Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Hurricanes Rumors

Hurricanes’ Jack Drury To Undergo Hand Surgery

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Dec. 17: Drury’s hand surgery went well and will keep him out for at least four weeks, Brind’Amour told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer.

Dec. 12: The Hurricanes will be without depth center Jack Drury for a while yet. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour told reporters Thursday that Drury has “has a broken something in his thumb” and will undergo surgery (via Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal). The team hasn’t yet issued a timeline for his return.

Drury left Tuesday’s win over the Sharks in the first period after blocking a shot with his hand. Brind’Amour said postgame that things weren’t looking promising for the 24-year-old, although he still needed to undergo a couple of imaging tests. Center Tyson Jost was recalled from AHL Chicago yesterday in the wake of Drury’s injury and will be on hand for tomorrow’s game against the Senators. In all likelihood, Jost will make his first appearance since Nov. 23 unless Carolina opts to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen and give Riley Stillman, who they summoned from the AHL this morning, his season debut.

A second-rounder back in 2018, Drury has slowly risen up the Hurricanes’ center depth chart over the past few years. This season, he was averaging a career-high 13:09 per game and was winning 56.4% of his draws, the highest among Carolina’s four regular centers. He had three goals and six assists for nine points through 28 games, on pace to roughly match the eight goals and 27 points he had in 74 games last year.

Now, after spending his seven games for the Canes last month suiting up on Drury’s wing, Jost will need to shift back to his natural center position for the foreseeable future. He had one goal while averaging 9:20 per game, not seeing any of Drury’s usual special teams usage.

The Hurricanes have carried as slim a roster as possible all season long, so Drury may not land on injured reserve in the coming days (or at all during his absence) unless other injuries strike and force Carolina to open up an additional roster spot. Assuming a usual recovery timeline for hand surgery, we likely won’t see Drury back in the lineup until late January.

Hurricanes Recall Riley Stillman

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • The Hurricanes have again swapped extra defenders, adding Riley Stillman to the roster today from AHL Chicago after having Ty Smith fill that role for their past couple of games. Stillman, 26, has been rostered twice since being activated from injured reserve in November but has yet to suit up for Carolina, which inked him to a two-way deal over the summer. The veteran of 158 NHL games with the Panthers, Blackhawks, Canucks, and Sabres has two assists and a +1 rating in seven minor-league contests in 2024-25.

Hurricanes Recall Tyson Jost

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • The Hurricanes announced today that they’ve recalled forward Tyson Jost from AHL Chicago. Jost’s inclusion on the roster indicates that center Jack Drury will miss at least Friday’s game against the Senators after leaving last night’s win over the Sharks in the first period with an upper-body injury after blocking a shot from San Jose winger Klim Kostin. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour told reporters postgame that he anticipated Drury would miss a significant chunk of time. However, he didn’t disclose further details on the injury (per Ryan Henkel of The Hockey News). Jost, 26, had one goal in seven games during a recall last month, averaging 9:20 per contest. He has four goals and five assists for nine points in 14 AHL appearances this season.

Drury Leaves With Upper-Body Injury

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • The Hurricanes announced (Twitter link) that center Jack Drury left tonight’s game against San Jose due to an upper-body injury and did not return. The 24-year-old is in his second full NHL season and after putting up 27 points in 74 games in 2023-24, he’s producing at a similar clip this year, picking up three goals and six assists in his first 27 outings.  Drury also has the highest faceoff rate of Carolina’s full-time middlemen, winning over 56% of his draws in the early going.

Honka Signs Extension In Switzerland, Smith Assigned To AHL

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • Hurricanes prospect Anttoni Honka will be staying overseas next season. HC Ajoie of the Swiss NL announced that they’ve signed him to a two-year contract that begins in 2025-26.  The 24-year-old is playing for Ajoie this season while on loan from Carolina, the second straight year he has played overseas despite being on an NHL agreement; he suited up for JYP in Finland last season.  This is the final year of Honka’s entry-level deal and considering he has already decided to stay in Switzerland, there’s a good chance he’ll be non-tendered this summer.  Honka was selected late in the third round in 2019.
  • Still with Carolina, the Hurricanes have re-assigned defenseman Ty Smith to AHL Chicago, per a team release. Smith has been shuffled back and forth throughout the season while spending time in a seventh defender role at times with Carolina but has yet to get into an NHL game this season.  The 24-year-old has three goals and four helpers in seven games with the Wolves so far.

Morning Notes: Lemieux, Cowan, Fowler

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Former Carolina Hurricanes forward Brendan Lemieux has signed a contract with HC Davos, matching a report earlier this week that the 27-year-old would move overseas to continue his career. The Hurricanes and Lemieux mutually split this past week, allowing him to move to Switzerland to play in the National League. Lemieux spent this season with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, making $775K on a one-way deal. It was the first time Lemieux was in the AHL since the 2017-18 season, and the former second-round pick was struggling offensively, with just two goals in 12 games.

As for why Lemieux chose to go overseas, it does appear that he was chasing a new opportunity. Derek O’Brien of The Hockey News writes that Lemieux has signed for the rest of this season as well as two additional years.

