The Carolina Hurricanes have made the NHL playoffs every season since 2019, with all but one of those appearances including the conference semis or finals. As consistently good as they have been, they have missed that one player who can help put them over the top and cash their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In the regular season, anyway. One of the problems with Ehlers is that he hasn’t been a consistent playoff performer, which makes some sense given his size and being a bit of a perimeter rush threat. To his credit, Ehlers was much stronger during the 2025 playoffs, but it’ll take a lot more than that to prove his doubters wrong.