Hurricanes stand pat Friday as other NHL playoff contenders in Eastern Conference load up
The Carolina Hurricanes made no moves on Friday leading up to the NHL’s trade deadline, deciding to finish out the regular season and go into the playoffs with minimal changes to the roster.
The Canes traded earlier in the week for forward Jesse Puljujarvi and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, and there was some talk before Friday — a lot generated on social media — that they might add more before the deadline.
But the “group” is set. The Canes, who beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-1 Friday as Gostisbehere scored, reached this point in the season with one of the league’s best records and believe their team is good enough to contend for the Stanley Cup.
“We have something good with this bunch of guys, led by Rod,” Canes president and general manager Don Waddell said Friday on a media call. “They believe in each other. One thing is this group is very close, and I know the concern was we were maybe going to have to lose someone off our roster to make a significant move.”
Waddell said trade discussions often started with talk of giving up a first-round draft pick, which he did not want to do, or trading one of the Canes’ younger players, which he was not going to do.
Waddell indicated there was one major trade that Canes wanted to make and were “in on,” but could not pull off.
“You never know with the other team what you’re bidding against,” he said. “You can only put your best foot forward, which we did, and once you do that you can’t do anything more. It’s always disappointing when you go after a player, but it’s also reality you’re not going to get everybody you want.
“To make a trade just to make a trade is not what we do here. It’s also pretty well known we’re not going to spend a big price on rental players. … We weren’t going to take players off our team to make changes and this where we are.”
Others in the Eastern Conference did more, bringing in such players as Patrick Kane (New York Rangers) and Timo Meier (New Jersey). The Rangers and Devils are pushing the Canes in the Metropolitan Division, and should continue to push.
“I always said you pay attention to what’s going on but you don’t react to what’s going on,” Waddell said. “You go in with what you think is your strategy for your needs and stick to it. Don’t get caught up on what other teams are doing. Worry about what you can do to put yourself in the best position to keep us moving forward.”
Before leaving for the two-game road trip this week, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said he was happy with the group and while injuries always remained a concern, he was OK with “going the distance” with the team he had.
“It’s really a fine dance to say, ‘OK, how much turnover are you going to have with your team?’ and Rod and I have talked many times about how we like our team and we like our players,” Waddell said.
The Canes picked up Puljujarvi on Tuesday in a deal with Edmonton, bringing in a player who was the fourth overall pick of the 2016 NHL draft. The Finnish forward, 24, has good size at 6-4 and 200 pounds and has shown flashes of his offensive skill in his six seasons and 317 games with the Oilers.
Puljujarvi has five goals and 14 points in 58 games this season. His career high was 15 goals in 55 games in the condensed 2021 season.
“He’s a big guy and we wanted to get a little bigger,” Waddell said. “He competes really well. He’s a guy we’ve talked about for about a year now. We thought he could fit into how Rod likes to play.”
Waddell said Puljujarvi is still in Edmonton waiting on his work visa application and should join the Canes on Monday in Montreal.
The Canes were counting on Gostisbehere, obtained Wednesday from the Coyotes, to give a new look to the power play, which has been spotty this season. Before Friday’s game, the Hurricanes were 23rd in the league on the power play at 19.4%.
“We really needed to address that and with ‘Ghost’ I think we did,” Waddell said. “We went into the trade deadline saying we needed to address our power play, which I feel like we did.”
The Canes were 1-for-13 on the power play in the past six games before Friday and did not have a power play in two of the games.
“It’s going to be tough, with a new team and playing your old team, having a double whammy,” Brind’Amour said Friday after the morning skate at Mullett Arena. “But we’ve got to get him in there.”
Gostisbehere responded by scoring on a second-period power play, and Sebastian Aho and Martin Necas also had power-play goals as the Canes were 3-4 with the man advantage.
Gostisbehere was used in the third defensive pairing with Jalen Chatfield.
“I’m just here to get on this train and help this team win,” Gostisbehere said.
Waddell was asked Friday if not going after another center was an indication the Canes are comfortable with Jesperi Kotkaniemi filling the second-line center spot in the playoffs.
“If you look at the season, (Kotkaniemi) started off the season slow and Roddy put him on the fourth line and he responded really well,” Waddell said. “The last 20 games he’s put up some good numbers. We’re very comfortable with ‘KK’ and he gives us a lot of jam up there, too, which you need on your top two lines.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 4:37 PM.
