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Hurricanes Acquire Cayden Primeau

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The Hurricanes have added some extra goaltending depth heading into next season, acquiring Cayden Primeau from the Canadiens in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round pick.  Both teams have confirmed the swap.

Primeau entered this season as the full-time backup for Montreal for the first time in his career after the team moved Jake Allen to New Jersey at the 2024 trade deadline.  However, the 25-year-old struggled mightily, posting a 4.70 GAA and a .836 SV% in 11 outings, resulting in him landing on waivers after the holiday break in December.  He cleared and was promptly sent to AHL Laval.

With the Rocket, Primeau played much better.  In 26 regular season games with them, he posted a 21-2-2 record along with a 1.96 GAA and a .927 SV%.  His performance was a bit more inconsistent in the playoffs, however, as he put up a 3.27 GAA and a .878 SV% in eight outings while struggling in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Primeau has seen NHL action in six straight seasons but is still relatively unproven at the top level as he only has 55 career appearances, 10 of them coming in relief.  Overall, he has a 3.69 GAA and a .884 SV% in those outings.

It will be interesting to see what Carolina’s plan is for Primeau.  With Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov already under contract, there isn’t a spot with the Hurricanes, at least not unless they plan to carry three netminders which is something they’ve done in the past.  He received a $1.068MM qualifying offer from the Canadiens earlier today so it’s possible that they plan to make him one of the higher-paid third-string goalies, hoping that a potential seven-figure salary could dissuade teams from claiming him off waivers which would allow them to stash him with AHL Chicago.

As for Montreal, the Canadiens only have two goalies under contract at the moment, starter Sam Montembeault and prospect Jacob Fowler.  Jakub Dobes, who took over for Primeau as the backup midseason, is a pending RFA as well but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Montreal look to add a netminder in free agency in the coming days, at least as extra depth.

Chicago Blackhawks Acquire 29th Overall Pick, Select Mason West

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Carolina Hurricanes have traded the 29th overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks for the 34th and 62nd overall picks, plus a fifth-round pick in 2027. With their third first-round pick of the evening, the Blackhawks have selected Mason West from the USHL’s Fargo Force.

West, who will be joining the NCAA’s Michigan State University Spartans in the fall of 2026-27, is an intriguing prospect for a few reasons. He’s a towering forward, considering his talent, standing at 6’6″, 218lbs. Although he finished the year with USHL Fargo, he spent much of the year with Edina High School in Minnesota, scoring 27 goals and 49 points in 31 games.

Once he transitioned to Fargo toward the end of the year, he scored one goal and nine points in 10 games. The most fascinating part about West is that he’s never been a full-time hockey player. Throughout his time with Edina, West doubled as a premier high school quarterback and could receive D1 scholarships if his senior season this autumn goes well.

Because of his non-zero chance of cracking an NFL roster someday, West was projected to fall into the second round, anywhere between the 45th and 55th overall picks. The Blackhawks see potential in West and believe he will continue his professional hockey career.

Hurricanes Sign Juha Jääskä To Two-Year Contract

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The Carolina Hurricanes have gotten some early work done with one of their depth forwards from the 2024-25 season. According to a team announcement, the Hurricanes have re-signed forward Juha Jääskä to a two-year contract worth $1.55MM. Per the team’s announcement, Jääskä’s contract will transition from a two-way agreement in 2025-26 to a one-way deal in 2026-27.

After quality back-to-back campaigns with the Finnish Liiga’s HIFK, the Hurricanes signed Jääskä as an international free agent toward the back half of the 2023-24 NHL season. In those two seasons, Jääskä scored 22 goals and 67 points in 113 games, with another five goals and 11 points in 13 postseason contests.

A little old to be considered a true prospect (27), Carolina first deployed Jääskä with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. He quickly reaffirmed the Hurricanes’ decision to sign him, scoring 12 goals and 33 points in 53 AHL contests. His scoring output was good for fifth on the team, and sat second among wingers behind prospect Bradly Nadeau.

Carolina rewarded Jääskä’s quality transition to North American hockey this past season. Spending all of January at the NHL level, Jääskä tallied three assists in 14 games with a +3 rating in a fourth-line role. Adding four more games played by the end of the campaign, Jääskä finished the 2024-25 season with four assists in 18 contests, averaging 8:56 of ice time.

It’s hard to make any assessment of Jääskä’s game at the NHL level in his brief stint. He responded well to head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system as evidenced by his 61.7% CorsiFor% at even strength, but he was deployed rather safely with 61.7% of his shift starts coming in the offensive zone. Depending on whether the Hurricanes rearrange their bottom-six this offseason, Jääskä is destined for a similar role with the organization next season.

