Unanswered question for the Central Division
Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet: Will the Colorado Avalanche be able to sign defenseman Devon Toews to a contract extension before the start of the season?
Will the Dallas Stars add a defenseman before the start of the season? The Stars have some forward prospects that might interest the Calgary Flames, who have Noah Hanifin who doesn’t want to re-sign.
Will Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck start the season with the Winnipeg Jets? GM Kevin Cheveldayoff obviously isn’t going to rush into anything.
The Carolina Hurricanes could have some interested decisions on the blue line and in net
Cory Lavalette of The Athletic: (mailbag) The Carolina Hurricanes moving one of Brett Pesce or Brady Skjei is definitely a possibility. The Hurricanes bringing in Tony DeAngelo to be their seventh defenseman doesn’t make sense.
The Hurricanes are in no rush to make a move as they are under the cap and can wait for the right deal. They don’t need to move someone just to move someone. The Canes don’t need to trade one for a forward if they don’t want to.
Pesce is the most likely to be moved and would think they would want at least a first-round pick back. They could use the extra first-round pick at the trade deadline or soon.
The Hurricanes don’t have an AHL affiliate this year but found teams for most of their AHL players but it could be tricky for their goaltenders. They re-signed both Frederik Andersen ($3.4 million) and Antti Raanta ($1.5 million) and have Pyotr Kochetkov under contract at $2 million.
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Carrying all three isn’t ideal but it’s only a combined $6.9 million cap hit. Loaning Kochetkov to a AHL team that doesn’t have his development as a priority also isn’t an ideal situation. Andersen and Raanta have issues with the staying healthy.
