Complete Preview for the Carolina Hurricanes 2014-15 Season

It's been five seasons since the Carolina Hurricanes reached the postseason. The only team with a longer drought is the Edmonton Oilers, who haven't been back to the playoffs since losing to the Hurricanes in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final.

Consider that Exhibit 3,045 in the case against recognizing the 2005-06 season as a real NHL season.

The last time the Hurricanes danced, in 2009, Evgeni Malkin scored this ridiculous goal as the Penguins swept the Hurricanes in the conference finals.

*Checks Hurricanes offseason moves*

*Sees biggest signings were Jay McClement and Tim Gleason*

*Slogs ahead with this piece anyway*

What We Learned in 2013-14

The 2013-14 Carolina Hurricanes were a picture of both consistency and mediocrity. They never were worse than three games below NHL .500 (4-7-3) and never better than five games above NHL .500 (26-21-9). After the Hurricanes reached that high-water mark Feb. 7, they finished the season 10-14-2.

It cost coach Kirk Muller his job. In two-plus seasons with the Hurricanes, Muller had an 80-90-27 mark and perhaps a poorer record of deploying his talent.

Gregg Forwerck/Getty Images

Two seasons ago, Muller relegated Jussi Jokinen to the third line and severely limited his minutes. Jokinen had six goals and 11 points in 33 games during the 2013 season and had less even-strength ice time than forwards Patrick Dwyer and Jared Staal.

Jokinen was eventually traded to the Penguins for a conditional draft pick and had seven goals in 10 games. The following season, he had 21 goals and 57 points in 81 games, most of them played alongside Evgeni Malkin, and added seven goals in 13 games during the 2014 playoffs.

On a related note, longtime general manager Jim Rutherford was also relieved of his duties during the offseason.

Muller also managed the ice time of Jeff Skinner, one of the elite young talents in the NHL, in a weird fashion. Skinner had 33 goals in 2013-14, tied for 11th most in the NHL, and did it all with a mere 17:11 of ice time per game. On 16 occasions, Muller limited Skinner's ice time to 15 minutes or fewer.

Among the top-20 goal scorers in the NHL last season, no one played less than Skinner.

It was a confounding use of offensive talent for a team that finished tied for 23rd in scoring last season. 

Phil Ellsworth/Getty Images

Injuries limited goaltender Cam Ward to 30 games, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The 30-year-old Ward had the worst season of his NHL career, posting an .898 save percentage while missing time with a lower-body injury. That opened the door for Anton Khudobin and Justin Peters; Khudobin went 19-14-1 with a 2.30/.926 split, while Peters went 7-9-4 with a 2.50/.919 split. 

Khudobin is back, but Peters signed a UFA deal with the Washington Capitals.

The bad news is the mismanagement of talent and some key injuries (the Hurricanes lost 293 man games to injury last season, including 82 by defenseman Joni Pitkanen) quelled the Hurricanes last season. The good news is a few corrections in roster usage and some breaks on the injury front could help the Hurricanes turn around in 2014-15.

Outlook for 2014-15

With Muller and Rutherford out, the Hurricanes hired first-time head coach Bill Peters, formerly an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings, and promoted Ron Francis to general manager after spending eight seasons in the team's front office.

In terms of assembling a new roster, Francis didn't get much done this summer. Here's a projected look at the 2014-15 lineup, and it's not exactly a massive overhaul from last year's team.

LW	C	RW	LD	RD
Jiri Tlusty	Eric Staal	Alex Semin	Andrej Sekera	Justin Faulk
Jeff Skinner	Jordan Staal	Patrick Dwyer	J-M Liles	Ron Hainsey
Nathan Gerbe	Riley Nash	Elias Lindholm	Jay Harrison	Tim Gleason
Chris Terry	Jay McClement	Radek Dvorak	Ryan Murphy	Brett Bellemore

The three newest faces are Gleason (who is also an old face), Jay McClement and Brad Malone. Among the departed are Peters, Drayson Bowman and Manny Malhotra, while Tuomo Ruutu was traded at last year's deadline for Andrei Loktionov, who remains a free agent after suffering a shoulder injury at the world championships.

Ward and Khudobin will likely have a tug of war for the No. 1 goaltender spot, which the Hurricanes should hope is won by Khudobin.

What type of difference will the new acquisitions make, if any?

Malhotra was the consummate defensive checking line center, as he started 59.3 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone last season, the second most in the league, which speaks to his role as much as it does to how Muller felt about Eric Staal, who began 40.3 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, the fifth-highest number among centers.

The 34-year-old Malhotra's possession numbers (41.4, -10.7) were understandably poor given his deployment, and McClement (38.7, -5.0) might find the sledding just as tough in a similar role. McClement began 51.1 percent of shifts in his own zone last season and faced a similar level of competition as Malhotra, which doesn't bode well for a team looking to improve its depth this season.

The addition of Gleason is designed to...well...that one's a bit of a mystery. He certainly isn't good enough to crack the top four of Justin Faulk, Andrej Sekera, Ron Hainsey and John-Michael Liles, and it's debatable if he's worth using on the bottom six. Gleason will likely battle Brett Bellemore, Ryan Murphy and Jay Harrison for playing time, although a comparison of the four (that was a sweet table I compiled on the defunct Extra Skater you can no longer see) allows for a compelling argument that Gleason is the least attractive option.

It all adds up to Peters having to bear the brunt of this turnaround.

Francis told NHL.com:

"

Part of what we were looking for in a new coach is somebody who could come in and change the culture a bit -- hold guys accountable, demand our guys are playing hard every night, playing a 200-foot game. We're hoping that with a healthy lineup and the changes we made from players to coaches to management, we're going to field the team we want on a night-in, night-out basis to give us the opportunity to be successful.

"

It sounds as though Francis is expecting the likes of Staal and Skinner, two of the most sheltered players in the league in terms of zone starts, to play a better two-way game in 2014-15. Murphy and Lindholm—a pair of young, promising players—must take a step forward in their already solid games in a new system with a new coach too.

If that works, and Khudobin matches his play from a year ago and the Hurricanes can stay reasonably healthy, there's hope for a playoff spot.

If that doesn't work, Ward and Staal could be dangled as trade bait at the deadline as the Hurricanes potentially sink to the bottom of the standings.

It's rare that so much pressure on a team's improvement is placed on the shoulders of a rookie coach, but that appears to be what's happening in Carolina this season.

With Jordan Staal missing 3-to-4 months with a broken leg to start the season, the outlook is bleak in Raleigh.

All statistics via NHL.com or Extra Skater (obtained in advance).

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.