RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — There are plenty of moments when Seth Jarvis seems like his normal self as he skates through practices with the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.
His yellow, non-contact jersey says otherwise, for now at least.
The top-line forward and Carolina's regular-season goals leader last year is still recovering from a June shoulder surgery for an injury that had plagued him for nearly three full years. He had put it off to avoid
a lengthy layoff that might interfere with the Hurricanes' hopes as a perennial contender or the chance to represent his native Canada in the Olympics.
That bet paid off on both fronts. Now comes the tradeoff: grinding through rehab work, weeks from being ready to play as the Hurricanes raise a second Cup banner before Tuesday's season opener against Florida.
“I think by the time I come back, I feel like I should be confident and ready to go,” Jarvis said in interview with The Associated Press. "I don’t intend on starting out and kind of easing into it.
“Everything I’ve done so far in my life and my career has been full throttle, so that's just kind of how I attack it. When I’m ready to play, I know there’s going to be no excuse for a bad game or a bad play or a bad shift, just because I hold myself to that kind of high standard.”
Jarvis, the No. 13 overall pick from the 2020 draft, has grown into a mainstay amid Carolina's current eight-year playoff run under face-of-the-franchise coach Rod Brind'Amour. The 24-year-old winger has three straight 30-goal regular seasons and moments like banging in a power-play one-timer to take Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against Vegas in overtime.
Getting that right shoulder fixed is key for a team cornerstone owning a long-term deal through the 2031-32 season. His recovery time was projected at 4-6 months, an estimate potentially reaching Christmas.
“It’ll be really nice to have it fixed,” general manager Eric Tulsky said Monday. “There’s been things that we asked him to do that he has had to be a little bit more careful on in the past, and now he’ll be able to go full bore.”
Jarvis was hurt in November 2023 against Philadelphia, when he tripped near the wall and tried to catch himself. His right elbow hit the dasher boards and bent his arm up awkwardly, tearing his labrum and rotator cuff.
He's shrugged off questions about how much the injury impacted his play, but it's taken adjustments.
He wore a protective harness that limited his range of motion. He described repeatedly feeling his shoulder sliding in and out of joint. There would be jolts from "a shooting pain kind of up and down your neck and arm" that required a few beats to calm down, enough that he recalled seeing clips of himself on the bench during games “eating Advil."
“After the first couple times, you just realize what’s going on and it’s like, ‘Oh, well, something’s going to hurt it, and that’s fine, you’re going to get over it, you’re not going to die,'” he said with a chuckle. "So it was just wrapping my head around: it’s going to be uncomfortable, it’s going to be painful.
“I knew this wasn’t something that I wanted to sit out with. It was something that I could feel like I could still play and be effective, and so I just kind of rolled with it.”
It required changes at home, too. Lifting things above his head was a no-no — he was eager to make an exception for the Stanley Cup — and he went from sleeping on his stomach to his back with pillows tucked around him “like a coffin” to keep him from moving through the night.
Changes like those have lingered since that 2023-24 season. Jarvis had instead tried offseason rehab and strengthening exercises to hold surgery at bay, especially since “it seemed like every year there was a chance to do something special” such as being part of Canada's gold-medal winner in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
But after winning an Olympic silver medal in February, Jarvis knew before the playoffs began in April that it was time for surgery.
He ultimately tallied 15 playoff goals and 21 assists in three postseasons with the injury.
“There were times throughout the years where he’d come off and his shoulder would be out, but then he comes back in a shift,” veteran forward Jordan Martinook said. “It just shows you the competitor he is and the fact that he did that all this long.”
Jarvis had surgery June 24 in Colorado, days after the team's victory parade in downtown Raleigh, and spent six weeks in a sling. He spent most of the summer in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, while going through physical therapy and returning to skating.
He focused on “small wins” like picking up a few more degrees in the range of motion for his shoulder. Excitement built with gains like using dumbbells for bench presses or simply doing pushups. And he was ready to skate with the team when preseason camp opened.
“I can already tell just skating out there, stickhandling and moving around, I can reach areas with my stick and the puck that I couldn’t before,” Jarvis said. “So that's always fun. But now the biggest hurdle is just being comfortable with a good shoulder and knowing it’s not going to hurt anymore when I when I hit someone or run into anybody.”
A potential return date remains unclear, though Jarvis said he wants to be back for the Hurricanes' two-game set against Seattle in Helsinki, Finland, on Nov. 12 and 14.
“End of October would be cool,” Jarvis said. “I don't know how realistic that is, but before Finland for sure I want to be back playing and be ready for that.”
For now, he'll start the year on the injured list as his teammates face the Panthers — who won the Cup the previous two years before Carolina.
“I know deep down there's other levels to my game," Jarvis said. "And I'm hoping now with a good shoulder I can reach those a little quicker.”
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