Blue Jackets, Hurricanes Interested In Rasmus Andersson

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The Blue Jackets and Hurricanes are among the teams calling the Flames to have trade talks surrounding defenseman Rasmus Andersson, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. Pagnotta mentioned the Senators as well – it’s not the first time in the past few months they’ve been tied to Andersson – but Ottawa is also reportedly on his six-team no-trade list.

Calgary and Andersson have already begun preliminary talks on an extension. He’s entering the final year of his contract at a highly team-friendly $4.55MM cap hit and becomes eligible to sign a new deal on July 1 to keep him in Calgary past 2025-26. However, those talks haven’t been particularly productive in their initial stages, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff last week. As a result, they’re listening to trade interest, but as has been the case for a while now, they’re in no particular rush to move him and could wait until next season’s trade deadline to get the value they want if they’re no closer to an extension.

That means defense-needy teams, particularly those looking for added puck-moving depth, will have Calgary general manager Craig Conroy on speed dial until Andersson’s situation is resolved. Carolina and Columbus fit that bill, with Andersson’s cheap initial cap hit before a potential extension kicks in still providing both clubs a fair amount of flexibility to pursue other avenues of roster improvement this summer.

The Hurricanes’ defensive depth will have a few notable changes next season, regardless of whether they successfully land Andersson or not. They’re not offering pending UFA Dmitry Orlov a new contract, and it remains to be seen if veteran Brent Burns, a top-pairing staple alongside Jaccob Slavin in recent seasons, will be back with the club. If he is, it’ll presumably be in a reduced role after a tough 2024-25 campaign for the 40-year-old. Rookie Alexander Nikishin has likely been penciled in as Orlov’s replacement on the left side with Slavin and Shayne Gostisbehere after looking good in limited postseason action, but rookie righty Scott Morrow is a less surefire insurance option for Burns, at least out of the gate. If they’re not yet ready to entrust the 22-year-old with regular NHL minutes, it would make sense to pursue Andersson.

Unlike the Blue Jackets, the Hurricanes might be willing to make a deal without a guarantee of an extension, particularly if it’s done this summer. They have Morrow coming eventually, even if it’s not next season, and are still firmly entrenched in win-now mode.

Columbus’ interest similarly stems from the unknown future of a pending UFA. While things appear close on a deal for top-pairing righty Dante Fabbro, the same can’t be said for lefty Ivan Provorov, who might be forced over to his off-side if he stays anyway with up-and-comer Denton Mateychuk positioning himself for top-four minutes in the near future. Andersson, a legitimate needle-mover, would give the Blue Jackets a highly intriguing right side with Fabbro and Damon Severson in the mix as well while coming in at a much cheaper cost than a new deal for Provorov would require, at least initially.

Regardless, it might behoove the Flames to wait until the season starts to see if Andersson can bump his value. He’s coming off his worst offensive campaign in four years, although he did still produce 31 points in 81 games while averaging 24 minutes per night. His -38 rating paired with career-worst possession impacts doesn’t do much to help his case either, although a few teams could have confidence in that showing being an outlier from the 28-year-old.

Offseason Checklist: Carolina Hurricanes

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The offseason has arrived with the draft and free agency fast approaching.  Accordingly, it’s time to look at what each team needs to accomplish this summer.  Next up is a look at Carolina.

For the fifth straight season, the Hurricanes advanced past the opening round of the playoffs.  For the second time in three years, they made it to the Eastern Conference Final but this time, they were quickly eliminated by Florida.  It’s not very often that a team that gets this far in the playoffs has the ability to take some big swings but GM Eric Tulsky is well-positioned to try to do just that to fill some big needs the roster has.

Add A Second-Line Center

With Sebastian Aho locked up through 2031-32, Carolina’s top center is in place for the long haul.  Jordan Staal is nearing the end of his career but was a reliable third liner this season and continues to be sharp at the faceoff dot so he’s a safe bet to be in that role again in 2025-26.  But in between those two, there’s an opening that needs to be filled.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi was supposed to be that piece for them after being brought over from Montreal via a successful offer sheet.  But over his four seasons with the team, he has yet to reach 20 goals and has only reached 35-plus points once.  If it weren’t for the fact that they enter the summer with a whopping $26.7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, there might be a case to make for buying out the remainder of his contract since he still qualifies for a lower one-third cost instead of the standard two-thirds.  But with the flexibility they have, they can keep him around and continue to hope that the 2018 third-overall pick will break through.

But hoping for improvement can’t be Plan A down the middle for the Hurricanes next season.  Jack Roslovic was brought in as a low-cost piece to see if he could play his way into that role.  He had some good moments and a quiet 22 goals but it seems unlikely that he returns after being scratched multiple times in the playoffs.  With much more flexibility cap-wise, they can aim a lot higher this time around after being forced into looking at lower-cost pieces last summer.

