Top 5 Prospects: February 2025

Happy One Year!

By Nick Bass

Welcome back to everyone’s favorite series on the internet, where I go over what Carolina Hurricanes prospects had the best month in terms of production and give everyone those updates. As a reminder, this is not a list of where they rank amongst prospects. This is just for the given month.

I missed it last month but January’s Top 5 marked one year since I started documenting the top 5 Hurricanes prospects in a month. This article marks the 1st year that this Substack has existed. So I wanted to lead off this by saying thank you! Being able to write out anything Canes Prospects related with more than 140 characters and have people read it means a lot.

Honorable Mentions:

HM – Nikita Artamonov, W (Torpedo, KHL) – 8 GP, 4 goals, 2 assists, 6 points

Tied for the U20 goals record, tied for 5th in single season U20 scoring, scored his first KHL hat trick. Very good month for Art.

HM – Nikita Guslistov, W (Dynamo-Altay, VHL) – 7 GP, 4 goals, 2 assists, 6 points

First time Guslistov finds himself here. After being a healthy scratch in the KHL with Admiral and then playing in the Belarus league, he’s found some good success in the VHL.

HM – Andrei Krutov, W (All 3 levels of Torpedo) – 5 GP, 4 goals, 1 assist, 5 points

One of my favorite prospects to watch right now, Krutov recovered from his injury and dominated the MHL in his short stint. He then played less than 3 minutes for Torpedo in the KHL, sent down to the VHL, and scored the game winner in the shootout.

HM – Lucas Mercuri, C (UMass, NCAA) – 7 GP, 0 goals, 6 assists, 6 points

Kid is good. He’s been great on the top line for a resurgent UMass team, who seems destined to make the NCAA tournament.

HM – Alexander Perevalov, W (Metallurg Novokuznetsk, VHL) – 9 GP, 4 goals, 3 assists, 7 points

Back to back months for Perevalov 👀. He seems to have found some real growth with Novokuznetsk, has 5 points in his last 3 games.

 

Top 5 Prospects

 

5. Justin Poirier, W (Drakkar, QMJHL) – 8 GP, 7 goals, 3 assists, 10 points

8 games left in the regular season, he’s still on pace for 50 goals. Still on pace to finish top 5 in points with around 90. Once again, he finds himself at 5 due to the “Justin Poirier Rule.”

 

4. Ryan Suzuki, C (Chicago Wolves, AHL) – 10 GP, 0 goals, 8 assists, 8 points

After making his NHL debut, Suzuki barely slowed down. He’s still making crazy plays happen, including this pass to Nick Swaney for a goal.

I still really like Suzuki’s potential as an NHL player.

 

3. Scott Morrow, D and Justin Robidas, C/W (Chicago Wolves, AHL) – 10 GP, 2 goals, 7 assists, 9 points

For the first time in the history of the Top 5, we have a TIE! Morrow and Robidas finished with the exact same stat line, even with Morrow playing 2 games in the NHL during the start of the month.

I talked about Robidas on Twitter, but Robidas is such an underrated part of the Wolves success. Able to play in the middle and out on the wing, he provides great versatility while also being an invaluable penalty killer. He’s a big example of if someone asked the question “What prospect would Rod Brind’Amour love the most?”

Scott Morrow is still doing Scott Morrow things. The offense remains very good while the defense continues to improve. Still in line to be NHL ready by next season, even if he is ready now (he is).

 

2. Bradly Nadeau, W (Chicago Wolves, AHL) – 10 GP, 7 goals, 3 assists, 10 points

The purest goalscorer in the Canes system right now, watching Nadeau shoot is pure art. The power and speed that he can generate is downright ridiculous. I’ve said it a few times but he has true 40 goal potential at the NHL level, not many guys have his level of shooting talent. He still needs to work on the defensive game, but Nadeau is primed for a NHL job next season.

 

1. Alexander Nikishin, D (SKA, KHL) – 10 GP, 4 goals, 7 assists, 11 points

He’s back, big time.

Becoming the Forever Heavyweight Prospect of the Month (shoutout Athena), Alexander Nikishin has cemented his place as the best defenseman in SKA history. He leads in every statistical category for defenseman and he just keeps pushing those records further. I’m slowly running out of words to describe just how good he is. In their most recent game, Nikishin played over 26 minutes. No other defenseman was over 21. It’s unreal.