Sep. 17: The Hurricanes listed Gagner on their training camp roster today, confirming the PTO. They’re also adding veteran depth forward Rocco Grimaldi on a tryout. Grimaldi, 31, has 67 points in 203 career NHL games but hasn’t played at the top level since seeing brief action with Nashville in 2021-22. He spent last season with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, once again the Hurricanes’ affiliate, after spending last year as an independent club, leading them with 36 goals and 73 points in 72 games.
Sep. 10: The Carolina Hurricanes are expected to sign veteran forward Sam Gagner to a professional try-out, per PuckPedia. Gagner is a veteran of 17 NHL seasons, making his debut with the Edmonton Oilers in 2007 after going sixth overall in the 2007 NHL Draft. He’s gone on to play for seven different NHL clubs throughout his career and will have a chance to add an eighth on this PTO.
Gagner made his NHL debut at 18 – ultimately earning 13 goals and 49 points as a rookie while filling a consistent second-line role. He proceeded to fill that role and match that production through the next 11 seasons, persisting through tours around the Pacific and Metropolitan Divisions. He was a reliable glue piece for lineups in flux and continued to find NHL relevancy even after his production started to dip. However, injuries have proven fickle throughout his later years, with the 2021-22 campaign standing as Gagner’s only full season since 2016-17. He’s most recently coming off a double-hip surgery in March of 2023 – a deal that ended his 2022-23 season early, though he did manage to appear in 29 games and score 10 points last season.
Gagner is far from his days of a guaranteed lineup spot due to both health and performance. But he brings the experience of a 1,000-game pro who’s played through two decades of NHL hockey. He’s scored 27 points across his last 82 career games, though that stretches back to the 2021-22 season. Still, it’s not unreasonable to think Gagner could manage one more respectable season before facing retirement. He’ll look to begin proving that at Carolina’s training camp if he indeed signs a try-out deal.
He’s got a chance to make the squad, but only if Blake and Nedeau fail to step up. We’ve got no cap space so I’m hoping that the kids can step up.
I cant see him beating out Nadeau, Blake, FUS or Trikozov. We need a 2nd line winger and Gagner isnt capable of producing at the level one of them has the potential to do.
Dude has more lives than a cat.
Good to see Rocco get another chance at NHL playing time. He’s tiny but can snipe!
Stocking the AHL team