The 31-year-old forward had back-to-back career years in Carolina.
Carolina Hurricanes forward Stefan Noesen continued to do what he does best this season: provide dependable depth scoring.
Noesen, 31, set a career high in goals (14) and points (37) this season all while averaging nearly 30 seconds less ice time per game.
The journeyman veteran has had one of the best cost-per-point contracts in the entire NHL, but with how well he’s played, he’s in line to get a nice pay raise as he’s an upcoming UFA.
The Canes held their second round of exit interviews on Sunday following the conclusion of their 2023-24 season which ended after losing in six games to the New York Rangers in the second round of the playoffs.
Here’s what Noesen had to say:
On how he looks at the offseason: It’s going to be interesting and fun. I’ve never had a chance to be a part of that, go through the process and understand what people value you at. To me that’s just interesting because when hockey is done you never know what you can do. So for me to have a chance to go through the process sounds intriguing. It doesn’t really mean anything other than going through the process. We all know how much we like it here. Guys speak highly of this organization and I won’t say anything bad about this place. Never will. You never know what’s going to happen but we’ll put our best foot forward and see what happens.
On if he plans to test free agency: The truth is I just think the process is cool. I’ve never been a part of it. I hear it’s stressful and that there’s a lot of digging at you, but I don’t know. It’d be a cool process to go through. If we make it there great, if we don’t, we don’t. That means we figured it out here.
On getting the chance in Carolina: Getting a second chance and a second kick at the can here, being back in the NHL is just something that I don’t take for granted. There were a long couple of years there. Long for everyone, but especially for me and my family. So for Rod and the Canes to give me a chance to come back and show what I can do, I owe them a lot and I appreciate them. This place is always going to have a special place in my heart.
On how the season ended: Two overtime games and if a bounce goes one way or another, we’re not sitting here doing this right now. I thought we did a great job battling back. Unfortunately, the way it ended… I don’t even know if guys have fully processed that. It was a tough one. We were right there. We had the team to do it. We just fell short and it comes from us, you know.
On what he feels the team might have done differently: That’s not really my job to say. I just go out there and play. There’s people that oversee us and do all that that are more in tuned with that than we are. They see the bigger picture while we just go out there and play. It was a tough way to end it.
On how much of a factor reaching the pension threshold is for his next deal: That’s obviously on your mind. I’ve got about four years of total credits left that I need. We get these packets that tell you all this stuff. I don’t know, I have no clue. I just show up. But it’s obviously something you have to think about. You want to reach your full potential with that. We have a great pension that we’ve negotiated throughout the years. You always want something to fall back on at the end of it, right?
