NHL free agency begins Friday. What does that mean for the Hurricanes?
Jim Rutherford, to no one’s surprise, got it started Wednesday by trading goalie Matt Murray to the Ottawa Senators.
For Rutherford, the Pittsburgh Penguins general manager, making a trade is like brushing his teeth. It’s a habit and an old one.
Later Wednesday, as the 2020 NHL Draft was slowly grinding its way to completion, the Nashville Predators sent forward Nick Bonino to the Minnesota Wild for forward Luke Kunin. That small flurry of activity titillated those hockey fans always eager to see teams make moves and players change teams, sending social media into a stir.
And what now? The draft has ended and NHL free agency begins at noon Friday. How busy and noisy will things be during a coronavirus pandemic where the league’s salary cap remains flat at $81.5 million and next year’s revenues are little more than a guess?
“In talking to my counterparts, no one really knows what to expect,” Don Waddell, the Carolina Hurricanes president and general manager, said in a recent N&O interview.
Certainly not a lot of free spending and long-term contracts, Waddell said,
“With the salary cap staying flat I don’t think you’ll see the term that you used to see in free agency,” he said. “I think there will be shorter deals made. Players have the right to get the term they really want but I think for most players you’re going to see shorter-term contracts coming out of this free agency.
“There’s going to be some high-end guys out there who always pretty much get what they’re asking or close to it. There will be some guys in the middle who get a little bit of term. But in free agency you’ve always figured you’d have to give guys three to five years (in term) and I don’t think that’s going to be the case this year.”
Will the Canes sign another goalie?
Some big names are out there, including former New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and Braden Holtby, the longtime Washington Capitals franchise goalie and 2018 Stanley Cup champion.
The list of available goalies, if still unsigned Friday, could be a long one: Corey Crawford, Craig Anderson, Jacob Markstrom, Thomas Greiss. Also on the market could be Anton Khudobin, the former Canes goalie who helped the Dallas Stars reach the Stanley Cup finals this year.
Matt Larkin of The Hockey News, in an SI/THN podcast, said he could see Vancouver’s Markstrom landing with the Canes, saying, “Carolina is on the cusp of being a real Cup contender but doesn’t have reliable goaltending.”
Waddell was asked Wednesday night if the Canes would look to upgrade the position or stick with goalies Petr Mrazek and James Reimer next season, now targeted to begin on Jan. 1, 2021.
“We’re very happy with the tandem we had,” Waddell said in a media call. “But my job as a general manager, if we can upgrade any position, we have to look at it. At the end of the day if we stay with Petr and ‘Reims’ we’re perfectly good with that, and if there’s an opportunity to upgrade we’ve got to look at it.
“We’ve got to look at what the cost is. We don’t have a lot of money to spend under the cap and we’ve got to spend it wisely.”
The Canes have a projected cap space of roughly $7.78 million according to CapFriendly, which tracks team contracts. A pressing matter is signing forward Andrei Svechnikov to a contract extension while also looking ahead to next year when the Canes should look to extend defenseman Dougie Hamilton.
“I think it’s going to be hard to do stuff,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Thursday. “I’d be happy if we come back with the same group.”
Forward Warren Foegele and defenseman Haydn Fleury are restricted free agents who were given qualifying offers Wednesday by the Canes. Both could soon be signed to new contracts, Waddell said.
The free agency pool grew Wednesday as teams made final qualifying offers to their restricted free agents. Left without offers, and becoming unrestricted free agents on Friday, were such players as Ottawa forward Anthony Duclair and Florida Panthers center Lucas Wallmark, who was traded by the Canes last season.
Carolina’s unrestricted free agents
The Canes’ unrestricted free agents include defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk and Sami Vatanen, and Waddell said the Canes could circle back to one or both during free agency.
Waddell has mentioned adding scoring if possible in the offseason but it might take a trade, moving salary in and out, that gets it done rather than trying to sign a free agent at the right price and term,
“I think after free agency starts and people don’t get what they need in free agency, I think you’ll see more hockey trades made post free agency than you have in previous years,” Waddell said. “I think it’s going to be slow in free agency right off the bat. There’s some big guys out there who will go on day one but I really think free agency is going to play out over the next four or five days, not the first 48 hours like it usually does.”
A year ago, when free agency began on July 1, the first 48 hours for the Canes meant dealing with an offer sheet to center Sebastian Aho from the Montreal Canadiens. There shouldn’t be as much drama this time.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
