering the last year of his three-year deal carrying a $3.2 million AAV, and after a stint with the Detroit Red Wings in 2023-24, Carolina brought him back in 2024-25 and he’s been a major piece ever since.
In 2025-26, the 33-year-old Pembroke Pines, Florida native put up 13 goals and 50 points in just 55 games. Injuries cost him time - four different ones, according to the source - and without them he might have passed Brent Burns’ Hurricanes defenseman scoring record of 61 points.
AFP Analytics projects Gostisbehere for a three-year deal at a $5.297 million AAV, or $15.892 million overall. He’ll be 34 when the current contract ends, but the case for keeping him is strong.
He remains a key power-play quarterback, a locker room leader and a player whose style fits what the Hurricanes want to do. There’s also a developmental angle here, with Charles Alexis Legault, Joel Nystom and others in the system who could benefit from having him around.
With the cap at $104 million for the 2026-27 season and projected to rise to $113.5 million next season, the money still leaves room for the future.
Chatfield rounds out the trio. He’s in the final year of his three-year, $3.025 million AAV deal and will be a UFA on July 1 along with Gostisbehere, Martinook, Jordan Staal and Pyotr Kochetkov.
The 30-year-old Ypsilanti, Michigan native had two goals and 17 points in 72 games in 2025-26, along with a plus-15 rating. A concussion cost him some time, but he still spent plenty of the season in the top four and logged minutes with Jaccob Slavin and K’Andre Miller.
AFP Analytics has Chatfield projected for a four-year, $4.832 million AAV deal, or $19.331 million total. That would carry him through age 35, and it lines up with what he brings: speed, skating, transition play and the kind of backchecking that has taken away plenty of rush chances over the last few seasons. Like Gostisbehere, he’s part of the Cup-winning core from 2026, and keeping those familiar pieces together could matter as Carolina tries to extend this window.
For general manager Eric Tulsky and the Hurricanes front office, the challenge is balancing the present and the future. The roster is in good shape after a Stanley Cup run, the prospect pipeline is there, and five players are currently in the final year of their deals. The next few months will go a long way toward showing how many of them are back for 2027-28.
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