In other morning notes:

  • Hockey Canada tweeted that Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan will attend the team’s selection camp but won’t participate for precautionary reasons. The news caps off an eventful, albeit difficult couple of days for the 19-year-old. Cowan recorded a point for the 56th consecutive game on Friday, unofficially setting an OHL record, but was injured a short time later by an open-ice hit. In a corresponding move, Team Canada added Anaheim Ducks prospect Beckett Sennecke to their selection camp. The 2024 third-overall pick has 21 goals and 23 assists in 26 OHL games this season and has 14 points over his last four games.
  • It’s being reported that the Anaheim Ducks were hoping to include defenseman Cam Fowler in the trade to acquire Jacob Trouba (as per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet). Fowler has been looking for a trade for quite some time, but the Rangers wanted to keep flexibility for this year and next and wouldn’t have realized much savings if they were to add Fowler’s $6.5MM cap hit. Friedman notes that the Ducks and Fowler are looking for a solution to their situation that will help both the team and the long-time Ducks veteran. The 33-year-old Fowler has been a perennial 40-point player for most of his career but has struggled this season with just three assists in 14 games.

Smith Recalled, Tokarski Papered To AHL

at CDT | by 1 Comment

  • A day after sending Riley Stillman to the minors, the Hurricanes have found his replacement for the time being. The team announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Ty Smith from AHL Chicago.  The 24-year-old has been up multiple times with Carolina this season but has yet to play and will likely continue to serve in the seventh defenseman role while he’s on the roster.  Smith has three goals and four assists in seven games with the Wolves so far.
  • Still with the Hurricanes, they assigned goaltender Dustin Tokarski to Chicago, per the AHL’s transactions log. As has frequently been the case this season, this is merely a move to bank a bit of cap space and delay Tokarski’s waiver clock.  He’ll almost certainly be recalled before Tuesday’s game against San Jose.

Stillman Assigned Back To AHL

at CDT | by 2 Comments

  • The Hurricanes announced that they have re-assigned defenseman Riley Stillman to AHL Chicago. The 26-year-old has been sent back and forth a few times in recent weeks but he hasn’t seen any game action yet with Carolina.  Stillman has been limited to just six games with the Wolves after starting the season on injured reserve and has two assists in those outings.  With the move, the Hurricanes now have two vacancies on their active roster for the time being.

Brendan Lemieux Clears Unconditional Waivers

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Saturday: Lemieux has cleared waivers, reports James Mirtle of The Athletic.  In the team’s announcement of his waiver placement yesterday, GM Eric Tulsky indicated that Lemieux requested the release to pursue a new opportunity.  A report from Puck Empire in Switzerland suggests that Lemieux is likely to sign with HC Davos of the Swiss NL.

Friday: The Carolina Hurricanes are expected to place forward Brendan Lemieux on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination, per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. Lemieux signed a one-year, league-minimum contract in Carolina this summer but has spent the entirety of the early season in the minor leagues. He has just two goals, 30 penalty minutes, and a -4 through 12 AHL games this season. He’s the lowest-scoring forward among Chicago Wolves with 10 or more games this season.

Lemieux made a name for himself as a sharp-edged bruiser with the drive to play at the NHL level. That’s what kept him in the top league from 2017 to 2024 – through trips with the Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, and Carolina. He served a fourth-line role at every stop, making more noise with his penalty minutes than his scoring. Lemieux has 548 penalty minutes through 307 career games, with his statement year coming in 2019-20 – when he posted 111 PIMs in 59 games with the Rangers. He’s only added 74 career points – 36 goals and 38 assists – in those outings, with 18 points in 2019-20 also standing as a career-high.

This season marks Lemieux’s second in the Carolina organization, after playing through last year on a separate one-year contract. He earned 32 games on the deal, recording five points and 64 penalty minutes. That wasn’t enough to stick in the Hurricanes’ lineup with the emergence of top youngsters Jack Drury and Jackson Blake, pushing Lemieux to the minor leagues this season – his first time playing AHL hockey since 2017-18. With both scoring and meaningful penalties hard to come by this year, Lemieux will now look forward to more productive minutes in his next landing spot.

Hurricanes Recall Dustin Tokarski, Reassign Spencer Martin

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Hurricanes swapped backup goaltenders on Wednesday, announcing they recalled the newly signed Dustin Tokarski from AHL Chicago while reassigning Spencer Martin in a corresponding transaction.

Carolina signed Tokarski, 35, to a one-year, two-way contract on Monday. They immediately placed him on waivers to send him down to Chicago, where he’d spent the season to date on a minor-league deal, and he cleared yesterday.

They’ll turn to the highly experienced netminder to give them more passable play in a backup role than what Martin has provided them over the past few weeks. He’ll play sparingly as long as Pyotr Kochetkov is healthy – he’s the de facto No. 1 as Frederik Andersen is on the shelf recovering from knee surgery – and his .933 SV% and 1.61 GAA in five AHL showings this season suggests he’s still up to the task.

It’s no surprise to see Carolina look elsewhere for a temporary backup after Martin posted a sub-.900 SV% in all but one of his seven starts last month. He allowed 10 goals on just 57 shots faced in back-to-back losses to the Panthers last Friday and Saturday and has a horrid .846 SV% to go along with his 3-4-1 record in nine total appearances.

Tokarski now gets a shot at playing in his first NHL game since he was a member of the Penguins in the 2022-23 season. The Saskatchewan native has rarely been a full-time NHL option throughout his lengthy professional career, but he did briefly get a chance at being a full-time backup with the Sabres a few years ago. Since making his NHL debut with the Lightning way back in the 2009-10 season, he has a 23-34-12 record, two shutouts, 3.15 GAA, and a .902 SV% in 67 starts and 13 relief appearances.

Tokarski can remain on Carolina’s roster for up to 30 days or play 10 games before he requires waivers to return to the AHL. Martin bypassed waivers today because he’s played in nine games since last clearing waivers during the preseason, and a series of paper transactions have kept him on the active roster for fewer than 30 days since his initial recall in late October.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top