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Two-Way Deals: 7/1/25

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As major signings come in around the NHL today with the 2025-26 league year beginning, teams are shoring up their minor-league depth as well by signing players to two-way contracts. We’re keeping track of those signings today in this article, which will be continuously updated. Deals are one year unless otherwise noted.

Boston Bruins

F Riley Tufte ($775K NHL) – Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub
D Jonathan Aspirot ($775K NHL) – Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub
G Luke Cavallin ($775K NHL) – Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub

Buffalo Sabres

F Riley Fiddler-Schultz ($865K NHL/$90K SB/$35K PB/$85K AHL) – PuckPedia // two years, entry-level
F Carson Meyer ($775K NHL/$350K AHL Y1 – $375K AHL Y2) – PuckPedia // two years
D Mason Geertsen ($775K NHL/$425K AHL) – Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet // two years
D Zachary Jones ($900K NHL/$550K AHL) – PuckPedia
D Zach Metsa ($775K NHL/$250K AHL/$325K gt’d) – PuckPedia

Calgary Flames

D Nick Cicek ($775K NHL) – team release

Carolina Hurricanes

G Amir Miftakhov ($775K NHL/$100K AHL/$240K gt’d) – PuckPedia

Chicago Blackhawks

F Dominic Toninato ($850K NHL) – team release // two years

Colorado Avalanche

F T.J. Tynan (unknown) – team release
D Jack Ahcan (unknown) – team release
D Ronald Attard ($775K NHL/$450K AHL/$500K gt’d) – PuckPedia

Columbus Blue Jackets

F Owen Sillinger (unknown) – team release
D Christian Jaros (unknown) – team release

Dallas Stars

D Niilopekka Muhonen (unknown) – team release // three years, entry-level

Edmonton Oilers

D Riley Stillman ($775K NHL/$475K AHL) – PuckPedia // two years
G Matt Tomkins ($775K NHL/$400K AHL/$450 Y2 gt’d) – PuckPedia // two years

Florida Panthers

F Nolan Foote ($775K NHL/$150K AHL/$250K gt’d) – PuckPedia
F Jack Studnicka ($775K NHL/$450K AHL) – Chris Johnston of TSN/The Athletic
G Brandon Bussi ($775K NHL/$400K AHL) – PuckPedia
G Kirill Gerasimyuk (unknown) – team release // two years, entry-level

Los Angeles Kings

F Cole Guttman ($775K NHL/$450K Y1 – $475K Y2 AHL/$475K gt’d Y1 – $500K gt’d Y2) – PuckPedia // two years

Minnesota Wild

F Tyler Pitlick ($775K NHL/$300K Y1 – $350K Y2 AHL/$325K gt’d Y1 – $375K gt’d Y2) – PuckPedia // two years
D Ben Gleason ($800K NHL/$475K AHL) – PuckPedia

Montreal Canadiens

F Alex Belzile (unknown) – team release
D Nathan Clurman ($775K NHL/$125K AHL/$140K gt’d) – PuckPedia

New Jersey Devils

D Calen Addison ($775K NHL/$325K AHL/$400K gt’d) – PuckPedia
F Angus Crookshank ($775K NHL/$425K AHL/$475K gt’d) – PuckPedia // two years, one-way in 2026-27

New York Islanders

F Matthew Highmore (unknown) – team release
D Ethan Bear ($775K NHL/$325K AHL/$425K gt’d) – PuckPedia
D Cole McWard (unknown) – team release

New York Rangers

D Derrick Pouliot ($775K NHL/$400K AHL/$425K gt’d Y1 – $450K gt’d Y2) – PuckPedia // two years

Ottawa Senators

F Wyatt Bongiovanni ($775K NHL/$160K AHL) – PuckPedia
F Olle Lycksell ($775K NHL/$450K AHL/$500K gt’d) – Darren Dreger of TSN

