Five NHL coaches who could be on the hot seat and five ready to step in
Adam Proteau of The Hockey News: Five coaches who could be on the hot seat this season include Darryl Sutter (Calgary), Travis Green (Vancouver), Jeremy Colliton (Chicago), Jeff Blashill (Detroit), and Bob Boughner (San Jose).
Coaches that are ready to fill a vacancy include Mike Babcock, Bruce Boudreau, David Quinn, Rick Tocchet and John Tortorella.
The Hurricanes have some cap space left to add a skilled winger
Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer: After signing Andrei Svechnikov to an eight-year contract with a $7.75 million salary cap, the Carolina Hurricanes have about $4.5 million in salary cap space. The Hurricanes could use one more skilled winger to finish off their offseason to-do list.
Will they want to fill that hole now or wait until closer to the trade deadline?
“If something comes up that makes sense between now and when we start we’ll take a look at it,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said Thursday. “If not, it gives us a lot of flexibility during the year.”
So far this offseason they haven’t upgraded their top-nine forward group. They are set down the middle with Sebastian Aho, Vincent Trocheck and Jordan Staal. Wingers Brock McGinn and Warren Foegele are no longer with the team and there is one winger spot to fill.
If they were able to get out from Jake Gardiner‘s contract (two years left at $4 million), it would give them some more cap space to work with. Such a move will be really hard to make unless they add a sweetener to the trade or if they are able to LTIR him somehow.
Gaining that extra $4 million in cap space could mean they could acquire an impactful player instead of a useful player.