About Last Season: Sebastian Aho

Sebastian Aho 2022-23 By The Numbers

• Age: 25
• NHL Seasons: 7
• Scoring: 36 goals, 31 assists, 67 points in 75 games
• Playoff Scoring: 5 goals, 7 assists, 12 points in 15 games
• Advanced Stats: 58.4 CF%, 58.9 HDCF%, 55.7 GF%, 60.1 xGF%
• Average TOI: 14:29 ES, 3:17 PP, 1:47 SH
• Contract: Signed through 2023-24 at $8.454 million AAV

Sebastian Aho did Sebastian Aho things in 2022-23.

The star forwards’ numbers fell down a smidge after an insane 2021-22 campaign, but for a generational player like Aho, coming back to Earth a bit still puts him way up in the atmosphere compared to the rest of the league.

Martin Nečas’ breakout year resulted in someone not named Sebastian Aho leading the Canes in points for the first time since his rookie season in 2016-17. However, Aho remained the team’s standard-bearer all season due to his incredibly consistent production. He notched at least one point in over half of his games — 54 out of 90, to be exact — between the regular season and playoffs. A seven-game pointless streak March 5-17 mark his only such streak of greater than three games in that same span. When hot streaks turned cold again, Aho served as the catalyst to keep the Hurricanes on track.

Despite Carolina’s gut-wrenching playoff exit, Aho was one of the main reasons the Canes stayed in contention until the very end. He tied the team lead in playoff points with Jordan Martinook at 12 apiece, and Aho’s five playoff goals trailed only Jesper Fast with six. Aho also contributed to the team’s playoff seeding by netting nine game-winning goals in the regular season, nearly doubling the next best mark by Nečas who had five such goals on the way to the Hurricanes’ Metro division title.

Now Aho enters a contract year in 2023-24. The Canes’ superstar currently stands to become an unrestricted free agent after next season, and Carolina will need to break out the big bucks to pay Aho what he’s worth.

Unsurprisingly, extending Aho to a long-term deal is a top priority for the Canes front office this summer. Canes fans can take comfort in the fact that contract talks are reportedly going well, but the sooner Carolina secures the face of the franchise, the better.