Philadelphia Flyers

F Lane Pederson ($775K NHL/$525K AHL) – PuckPedia

San Jose Sharks

F Jimmy Huntington (unknown) – team release
F Samuel Laberge (unknown) – team release
F Colin White ($775K NHL/$425K AHL/$475K gt’d) – PuckPedia
D Cole Clayton (unknown) – team release

St. Louis Blues

F Matt Luff ($775K NHL/$400K AHL) – PuckPedia

Tampa Bay Lightning

F Nicholas Abruzzese (unknown) – team release
F Tristan Allard (unknown) – team release // two years, entry-level
F Boris Katchouk (unknown) – team release
D Simon Lundmark ($775K NHL/$250K AHL/$350K gt’d) – PuckPedia // two years
G Ryan Fanti ($775K NHL/$80K AHL) – PuckPedia

Utah Mammoth

F Kailer Yamamoto ($775K NHL/$500K AHL) – PuckPedia
D Scott Perunovich ($775K NHL/$400K AHL/$500K gt’d) – PuckPedia

Vancouver Canucks

F Joseph LaBate ($775K NHL/$350K AHL) – PuckPedia
F Mackenzie MacEachern ($775K NHL/$575K AHL) – PuckPedia // two years
D Jimmy Schuldt ($775K NHL/$500K AHL) – PuckPedia // two years

Winnipeg Jets

F Phillip Di Giuseppe ($775K NHL/$450K AHL) – PuckPedia
D Kale Clague (unknown) – Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet

Hurricanes Acquire K’Andre Miller In Sign-And-Trade With Rangers

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5:51 p.m.: The trade is official as reported, the team announced.

4:33 p.m.: The deal will be a sign-and-trade with the Rangers, per Friedman. It will be an eight-year deal for Miller worth a total value of $60MM for $7.5MM per season. He’ll be Carolina’s highest-paid defenseman by a significant margin as a result. A 2026 first-round pick will be part of the return, per Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today. The deal is split evenly across this season and is paid entirely in base salary aside from a $2MM signing bonus up front, per PuckPedia. It also includes a 10-team no-trade clause beginning in 2027-28. Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports the full return is a conditional first, the Hurricanes’ 2026 second-round pick, and right-shot defender Scott Morrow. The condition on the 2026 first is that the Rangers will receive the better of Carolina’s or Dallas’ 2026 first-rounders, and it’s top-10 protected, per PuckPedia.

4:16 p.m.: The trade has been agreed to in principle but has yet to be executed because Miller and the Hurricanes are still in talks on a new contract, per Friedman. He adds the trade was made in lieu of an offer sheet Carolina was preparing for Miller.

11:56 a.m.: The Hurricanes are acquiring the signing rights to defenseman K’Andre Miller from the Rangers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. The trade return will center around draft pick compensation, per Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today.

After a season full of trade rumors, the Rangers have finally moved on from Miller and brought in Vladislav Gavrikov as his immediate replacement. Since the return package consists of draft pick compensation, this trade closely resembles the 2020 deal in which the Rangers traded defenseman Brady Skjei to the Hurricanes for a first-round pick.

Carolina will assuredly bank on the 2022-23 version of Miller, which was arguably the best season of his young career. During that campaign, Miller scored nine goals and 43 points in 79 games for the Rangers with a +12 rating, averaging nearly 22 minutes of ice time per game. Unfortunately, the Rangers only had the financial flexibility to sign Miller to a two-year bridge deal, but the belief at the time was that they would have liked to have retained him for longer.

Hindsight being 20/20, the Rangers were thankful that they didn’t sign Miller to a longer-term agreement. Since his breakout campaign in 2022-23, Miller has scored 15 goals and 57 points in 154 contests with a +5 rating. His possession and defensive metrics have also dropped, falling from a 51.5% CorsiFor% at even strength to 49.2%, and an 89.8% on-ice save percentage at even strength to an 88.7%.

