Free agent action uncertain for Canes

Ron Francis of the Carolina Hurricanes is ready for Friday and all that may – or may not – unfold as NHL free agency begins.

“I’ve said since day one as general manager that, to me, the two scariest, challenging days of the year are July 1 and the trade deadline,” Francis said this week.

Scary, and at times a little crazy.

“A lot of big contracts are handed out, with a lot of term and money,” Francis said of free agency. “Some work out and some don’t.”

Friday may not be as crazy as Wednesday. In a head-spinning span of 23 minutes, the Edmonton Oilers traded Taylor Hall to New Jersey, the Montreal Canadiens sent P.K. Subban to Nashville for Shea Weber and the Tampa Bay Lightning re-signed Steven Stamkos to an eight-year, $68 million contract.

Francis has proven to be a more cautious, cost-conscious general manager. But the Canes have a lot of salary-cap space and picked up more Thursday in something of a surprise move, buying out the contract of veteran defenseman James Wisniewski.

Wisniewski, 32, was acquired in a trade during the NHL Draft last year, but suffered a serious knee injury in the Canes’ opener against Nashville, ending his season after 47 seconds. He was to draw a $3 million salary this year, and the Canes will pay him $2 million in the next two years.

What does that mean for the Canes? Is something major planned – a big free-agent signing, a big trade?

“If we feel we can pick up the right player at the right term and the right price, we will look at it,” Francis said before the buyout. “We’re open to doing the right thing if it’s there. Or we can sit and wait.”

Francis said the Canes have had no contact this week with former captain Eric Staal, who was traded in February to the New York Rangers, and it was highly unlikely Staal would return.

“While he was a great player in this market for a long time, with where we’re at, with the young players we have and the direction we’re going, it would be unfair to us and to him to bring him back and ask him to accept a much different role than the one he had,” Francis said.

Francis would like to add a top-six or top-nine forward. While there will be big-name unrestricted free agents – Kyle Okposo, David Backes, Andrew Ladd and Loui Eriksson among them – there will be others like a Troy Brouwer, Jason Chimera or Frans Nielsen who can help teams at a lesser price.

Center Matt Cullen, like Ladd, won the Stanley Cup with the Canes in 2006 and earned another championship ring this year with the Pittsburgh Penguins. At 39, he wants to continue to play, although he may re-sign with the Pens.

Francis won’t discuss names, saying, “We’ve been looking at it the past few months with our pro scouts, as to what our best options are. We have a shopping list.”

Francis noted that a year ago, the Canes acquired forwards Kris Versteeg and Joakim Nordstrom from the Chicago Blackhawks on Sept. as the Blackhawks were looking for salary-cap relief.

That happened again this month when the Blackhawks traded forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell to the Canes, freeing up more cap space.

Teravainen could step into a top-six forward role for Carolina, and Bickell should give the Canes more size in the lineup and veteran leadership. Both were members of the Blackhawks’ 2015 Stanley Cup champs and Bickell won three Cup rings with Chicago.

Francis said adding Finnish forwards Sebastian Aho and Teravainen to the mix should “take a little pressure off” as far as signing a free-agent forward or trading for one. Aho, a second-round draft pick last year, was the leading scorer last season for Karpat in SM-liiga, the Finnish elite league, while starring for Finland in the World Junior Championship and again in the World Championship in May.

“It will make for an interesting training camp, to see what they can do,” Francis said.

Canes forwards Riley Nash, Nathan Gerbe, Chris Terry and Brad Malone become unrestricted free agents Friday, as does defenseman Michal Jordan. It’s possible the Canes could look to re-sign one or more of those players, as they did with Nash last year.

Versteeg, moved by Carolina to the Los Angeles Kings in February at the trade deadline, also will be a UFA.

Last year, the Canes’ biggest and costliest move on July 1 was paying a $14 million buyout to forward Alexander Semin. That was a big contract – five years, $35 million – that did not work out.

“Last year, free agency seemed a little more reasonable,” Francis said. “We’ll see how things go.”

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Free agent action uncertain for Canes."