The Hurricanes have added Viktor Neuchev on a one-year contract, bringing in a 22-year-old winger who split last season between the Rochester Americans and Chicago Wolves.
According to PuckPedia, the deal pays $850,000 at the NHL level and $90,000 in the minors.
Neuchev was acquired by Carolina in a trade last January that sent defenseman Gavin Bayreuther to the Buffalo Sabres. After the move, he appeared in 64 combined games for Rochester and Chicago and finished with 10 goals and 15 assists for 25 points. In the playoffs, he added two goals and six assists for 10 points in 21 games as the Wolves advanced to the Calder Cup Final.
The native of Chelyabinsk, Russia, has now played three AHL seasons and has produced 28 goals and 47 assists for 75 points in 160 career regular-season games.
Buffalo originally selected Neuchev in the third round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. Before coming to North America, he worked through Russia’s domestic system and logged time in the KHL, VHL and MHL.
His KHL experience came over two seasons with Yekaterinburg Automobilist, where he posted four goals and eight assists for 12 points in 58 games. Most of his time in Russia was spent in the MHL, where he played parts of three seasons with Yekaterinburg’s development squad and put up 54 goals and 42 assists for 96 points in 104 career games.
Carolina is coming off a 2025-26 regular season in which it went 53-22-7 for 113 points, finishing first in the Eastern Conference and second in the NHL. The Hurricanes then beat the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final to capture their second championship in franchise history.
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Hurricanes Came Shockingly Close To A Franchise Changing Tkachuk Trade
The Hurricanes have spent the past few seasons wondering how close they came to landing one of the NHLs biggest difference-makers in July 2022, when Matthew Tkachuk was moved out of Calgary. Florida ultimately got Tkachuk and a 2025 fourth-round pick for Jonathan Huberdeau, Mackenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and a 2025 first-round pick, but Carolina was right in the mix with an aggressive push of its own.
What makes the story linger is how different the ripple effects might have been for all three clubs if the Flames had gone another direction. For Carolina, the package reportedly centered on Martin Necas and Alexander Nikishin, along with Jake Gardiner and draft capital, a reminder of how thin the line can be between holding onto a core piece and swinging for a franchise-altering star. [Read more 🡒]