Still, he has maintained a high level of physicality and continues to block over 100 shots each season. There is reason for optimism that many of his advanced metrics will improve in Carolina, considering that the team has a very deep defensive core and is one of the top possession teams in the league.

The trade also carries implications for the Hurricanes’ unrestricted free agents from their defensive core. Given that the team is planning on making Alexander Nikishin a full-time defender beginning in the 2025-26 season, there is little chance that Dmitry Orlov or Brent Burns will return to Carolina. Due to the trade protection given to the team’s other defensemen, the Hurricanes are likely to move out any of their current blueliners to clear a pathway for Orlov or Burns to return.

Hurricanes Sign Mike Reilly

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The Hurricanes made a big splash on the back end with the acquisition of K’Andre Miller today.  They also have added some depth on the back end as PuckPedia reports that Carolina has signed defenseman Mike Reilly to a one-year, $1.1MM contract.  The deal represents a small cut in pay after he made $1.25MM with the Islanders last season.

The 31-year-old was limited to just 18 appearances with New York in 2024-25 but the low number wasn’t performance-related despite notching just two assists.  Reilly suffered a concussion in the first game of November and while recovering from that, it was determined that he needed a procedure on his heart, leaving his availability for the rest of the season in question.  However, he was able to return to the lineup in mid-March, getting into a handful of games down the stretch.

Reilly is a veteran of over 400 career NHL games but has bounced around along the way, never spending more than three years in the same organization.  Overall, he has 18 goals and 106 assists to his name while logging a little more than 17 minutes per game on average.

The Hurricanes will be his fourth team in the last three seasons but the expectations should be the same when he gets in the lineup.  Reilly is typically a player who is capable of providing a bit of depth offense and has five years of at least 16 points under his belt.  The most recent of those came back in 2023-24 when he had six goals and 18 assists in 61 games between the Panthers and Islanders.

It’s likely that Reilly will start the season as Carolina’s reserve defender as it’s widely expected that top prospect Alexander Nikishin will handle a regular role after joining the Hurricanes for the playoffs.  But after the Hurricanes churned through Riley Stillman and Ty Smith through a high amount of recalls and promotions last season, it appears they’ll operate with a full-time seventh option in Reilly who is someone they should be comfortable relying on more frequently than the other two.

Hurricanes Sign Logan Stankoven To Eight-Year Extension

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The Hurricanes weren’t able to get Mikko Rantanen to agree to a long-term contract but they got one done with the player they acquired for him.  The team announced that they’ve signed forward Logan Stankoven to an eight-year, $48MM contract extension.

The 22-year-old was a second-round pick by Dallas back in 2021, going 47th overall.  Quite quickly, it’s fair to say he has outperformed his draft stock.  Stankoven made a mark late in the 2023-24 campaign, notching six goals and eight assists in 24 games with the Stars, earning himself a regular spot in their playoff lineup where he chipped in with eight points in 19 contests.

That was enough to have Stankoven as a regular for Dallas to start last season but the per-game offensive production tapered off a bit.  That said, he still put up a respectable nine goals and 20 assists in 59 games with them before being one of the key parts of the Rantanen trade back at the trade deadline.

Following the swap, Stankoven’s point production continued at a similar clip as he tallied five goals and four assists in 19 games during the regular season with Carolina while continuing to hover just above 15 minutes a night in playing time.  He carried that into the playoffs as well as a secondary offensive contributor, tallying five goals and three helpers in 15 postseason contests.

Stankoven has one year left on his entry-level contract, one that carries a cap charge of just over $814K along with $32.5K in games-played bonuses.  That means the extension will begin in 2026-27.  He had four RFA-eligible years remaining so Carolina will gain four seasons of team control at that time.  Those four UFA years are the only ones in which he’ll be eligible for trade protection.

