RALEIGH, N.C. — Carolina Hurricanes players Jalen Chatfield, Sean Walker, and Seth Jarvis announced Friday that they do not plan to undergo surgery for injuries sustained during the team`s playoff run to the Eastern Conference final.
Chatfield, a defenseman, missed Carolina`s final six games due to what he described as a hip injury. Fellow blue-liner Walker was dealing with an aggravation of a shoulder issue. Forward Seth Jarvis, who led the team in regular-season goals and postseason points, stated he will focus on strengthening and rehabilitating a persistent right shoulder problem for the second consecutive offseason.
Carolina holds the distinction of being the only NHL team with an active streak of winning at least one playoff series for seven consecutive years. Their five-game loss this year to the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers marked their third appearance in the Eastern Final during this period.
Chatfield was absent for the series-clinching game of the second round against Washington and the entirety of the Florida series. The nature of Chatfield`s injury, a frequent topic of inquiry for coach Rod Brind`Amour, had not been previously disclosed by the team. Chatfield expressed confidence that extra rehabilitation time would be sufficient for recovery.
“It was just something in the hip,” Chatfield explained during his exit interviews on Friday. “It`s tough when you get that, trying to skate through that. I just couldn`t even get to that speed where I would even be capable of even helping the team on the ice.”
“I was able to get back on the ice before the last game, and hopefully it was going to be another game or two before I could return. I was super close, for sure.”
Before his injury, Chatfield typically played on the second defensive pairing alongside Dmitry Orlov. He scored Carolina`s first goal of the postseason just 2:24 into the opening game against New Jersey. Coach Brind`Amour had at one point optimistically described Chatfield as “day to day” during his absence.
“Making it as far as we did and being able to play against Florida, it was tough watching,” Chatfield commented.
The impact of Chatfield`s absence was amplified when Walker missed the final three games of the Florida series. His last appearance was in Game 2, after he sustained a jarring open-ice hit from A.J. Greer and left the game early. At that critical juncture, Carolina was missing two of its top six defensemen and relied on rookies Alexander Nikishin and Scott Morrow with their season hanging in the balance.
Walker revealed he suffered a minor shoulder injury late in the regular season that was improving throughout the playoffs until the hit from Greer “set me back pretty significantly.” He stated he had hoped to return if Carolina advanced to the Stanley Cup Final but confirmed surgery was not necessary.
Forward Seth Jarvis was Carolina`s leader with 10 assists and 16 points in 15 playoff games, building on his team-leading 32 goals in 73 regular-season games. Although surgery was considered last year, he has focused on rehabilitation and strengthening his shoulder.
“We loved where it was at the start of the season, in terms of the health of it and the strength and everything,” Jarvis said. “Early on it kind of started to slip a little bit, and then kind of re-tore all the work we did on it and all the strength and everything we did. So just dealing with it again wasn`t too bad, kind of the same thing as last year.”
Jarvis characterized the injury as more of an issue of pain tolerance rather than a physical limitation on the ice. “I mean, the only difference would be I`d probably be able to throw a real nice spiral,” Jarvis quipped about the potential impact of surgery. He also mentioned that the protective brace he wore again during the season might impede him from reaching up to catch a puck.
He participated in all 15 of Carolina`s playoff games, scoring the tying goal in the third period of Game 5 against Florida, which ultimately proved to be the Hurricanes` final game of the season.
“This summer, we were dancing around the idea of what to do with it,” Jarvis explained. “The season`s gone pretty late, I don`t want to miss a lot of time. So I`m going to go with the same protocol as last summer: strengthen it, rehab it. Hopefully maybe wear the brace from the very beginning of the year, and then go from there.”
Duncan Priestley 
Neville Woodall