The list of key center UFAs is well-known and pretty small.  John Tavares, Sam Bennett, and Mikael Granlund are the remaining headliners.  Landing one of them would solve the problem for a few years, at least.  Otherwise, they’ll have to turn to the trade market to try to fill that spot, something that a lot of teams will likely be looking to do with options in relatively short supply.  They haven’t had a reliable second option down the middle arguably since Vincent Trocheck, and that will need to change in the coming weeks.

Add A Top-Line Winger

When the Hurricanes surprised the hockey world by acquiring Mikko Rantanen midseason, they parted with a pretty strong winger as part of the return in Martin Necas.  Of course, they weren’t able to agree on a long-term contract with Rantanen to keep him around so Tulsky opted to flip him at the trade deadline to recoup some value.  All things considered, he did rather well, adding Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks, and two third-round selections.  But with all due respect to Stankoven, a solid youngster, the move was a pretty big step back in terms of short-term talent.

Part of the reason for being open to accepting a futures-based return knowing there would be some short-term pain was the knowledge that they have that cap space available to them.  When it comes to the open market, few can offer more than the Hurricanes.  That’s definitely an enviable spot to be in.

Now, they need to take advantage of it.  They were believed to have shown interest in Mitch Marner at the trade deadline but Marner wouldn’t waive his trade protection to go there.  Was that because he didn’t want to go to Carolina or because he wanted to stay with the Maple Leafs for the playoffs?  It stands to reason they’ll find out the answer to that very quickly as he’ll almost certainly be at the top of their wish list this summer.  Failing that, Brock Boeser and Nikolaj Ehlers should be getting calls as well.

This season, the Hurricanes had two wingers record more than 50 points which is a pretty low baseline for a top-six player.  One of those was Necas in the 49 games before the trade while the other was Seth Jarvis, who reached 67 for the second straight season.  Andrei Svechnikov has gotten there a few times before but had a bit of a down year this season.  He and Jarvis aren’t a bad duo to start from but they’re going to need a pickup of considerable significance if they want to have a shot at taking that next step.

Bring In A Top-Four Defenseman

This season, the Hurricanes had three blueliners average at least 20 minutes a game.  One was Jaccob Slavin, whose new eight-year deal kicks in July 1st, one that already looks like a below-market contract.  The others were Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov, both of whom are set to reach unrestricted free agency next month.  Accordingly, they’re going to need to be replaced on the roster.

It’s likely that at least one of the two spots will be filled internally.  Alexander Nikishin was long viewed as the top blueliner outside the NHL and held his own in four playoff games.  It’s safe to say that they don’t intend to start him in the minors next season and the hope is that he’ll be able to play his way into a top-four spot relatively quickly.  Prospect Scott Morrow could also be in the mix and could fill the vacancy on the right-hand side of the back end but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Carolina prefer to give him more time with AHL Chicago.

That leaves one spot to try to fill externally.  Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly deep crop of rearguards.  Offensively, only four players had more points than Burns and Orlov and one of them (Matt Grzelcyk) doesn’t fit with Shayne Gostisbehere already on the roster.  Basically, that limits potential upgrades to Aaron Ekblad, Ivan Provorov, and Vladislav Gavrikov, while Dante Fabbro, Cody Ceci, and Ryan Lindgren have handled top-four minutes before.  That’s not a lot of options.  Speculatively, knowing Nikishin and Morrow are pegged as key pieces for the future, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see Tulsky try what worked with Orlov two years ago, offering a short-term deal at a well above-market rate.  With the league projecting big jumps in the salary cap over the next two years, it’s possible one of the better blueliners would be open to the idea.

Failing that, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Hurricanes look to the trade market to try to fill this spot.  They have a strong prospect pool and a pair of extra first-round picks in their pocket from the Rantanen deal that could help form the foundation of a swap.  Even if they are able to land a top winger and a top-six center, there should be ample money left to fill this vacancy as well.

Examine Goalie Options

With the Hurricanes re-signing Frederik Andersen to a one-year deal last month worth $2.75MM (plus $750K in potential performance bonuses), it looks like they have their goalie situation settled for next season with Pyotr Kochetkov signed for two more years as well.  With the youngster signed at $2MM per year, it seems like there isn’t anything left to do at that position.

But perhaps there should be.  Andersen has only played in more than 35 games once in the last five years.  Kochetkov hasn’t reached 50 yet and his play has been a bit more up-and-down than Carolina would like although that’s far from uncommon for young goalies.  This tandem isn’t the best in the league but there’s a solid floor.