While Stankoven isn’t the same caliber of player that Rantanen is, the Hurricanes will still get a long-term core piece out of that series of trades.  In the long run, while they took a short-term loss in talent compared to the original trade that saw them acquire Rantanen from Colorado, getting Stankoven locked up long-term and adding a pair of first-round picks was a solid rebound for GM Eric Tulsky.

John Matisz of The Score was the first to report that a long-term deal was close.  Frank Seravalli was first with the terms of the agreement.

Hurricanes Interested In Nikolaj Ehlers

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After today’s flurry of moves, Nikolaj Ehlers has arguably become the top pending free-agent forward available. Commanding plenty of interest already, Murat Ates of The Athletic lists the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, and Washington Capitals as known suitors. He also mentioned the Tampa Bay Lightning, but it’s incredibly unfeasible given their salary cap circumstances.

It’s unlikely to be an exhaustive list, but, notably, the three prominent teams listed come from the Metropolitan Division. It’s been known for several weeks that the Hurricanes were looking to make a significant addition this summer after falling short in another postseason appearance. With limited cap space themselves, the Capitals and Rangers may be engaging in some gamesmanship, and merely making life more difficult for their intra-division rival.

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Hurricanes Acquire Cayden Primeau

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The Hurricanes have added some extra goaltending depth heading into next season, acquiring Cayden Primeau from the Canadiens in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round pick.  Both teams have confirmed the swap.

Primeau entered this season as the full-time backup for Montreal for the first time in his career after the team moved Jake Allen to New Jersey at the 2024 trade deadline.  However, the 25-year-old struggled mightily, posting a 4.70 GAA and a .836 SV% in 11 outings, resulting in him landing on waivers after the holiday break in December.  He cleared and was promptly sent to AHL Laval.

With the Rocket, Primeau played much better.  In 26 regular season games with them, he posted a 21-2-2 record along with a 1.96 GAA and a .927 SV%.  His performance was a bit more inconsistent in the playoffs, however, as he put up a 3.27 GAA and a .878 SV% in eight outings while struggling in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Primeau has seen NHL action in six straight seasons but is still relatively unproven at the top level as he only has 55 career appearances, 10 of them coming in relief.  Overall, he has a 3.69 GAA and a .884 SV% in those outings.

It will be interesting to see what Carolina’s plan is for Primeau.  With Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov already under contract, there isn’t a spot with the Hurricanes, at least not unless they plan to carry three netminders which is something they’ve done in the past.  He received a $1.068MM qualifying offer from the Canadiens earlier today so it’s possible that they plan to make him one of the higher-paid third-string goalies, hoping that a potential seven-figure salary could dissuade teams from claiming him off waivers which would allow them to stash him with AHL Chicago.

As for Montreal, the Canadiens only have two goalies under contract at the moment, starter Sam Montembeault and prospect Jacob Fowler.  Jakub Dobes, who took over for Primeau as the backup midseason, is a pending RFA as well but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Montreal look to add a netminder in free agency in the coming days, at least as extra depth.

Chicago Blackhawks Acquire 29th Overall Pick, Select Mason West

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Carolina Hurricanes have traded the 29th overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks for the 34th and 62nd overall picks, plus a fifth-round pick in 2027. With their third first-round pick of the evening, the Blackhawks have selected Mason West from the USHL’s Fargo Force.

West, who will be joining the NCAA’s Michigan State University Spartans in the fall of 2026-27, is an intriguing prospect for a few reasons. He’s a towering forward, considering his talent, standing at 6’6″, 218lbs. Although he finished the year with USHL Fargo, he spent much of the year with Edina High School in Minnesota, scoring 27 goals and 49 points in 31 games.

Once he transitioned to Fargo toward the end of the year, he scored one goal and nine points in 10 games. The most fascinating part about West is that he’s never been a full-time hockey player. Throughout his time with Edina, West doubled as a premier high school quarterback and could receive D1 scholarships if his senior season this autumn goes well.

