When Carolina assigned Noel Gunler to the ECHL earlier this month, it felt like it was an untenable situation. The Hurricanes don’t have an AHL affiliate and having one of their better prospects playing down a level is hardly ideal. Earlier this week, a report surfaced that Gunler was likely to play in Sweden this season.
However, it appears that this is now unlikely to be the case. SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson reports that the Hurricanes weren’t able to reach a loan agreement with an SHL team. Instead, Gunler is expected to be going to Finland to play for Karpat Oulu.
It’s a bit surprising that no SHL team could work something out for Gunler as the 22-year-old came up in Lulea’s system and also spent time with Brynas as recently as the 2021-22 campaign where he had 23 points in 52 games. Speculatively, the fact that Carolina would retain the rights to recall him might have played a role but adding a promising young player to the lineup is still generally worth doing, even if you wind up losing him to a recall at some point.
Gunler is in the second season of his entry-level deal and has had a bit of a nomadic journey since being picked in the second round in 2020. Since then, he has played a full season in Sweden split between two teams, a half year in Sweden that also gave him some AHL action, and last season, he had 18 points in 31 games with AHL Chicago. Now, it appears he’ll be off to Finland, further continuing that trend.
Don’t tell that he can’t replace Lemieux or noesen
I have a lot of respect for almost everything Don Waddell has accomplished as GM of the Hurricanes. Not having an AHL affiliate this season is the exception. He has either loaned out near NHL ready players to other teams’ AHL affiliates (where they might not see their best development), sent them back to Europe, or sent them to the ECHL (where they may be playing down). None of those 3 options seem beneficial to the parent club.