The Hurricanes announced Friday they’ve signed winger Givani Smith to a two-way deal. He had been in camp on a professional tryout. The deal carries a $775K NHL salary and a $140K AHL salary with a guarantee of $250K.
A second-round pick by the Red Wings in 2016, Smith has become a journeyman over the past few seasons. Carolina will be the 27-year-old’s sixth NHL organization in the last four years. He split the 2022-23 campaign between the Red Wings and Panthers, spent all of 2023-24 in San Jose, and then split last year between the Sharks, Avalanche, and Flyers organizations. However, he never made an NHL appearance for Philadelphia.
The 6’2″ enforcer has gone 575 days since recording his last NHL point. He went without one in 13 showings last year and spent the back half of the campaign in the minors after clearing waivers. Since his debut six years ago, Smith has a 9-13–22 scoring line in 168 appearances with a -31 rating, 268 PIMs, and 330 hits. He’s averaged just 8:12 of ice time per game.
It remains to be seen whether the Canes keep Smith around for opening night or opt to waive him and stash him with AHL Charlotte. Considering fellow fringe forwards Juha Jaaska and Mark Jankowski are carrying day-to-day injury designations, it’ll likely be the former. He got a relatively long look in preseason, averaging nearly 13 minutes per game across four contests while scoring twice, adding an assist and 28 PIMs.
Smith beat out fellow PTO invite Kevin Labanc for a job, as well as first-round picks like Bradly Nadeau and Ryan Suzuki – the latter of whom managed to clear waivers this week. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
I certainly hope Canes management got the approval of the fanbase, To make sure this signing was okay.