Because of his non-zero chance of cracking an NFL roster someday, West was projected to fall into the second round, anywhere between the 45th and 55th overall picks. The Blackhawks see potential in West and believe he will continue his professional hockey career.

Hurricanes Sign Juha Jääskä To Two-Year Contract

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The Carolina Hurricanes have gotten some early work done with one of their depth forwards from the 2024-25 season. According to a team announcement, the Hurricanes have re-signed forward Juha Jääskä to a two-year contract worth $1.55MM. Per the team’s announcement, Jääskä’s contract will transition from a two-way agreement in 2025-26 to a one-way deal in 2026-27.

After quality back-to-back campaigns with the Finnish Liiga’s HIFK, the Hurricanes signed Jääskä as an international free agent toward the back half of the 2023-24 NHL season. In those two seasons, Jääskä scored 22 goals and 67 points in 113 games, with another five goals and 11 points in 13 postseason contests.

A little old to be considered a true prospect (27), Carolina first deployed Jääskä with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. He quickly reaffirmed the Hurricanes’ decision to sign him, scoring 12 goals and 33 points in 53 AHL contests. His scoring output was good for fifth on the team, and sat second among wingers behind prospect Bradly Nadeau.

Carolina rewarded Jääskä’s quality transition to North American hockey this past season. Spending all of January at the NHL level, Jääskä tallied three assists in 14 games with a +3 rating in a fourth-line role. Adding four more games played by the end of the campaign, Jääskä finished the 2024-25 season with four assists in 18 contests, averaging 8:56 of ice time.

It’s hard to make any assessment of Jääskä’s game at the NHL level in his brief stint. He responded well to head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system as evidenced by his 61.7% CorsiFor% at even strength, but he was deployed rather safely with 61.7% of his shift starts coming in the offensive zone. Depending on whether the Hurricanes rearrange their bottom-six this offseason, Jääskä is destined for a similar role with the organization next season.

Blue Jackets, Hurricanes Interested In Rasmus Andersson

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The Blue Jackets and Hurricanes are among the teams calling the Flames to have trade talks surrounding defenseman Rasmus Andersson, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. Pagnotta mentioned the Senators as well – it’s not the first time in the past few months they’ve been tied to Andersson – but Ottawa is also reportedly on his six-team no-trade list.

Calgary and Andersson have already begun preliminary talks on an extension. He’s entering the final year of his contract at a highly team-friendly $4.55MM cap hit and becomes eligible to sign a new deal on July 1 to keep him in Calgary past 2025-26. However, those talks haven’t been particularly productive in their initial stages, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff last week. As a result, they’re listening to trade interest, but as has been the case for a while now, they’re in no particular rush to move him and could wait until next season’s trade deadline to get the value they want if they’re no closer to an extension.

That means defense-needy teams, particularly those looking for added puck-moving depth, will have Calgary general manager Craig Conroy on speed dial until Andersson’s situation is resolved. Carolina and Columbus fit that bill, with Andersson’s cheap initial cap hit before a potential extension kicks in still providing both clubs a fair amount of flexibility to pursue other avenues of roster improvement this summer.

The Hurricanes’ defensive depth will have a few notable changes next season, regardless of whether they successfully land Andersson or not. They’re not offering pending UFA Dmitry Orlov a new contract, and it remains to be seen if veteran Brent Burns, a top-pairing staple alongside Jaccob Slavin in recent seasons, will be back with the club. If he is, it’ll presumably be in a reduced role after a tough 2024-25 campaign for the 40-year-old. Rookie Alexander Nikishin has likely been penciled in as Orlov’s replacement on the left side with Slavin and Shayne Gostisbehere after looking good in limited postseason action, but rookie righty Scott Morrow is a less surefire insurance option for Burns, at least out of the gate. If they’re not yet ready to entrust the 22-year-old with regular NHL minutes, it would make sense to pursue Andersson.

