All Eyes Will Be on the Carolina Hurricanes This Summer
The Carolina Hurricanes are an interesting team heading into the off-season. There is much talk about them being aggressive this summer, as they will have $30 million in cap space to reshape their roster. General Manager Eric Tulsky continued the aggressive nature from last season, acquiring Mikko Rantanen in January only to flip him at the NHL Trade Deadline.
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Last season, before he left to become the Columbus Blue Jackets General Manager, former Hurricanes GM Don Waddell acquired Jake Guentzel from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Neither player ended up staying with the Hurricanes, as Rantanen did not want to go to Carolina. However, their backend is uncertain, with pending free agents Brett Burns and Dimitry Orlov. They have money to spend, but do they have an owner willing to pay to bring in those free agents?
According to Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio, the Hurricanes will be aggressive, and their owner, Tom Dundin, will give Tulsky the green light to spend and bring a championship back to Carolina.
“Yeah, I’ve got to imagine the frustration levels are going to be at an all-time high. No question obviously you’ve got to be a very good hockey team to get to this point. But just not having those finishing assets to propel yourself even further. Clearly, that’s going to be something that’s going to have to be addressed.
Carolina’s got potential for a little bit of turnover this offseason. They’ve got some free agents, some key free agents on the roster. Guys like Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov, and with a lot of cap space, and like you said, Gord with an owner who wants to see this team obviously succeed. I think this is going to be, if they do bow out, tonight (Monday night), or Wednesday, for example, they can kind of claw something out of this one today (Monday night), I’ve got to imagine that they’re going to be aggressive this offseason.
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I mean, I give them full credit. Last season, they took the big swing for (Jake) Guentzel. This year, they took the big swing involving (Mikko) Rantanen, and obviously that didn’t work, and they pivoted nicely. So they’re certainly not afraid to take big swings here. But I think with how things have gone and again, assuming either tonight or this week, anyways, is the end of the road for them this season, I’ve got to imagine they’re going to want to take some big, calculated swings this summer as well.”
However, as NHLRumors.com has reported, their owner does not have a history of signing players to long-term extensions. While Tulsky mentioned they had other irons in the fire last summer and had salary cap issues, the bigger question remains whether Dundon was willing to pay $9 million or even higher to keep Guentzel in Carolina, despite the reports he wanted to stay.
We saw that he was not willing to give Dougie Hamilton that type of money to stay in Carolina before he left for New Jersey. Not to mention the negotiations last summer with Martin Necas. Necas was turning into a guy the Hurricanes could use in the playoffs. But that was a tough negotiation for a two-year deal, $13 million contract – $6.5 million per season. Necas was traded to Colorado as part of the Rantanen deal.
Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky Should Have Known Mikko Rantanen Did Not Want in Carolina
There were reports that the Hurricanes would pay Rantanen $12-$14 million a season to stay. But he wanted no part of being there to begin with. Maybe their conservative style was right because moves have backfired since the Hurricanes became aggressive.
Carolina continues to be linked to Mitch Marner. Would Tom Dundin pay him $13 million a season to come to the Hurricanes? He vetoed a trade to Carolina at the deadline. Not to mention, does Marner even fit Rod Brind’Amour‘s style?
GM Eric Tulsky can say he wants to sign or be interested in all these players, but until things change in Carolina and the owner is willing to start spending money, the players will not go there. At that point, it is just connections. Similar to what we saw on Long Island with Lou Lamoriello.
Once players see that the owner is willing to pay them, they will go there.
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