The Score Torches Hurricanes Off-Season Moves

[Anybodyhome]

https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/2196694/nhl-offseason-grades-metropolitan-division

Carolina Hurricanes

Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty

Key arrivals

Player	Position	Contract length	AAV
Jesperi Kotkaniemi	F	1 year	$6.1M
Derek Stepan	F	1 year	$1.35M
Josh Leivo	F	1 year	$750K
Ethan Bear	D	1 year	$2M
Ian Cole	D	1 year	$2.9M
Brendan Smith	D	1 year	$800K
Tony DeAngelo	D	1 year	$1M
Antti Raanta	G	2 years	$2M
Frederik Andersen	G	2 years	$4.5M

Key departures

Player	Position	Transaction
Warren Foegele	F	Traded to EDM
Brock McGinn	F	Signed with PIT
Cedric Paquette	F	Signed with MTL
Morgan Geekie	F	Expansion draft
Dougie Hamilton	D	Signed with NJ
Jake Bean	D	Traded to CBJ
Jani Hakanpaa	D	Signed with DAL
Alex Nedeljkovic	G	Traded to DET
Petr Mrazek	G	Signed with TOR
James Reimer	G	Signed with SJ

Re-signed

Player	Position	Contract length	AAV
Andrei Svechnikov	F	8 years	$7.75M
Jordan Martinook	F	3 years	$1.8M

Rookies who could crack the lineup

Player	Position	Drafted
Jack Drury	F	2nd round (2018)
Ryan Suzuki	F	1st round (2019)

The Hurricanes had an absurdly eventful offseason, easily the busiest in the NHL. We've done our best to break it down into a few separate parts.

The good

Carolina signed Svechnikov to a max-term deal at an affordable rate, which was a tidy piece of business. The 21-year old is a superstar in the making and an integral part of Carolina's attack.

Bear is a nice addition to a defensive corps that lost a huge piece.

The bad

The Hurricanes traded Nedeljkovic, a Calder Trophy finalist and seemingly the stable future in goal for a pick and player the club ultimately let walk. It was a peculiar decision at best.

They also let Hamilton hit the open market, which could prove to be a costly mistake. He joined a division rival at a cheaper cost than several inferior blue-liners signed this offseason. Not only is Hamilton elite at shot suppression, he's one of the league's best offensive defensemen.

The uncertain

Bringing in Andersen and Raanta aboard carries a lot of risk. Both goalies have been capable starters in the NHL but are injury prone and a few years removed from their best work. Retaining Nedeljkovic and finding a cheaper backup would have been the more sensible approach.

The Hurricanes insist they didn't give an offer sheet to Kotkaniemi out of spite for Montreal's attempt to poach Sebastian Aho a few years back, but the hockey world isn't convinced. Why else would you give a low-ceiling offensive player $6.1 million per season? If Kotkaniemi doesn't pan out, this could be remembered as an all-time blunder.

The unnecessary

Signing DeAngelo after the Rangers bought him out drew plenty of ire from fans across the league. What has the controversial blue-liner done to prove he deserves another chance?

Grade: D+

[t96]

Woof what a terrible, terrible article.

The Ned move is still the biggest head scratcher, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons to be unconvinced that he was the answer in net, despite last year's success. We'll just have to see what happens in net going forward.

Letting Dougie walk was the only option for this team. He was drastically overpaid on the open market and wasn't offering us a discount. That will be one of the worst contracts in the league in 3-5 years.

Kotkaniemi a "low-ceiling offensive player"??? Come on, that is completely ridiculous. The kid is 21 years old and has never had a real opportunity to play legitimate minutes in the NHL with good linemates and was a top 3 overall pick. He has a massive ceiling. Certainly a risk giving up the draft capital, but the $6M this year was just part of the acquisition cost to snatch a young RFA from another team -- unless he does completely burst out onto the scene this season, we'll be able to keep him for much cheaper than that per year going forward.

Regarding DeAngelo, sure it's a risk if he has any dumb off ice issues but hockey-wise it's an absolute no brainer. He can replace Dougie's offensive production for dirt cheap. It was a 100% necessary move for this team after letting Dougie walk.

[cookinbrak]

3 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

They also let Hamilton hit the open market, which could prove to be a costly mistake. He joined a division rival at a cheaper cost than several inferior blue-liners signed this offseason. Not only is Hamilton elite at shot suppression, he's one of the league's best offensive defensemen.

He never saw us play. Dougie trying to be an offensive weapon cost us a couple o games.

3 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

The Hurricanes traded Nedeljkovic, a Calder Trophy finalist and seemingly the stable future in goal for a pick and player the club ultimately let walk. It was a peculiar decision at best.

He was gonna walk either way.

[Rocky Davis]

Oh no, The Score gave us a terrible offseason grade....what will we ever do.

Let's wait to see what we have on the ice before writing anymore clickbait articles. 

The Score 

[Harbingers]

On the bright side camp starts tomorrow. Broken into two units. Team attitude and team energy. Should start getting some good info from the beat writers tomorrow! 

[CanePantherHornet]

Time will tell. I agree with letting Hamilton go, it sucks but we have too many other people to pay. At the moment I'm looking at it like this. They know they're going to have to give Svech, Aho, and Turbo bank vaults eventually. So they're going to have to cut a few corners somewhere. They've rolled the dice on some high upside defensemen and might have made the goalie position better just because of consistency. 

 

I know that seemingly is looking very far in to the future but with as long of a contract Dougie wanted/got it still would have become an issue.

[Anybodyhome]

6 minutes ago, CanePantherHornet said:

They know they're going to have to give Svech, Aho, and Turbo bank vaults eventually. So they're going to have to cut a few corners somewhere.

Svech got paid in August and he's set for another 8 seasons. Aho is still under contract for this season and 2 more. TT is a UFA the same time as Aho.