Hurricanes extend qualifying offers to eight restricted free agents
While the final rounds of the 2020 NHL Draft were being held Wednesday, the Carolina Hurricanes also took care of some other hockey business.
The Canes made qualifying offers to eight restricted free agents before the NHL deadline Wednesday. Forward Warren Foegele and defenseman Haydn Fleury received offers. Both hold arbitration rights by Canes president and general manager Don Waddell said he soon hopes to have new contracts completed with both players.
“We’re talking to them every day and the sooner the better,” Waddell said Wednesday in a media call. “That way we really lock in on what our numbers are with those guys. It will tell us how much money we can spend on free agents if we choose to go that route. So we’d like to get it done as a soon as possible and hopefully that’s over the next few days.”
The other RFA’s given offers were: forwards Steven Lorentz. Clark Bishop and Spencer Smallman; and defensemen Gustav Forsling, Oliwer Kaski and Roland McKeown.
Among the RFAs not receiving a qualifying offer was goalie Callum Booth, a fourth-round draft pick in 2015. Booth becomes an unrestricted free agent on Friday, when NHL free agency begins.
The Canes’ pending UFA’s include forward Justin Williams and defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk and Sami Vatanen.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 5:28 PM.