Unlike the Blue Jackets, the Hurricanes might be willing to make a deal without a guarantee of an extension, particularly if it’s done this summer. They have Morrow coming eventually, even if it’s not next season, and are still firmly entrenched in win-now mode.

Columbus’ interest similarly stems from the unknown future of a pending UFA. While things appear close on a deal for top-pairing righty Dante Fabbro, the same can’t be said for lefty Ivan Provorov, who might be forced over to his off-side if he stays anyway with up-and-comer Denton Mateychuk positioning himself for top-four minutes in the near future. Andersson, a legitimate needle-mover, would give the Blue Jackets a highly intriguing right side with Fabbro and Damon Severson in the mix as well while coming in at a much cheaper cost than a new deal for Provorov would require, at least initially.

Regardless, it might behoove the Flames to wait until the season starts to see if Andersson can bump his value. He’s coming off his worst offensive campaign in four years, although he did still produce 31 points in 81 games while averaging 24 minutes per night. His -38 rating paired with career-worst possession impacts doesn’t do much to help his case either, although a few teams could have confidence in that showing being an outlier from the 28-year-old.

Offseason Checklist: Carolina Hurricanes

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The offseason has arrived with the draft and free agency fast approaching.  Accordingly, it’s time to look at what each team needs to accomplish this summer.  Next up is a look at Carolina.

For the fifth straight season, the Hurricanes advanced past the opening round of the playoffs.  For the second time in three years, they made it to the Eastern Conference Final but this time, they were quickly eliminated by Florida.  It’s not very often that a team that gets this far in the playoffs has the ability to take some big swings but GM Eric Tulsky is well-positioned to try to do just that to fill some big needs the roster has.

Add A Second-Line Center

With Sebastian Aho locked up through 2031-32, Carolina’s top center is in place for the long haul.  Jordan Staal is nearing the end of his career but was a reliable third liner this season and continues to be sharp at the faceoff dot so he’s a safe bet to be in that role again in 2025-26.  But in between those two, there’s an opening that needs to be filled.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi was supposed to be that piece for them after being brought over from Montreal via a successful offer sheet.  But over his four seasons with the team, he has yet to reach 20 goals and has only reached 35-plus points once.  If it weren’t for the fact that they enter the summer with a whopping $26.7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, there might be a case to make for buying out the remainder of his contract since he still qualifies for a lower one-third cost instead of the standard two-thirds.  But with the flexibility they have, they can keep him around and continue to hope that the 2018 third-overall pick will break through.

But hoping for improvement can’t be Plan A down the middle for the Hurricanes next season.  Jack Roslovic was brought in as a low-cost piece to see if he could play his way into that role.  He had some good moments and a quiet 22 goals but it seems unlikely that he returns after being scratched multiple times in the playoffs.  With much more flexibility cap-wise, they can aim a lot higher this time around after being forced into looking at lower-cost pieces last summer.

The list of key center UFAs is well-known and pretty small.  John Tavares, Sam Bennett, and Mikael Granlund are the remaining headliners.  Landing one of them would solve the problem for a few years, at least.  Otherwise, they’ll have to turn to the trade market to try to fill that spot, something that a lot of teams will likely be looking to do with options in relatively short supply.  They haven’t had a reliable second option down the middle arguably since Vincent Trocheck, and that will need to change in the coming weeks.

Add A Top-Line Winger

When the Hurricanes surprised the hockey world by acquiring Mikko Rantanen midseason, they parted with a pretty strong winger as part of the return in Martin Necas.  Of course, they weren’t able to agree on a long-term contract with Rantanen to keep him around so Tulsky opted to flip him at the trade deadline to recoup some value.  All things considered, he did rather well, adding Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks, and two third-round selections.  But with all due respect to Stankoven, a solid youngster, the move was a pretty big step back in terms of short-term talent.

Part of the reason for being open to accepting a futures-based return knowing there would be some short-term pain was the knowledge that they have that cap space available to them.  When it comes to the open market, few can offer more than the Hurricanes.  That’s definitely an enviable spot to be in.

