Carolina Hurricanes add Max Domi in last-minute NHL trade deadline deal with Columbus
The Carolina Hurricanes, missing only injured forward Jordan Martinook, put in a 40-minute practice Monday at PNC Arena.
Afterward, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour, with the NHL trade deadline about two hours away, said he anticipated his team being the same group of players Tuesday as it was Monday.
“I really don’t spend a lot of time worrying or thinking about today,” Brind’Amour said. “I always feel like we make our moves in the summer. If there’s a tweak here or there, it happens.”
The Hurricanes did a little more than tweak. They added forward Max Domi at the deadline in a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
In obtaining Domi, the Canes are bringing in a physical winger capable of playing among the top nine forwards, a player who had 28 goals and 72 points in 2018-19 while with the Montreal Canadiens. A first-round draft pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2013, he later played with the Canadiens — Jesperi Kotkaniemi of the Canes one of his former teammates — before being traded to Columbus in October 2020.
“We’ve been looking for someone to complement our forward group,” Waddell said Monday after the trade. “We felt this was a perfect fit for us.
“He’s put up some points but he’s a pretty good playmaker. Good down low. Plays with an edge. Some things we’re certainly looking for.”
Domi, 27, is a pending unrestricted free agent who had a $5.3 million salary cap hit this year. In 53 games with the Blue Jackets, he has nine goals and 23 assists but has managed just one goal in the past 31 games.
“We’ve scouted him a lot here lately and think he has been playing very well,” Waddell said. “He’s in a little drought right now scoring but we just felt coming into this group we have here and him being able to play with some pretty elite players, that he could be a big help for us down the road here.”
The move for Domi, the son of former NHL player Tie Domi, comes at a time the Hurricanes have lost their last four games and are coming off a game where they had 44 shots on goal and could not score in a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers.
Waddell said that 30 minutes before the 3 p.m. deadline he did not think the Canes would be making any moves, that the proposed deal for Domi would not be made. But what Waddell called a “complicated deal” was completed.
In addition to Domi, the Canes received defensive prospect Tyler Inamoto from the Florida Panthers while the Blue Jackets obtained defensive prospect Aidan Hreschuk from Carolina. Inamoto, a fifth-round pick by Florida in 2017, has been playing college hockey at Wisconsin.
The Florida Panthers, also involved in the three-team transaction, received forward Egor Korshkov from Carolina and a sixth-round 2022 draft pick from Columbus. The Blue Jackets retained 50 percent of Domi’s salary and Florida 25 percent.
Canes in first place in Metro
Despite the recent slide, the Canes are 41-15-6 and in first place in the Metro after Sunday’s games. They played Sunday without Martinook and forward Nino Niederreiter, who was serving a one-game suspension for a slashing incident in Friday’s game against Washington.
Waddell said the past few days that he would not be reactionary as other Stanley Cup hopefuls in the Eastern Conference made moves and added players and depth.
“You watch what’s going on around you but you can’t be reactive,” Waddell said. “At the end of the day one team is going to win the Stanley Cup. Every (playoff) series is going to be tough to win. If you react to what other people are doing you would never be able to keep up.”
The Tampa Bay Lightning have won the past two Cups. The Lightning also have been among the movers and shakers the past few days before the deadline, adding forwards Brandon Hagel from Chicago and Nick Paul from Ottawa.
The new additions should be in the Lightning lineup Tuesday when Tampa Bay (39-16-6) faces the Canes at PNC Arena.
Waddell said Domi likely would be in Raleigh and at the game, but would play his first game for the Canes on Thursday against Dallas.
Brind’Amour was a half-hour late arriving for his media availability Monday, indicating there still was much for him to consider after practice. While ownership and management make the ultimate decisions, Brind’Amour is consulted on potential player moves and what contributions they could make.
“But when you like your group and you’ve gone this far, for me anyway, you like to stick it through,” he said.
Of note
Nino Niederreiter said he believed he might be fined by the NHL but not suspended for his slash on Axel Jonsson-Fjallby on the Capitals bench in Friday’s game. Niederreiter was knocked into the Caps bench area, losing his helmet, and retaliated with a swipe of his stick that hit Jonsson-Fjallby in the helmet.
“It definitely was wrong for me to get that last slash,” Niederreiter said Monday. “But they ripped my helmet off and held my stick. I felt like it wasn’t a full baseball swing and I was surprised by the (one-game) suspension. I did something wrong but I didn’t think it was suspension worthy.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Carolina Hurricanes add Max Domi in last-minute NHL trade deadline deal with Columbus."
