Hurricanes winger Seth Jarvis is one of the more prominent restricted free agents with camps just a few weeks away from opening up. However, it appears that might not be the case for much longer as The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported earlier this week in an NHL Tonight appearance (video link) that the two sides are getting close to a max-term eight-year deal.
The 22-year-old was the 13th overall pick by Carolina in 2020 and after spending his post-draft campaign in the WHL, he has been a fixture in their lineup since. Jarvis put up 40 and 39 points over his first two seasons, decent numbers for a youngster in his first taste of the pros but he managed to find another gear in 2023-24.
Last season, Jarvis set career bests with 33 goals and 34 assists in 81 games while logging 18:45 per night. His 67 points were good for second on the Hurricanes in scoring behind only Sebastian Aho. He was also one of their top scorers in the playoffs, recording five goals and four helpers in 11 contests, putting him third in team scoring behind Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.
It was suggested earlier this month that the Hurricanes might view Svechnikov’s $7.75MM AAV as the ceiling for Jarvis; the 2018 second-overall pick received that on a max-term agreement coming off his entry-level deal. Pagnotta suggests that the price tag for Jarvis could creep past the $7.5MM mark so while it might come in below Svechnikov’s, it could be pretty close to it.
Carolina has around $6.44MM in cap room, per PuckPedia. However, with today’s news that winger Jesper Fast will likely miss the entire season after undergoing neck surgery, he will be eligible to be placed on LTIR. Depending on their exact situation at the time of his placement, the Hurricanes could go over the cap by up to Fast’s $2.4MM. That amount added to their base cap space would be enough to get Jarvis under contract while leaving a bit of flexibility to afford a recall or two when injuries strike.
Look at capwages.com instead. They have 8.275 million in cap space.
Even with the $8.275M cap space pointed out by Pepe501 and the Fast $2.4M LTIR potential, there is still roster number questions open that impact cap space. Will CAR use the full 23 roster slots or go with 22 or 21? Per capwages but subtracting Fast, they have 13 F, 6 D, 2 G or 21 total current roster slots used. In the past, the team has shown a preference for less than the max but with 7 D rather than 6 . Also, capwages shows Spencer Martin as being non-roster – to my knowledge, I’ve not seen him waived nor would I expect to see that during the summer expanded roster period. Would seem that the cap space should be adjusted downward by Martin’s $775K salary for the time being. If this is correct, Martin would be 22nd player on the roster; CAR may elect to do this to start the season given Andersen’s injury history. Bottom line is that teams can exceed cap during summer by 10% but have to be cap-compliant at season start so we might still more changes
Great analysis. Very informative. Didn’t know all of that.
As Teddy KGB once said, “Give the man his money.”
Guys — capwages.com has already buried Scott Morrow’s and Bradly Nadeau’s cap hits because they are two-way contracts. That is premature of them. They have to wait until the season opener to do that. PuckPedia’s numbers are more accurate because the roster is not set.
And beyond that, there’s an extra factor: the salary of the guy who replaces Fast on the roster, or the UFA they sign to plug the hole.
Good discussion all. Has anyone seen a report about Spencer Martin going on waivers? If not, both capwages.com and puckpedia still have the Hurricane’s cap space wrong because they have Spencer listed as a non roster player. Because he is on a one-way contract, he would have to be waived to go off the roster at risk of being claimed. I haven’t seen any such report. Process and procedure aside, I suspect that the team would want to keep him on the roster through training camp because, as I mentioned in my earlier post, Frederik Andersen has injury risk and is at an age (34) where performance might start dropping off (recall some bad playoff goals allowed when he came back from injury. Further (and lastly), Andersen is to play for Denmark in the already underway 8/29-9/1 Olympic qualifier series – what if is injured and unable to participate in training camp? Without Spencer Martin there’s only Yani (1 pro season, 1 NHL game) and Ruslan Khazheev (hasn’t yet even played in the KHL in his native Russia).. That would be razor thin on experience at B/U Goalie.
Also, I don’t think the waiver period even opens until 12 days before the season starts? Someone correct me if I’m wrong! If I’m right, that explains why there’s been no report of Martin going no roster.