Now, they need to take advantage of it.  They were believed to have shown interest in Mitch Marner at the trade deadline but Marner wouldn’t waive his trade protection to go there.  Was that because he didn’t want to go to Carolina or because he wanted to stay with the Maple Leafs for the playoffs?  It stands to reason they’ll find out the answer to that very quickly as he’ll almost certainly be at the top of their wish list this summer.  Failing that, Brock Boeser and Nikolaj Ehlers should be getting calls as well.

This season, the Hurricanes had two wingers record more than 50 points which is a pretty low baseline for a top-six player.  One of those was Necas in the 49 games before the trade while the other was Seth Jarvis, who reached 67 for the second straight season.  Andrei Svechnikov has gotten there a few times before but had a bit of a down year this season.  He and Jarvis aren’t a bad duo to start from but they’re going to need a pickup of considerable significance if they want to have a shot at taking that next step.

Bring In A Top-Four Defenseman

This season, the Hurricanes had three blueliners average at least 20 minutes a game.  One was Jaccob Slavin, whose new eight-year deal kicks in July 1st, one that already looks like a below-market contract.  The others were Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov, both of whom are set to reach unrestricted free agency next month.  Accordingly, they’re going to need to be replaced on the roster.

It’s likely that at least one of the two spots will be filled internally.  Alexander Nikishin was long viewed as the top blueliner outside the NHL and held his own in four playoff games.  It’s safe to say that they don’t intend to start him in the minors next season and the hope is that he’ll be able to play his way into a top-four spot relatively quickly.  Prospect Scott Morrow could also be in the mix and could fill the vacancy on the right-hand side of the back end but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Carolina prefer to give him more time with AHL Chicago.

That leaves one spot to try to fill externally.  Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly deep crop of rearguards.  Offensively, only four players had more points than Burns and Orlov and one of them (Matt Grzelcyk) doesn’t fit with Shayne Gostisbehere already on the roster.  Basically, that limits potential upgrades to Aaron Ekblad, Ivan Provorov, and Vladislav Gavrikov, while Dante Fabbro, Cody Ceci, and Ryan Lindgren have handled top-four minutes before.  That’s not a lot of options.  Speculatively, knowing Nikishin and Morrow are pegged as key pieces for the future, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see Tulsky try what worked with Orlov two years ago, offering a short-term deal at a well above-market rate.  With the league projecting big jumps in the salary cap over the next two years, it’s possible one of the better blueliners would be open to the idea.

Failing that, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Hurricanes look to the trade market to try to fill this spot.  They have a strong prospect pool and a pair of extra first-round picks in their pocket from the Rantanen deal that could help form the foundation of a swap.  Even if they are able to land a top winger and a top-six center, there should be ample money left to fill this vacancy as well.

Examine Goalie Options

With the Hurricanes re-signing Frederik Andersen to a one-year deal last month worth $2.75MM (plus $750K in potential performance bonuses), it looks like they have their goalie situation settled for next season with Pyotr Kochetkov signed for two more years as well.  With the youngster signed at $2MM per year, it seems like there isn’t anything left to do at that position.

But perhaps there should be.  Andersen has only played in more than 35 games once in the last five years.  Kochetkov hasn’t reached 50 yet and his play has been a bit more up-and-down than Carolina would like although that’s far from uncommon for young goalies.  This tandem isn’t the best in the league but there’s a solid floor.

However, that floor can be improved upon.  There probably isn’t an upgrade of significance in free agency but on the trade market, it’s possible some options become available.  Speculatively, Anaheim’s John Gibson comes to mind and he’s a player who they’ve been linked to before.  We know they can afford the short-term premium while they could afford to carry three goalies or send one the other as a salary offset.  This isn’t a must but Tulsky would be wise to sniff around to see if a goaltending upgrade could become available that would make their roster just a little stronger heading into next season.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

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