About Last Season: Paul Stastny

Paul Stastny: 2022-23 By the Numbers

• Age: 37
• NHL Seasons: 17
• Scoring: 9 goals, 13 assists, 22 points in 73 games played
• Playoff Scoring: 4 goals, 0 assists, 4 points in 15 games played
• Average TOI: 10:14 ES, 1:35 PP, 0:03 SH
• Contract Status: UFA

A late off-season addition, Paul Stastny was supposed to be a veteran center who would play a bottom six role but could slot up to the 2C spot should Jesperi Kotkaniemi not be ready for the role. It gave the team comfort knowing they had a backup plan for Kotkaniemi with a player who regularly scored on pace for over 40 points in his career plus they were getting a veteran guy trying to win a Stanley Cup.

That plan never really came together because for as much as Kotkaniemi struggled to start the season, Stastny’s struggles were far worse. It took until December 10th before Stastny would score his first goal as a Hurricane and he only had two total goals through January 14th. His production picked up a little bit in the second half as he managed to end the year with nine goals and 22 points, but still, it was a severe drop off from what was expected from Stastny. The one area he did shine in was his face-offs winning 57.6% of the draws he took, which led the team.

Things got so bad at times Rod Brind’Amour benched Stastny in favor of other players like Derek Stepan and the other rotating cast that appeared on the team’s fourth line throughout the year.

But then the playoffs came and Stastny broke out of his shell and found his old scoring ways posting three goals in round one against the New York Islanders including the game six overtime series-winner.

Unfortunately for the Canes his magic ran out after round one and he went on to post just one goal the rest of the way during the playoffs.

On exit interview day Stastny didn’t seem committed to playing in the NHL next season stating “he’s going to take a few weeks to decide whether or not he wants to keep playing” and even if he does decided to return you have to figure it would not be in Carolina.

At the end of the day Stastny will be one of those guys who’s shining moment for the Hurricanes will just be a trivia contest answer about overtime game winners. There was nothing memorable about his season otherwise and he leaves with a feeling of frustration about what went wrong for him this year when he had been so consistent in years before.