However, that floor can be improved upon.  There probably isn’t an upgrade of significance in free agency but on the trade market, it’s possible some options become available.  Speculatively, Anaheim’s John Gibson comes to mind and he’s a player who they’ve been linked to before.  We know they can afford the short-term premium while they could afford to carry three goalies or send one the other as a salary offset.  This isn’t a must but Tulsky would be wise to sniff around to see if a goaltending upgrade could become available that would make their roster just a little stronger heading into next season.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

Hurricanes Sign Eric Robinson To Four-Year Extension

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The Carolina Hurricanes have signed forward Eric Robinson to a four-year, $6.8MM contract extension per a team release. The deal will carry an annual cap hit of $1.7MM, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Robinson has found a healthy stride in the latter half of his pro career. He originally went undrafted, and didn’t earn NHL acclaim until signing an entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets at the end of the 2017-18 season. Robinson was coming off of four impressive seasons at Princeton University. His rookie season in the AHL in 2018-19 was marked with solid impacts and hard effort – ultimately earning Robinson 24 points in 45 AHL games and the first extended NHL stint of his career, where he went scoreless in 13 games.

But Robinson wasn’t deterred – and continued to provide a strong impact to the AHL lineup through the start of the 2019-20 season. After just 14 games, Columbus made the move to promote him to a menial fourth-line role. He began rotating in-and-out of the lineup, though never managed much in the way of scoresheet impact. Prior to this season, his career-years stood as a 27-point performance in 67 games of the 2021-22 season, and 24 points in 72 games of the 2022-23 campaign.

Columbus relinquished Robinson last season, shipping him off to the Buffalo Sabres for a menial return. But Robinson began to show flashes of impact in the Buffalo lineup – even through scoring just nine points in 40 games. His stat line wasn’t enough to convince Buffalo to re-sign him, but it did catch the eye of new Carolina Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky, who signed Robinson to a one-year, $950K contract last summer.

That proved to be one of the more lucrative deals of the NHL season. Robinson posted 14 goals and 32 points while appearing in all 82 games of Carolina’s season. He was a low-stakes, high-reward lineup addition for a Hurricanes team that routinely relies on impactful pieces down the lineup. With that performance, Robinson has now earned the first million-dollar deal of his eight-year NHL career – and solidified a contract through his age-34 season.

Hurricanes Expected To Sign Stanislav Yarovoi

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The Hurricanes appear to be closing in on a contract with one of their 2023 draft picks.  Championat’s Anton Nekrasov reports that Carolina is close to signing winger Stanislav Yarovoi to an entry-level deal.

The 21-year-old was a late fourth-round selection, going 126th overall.  However, he’ll turn 22 before September 15th meaning that his contract should be a two-year agreement if and when he signs.

Yarovoi’s offensive numbers don’t exactly jump off the charts.  In his draft year, he had nine goals and seven assists with Vityaz Moscow of the KHL and he hasn’t reached that plateau since then at the top level in Russia.  He also had a dozen points in five junior-level games that year.

This season, he played in 49 games with Vityaz, tallying nine goals along with just three helpers.  His playing time was down a bit from 2023-24 as he logged 13:16 per night of playing time.

Heading into the 2023 draft, Yarovoi was noted for bringing some above-average defensive elements to his game, traits that should endear him to Carolina’s coaches as the checking gets a little tighter in North America.  Assuming a contract gets done, Yarovoi seems unlikely to crack the roster of the Hurricanes right away which would make him a candidate to start with AHL Chicago.  However, we often see Russian prospects get European Assignment Clauses to allow them to play at home a little longer so that could potentially be on the table as well.

Hurricanes Linked To Amir Miftakhov

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With veterans Dustin Tokarski and Spencer Martin set to be unrestricted free agents next month, the Hurricanes are expected to make a move to add some depth at the goaltending position.  That move could be coming soon as Championat’s Rustam Imanov reports that netminder Amir Miftakhov has rejected extension offers from KHL Ak Bars Kazan and is in the final stages of talks with Carolina about a contract for the upcoming season.

The 25-year-old was a sixth-round pick by Tampa Bay in 2020, going 186th overall.  He signed an entry-level deal with them the following year and split the 2021-22 season between AHL Syracuse (22 games) and ECHL Orlando (five appearances).  However, Miftakhov wanted to return home instead of staying in the minors and had the final two years of his contract terminated in July 2022.

Since then, Miftakhov has played in the KHL.  This past season, he played in 30 games with Kazan, posting a strong 2.18 GAA and a .927 SV% along the way.  Those were largely in line with his career numbers of a 2.19 GAA and a .922 SV% in 82 outings over parts of five seasons at that level.

While that performance probably isn’t going to be enough to give him a shot at a full-time spot with the Hurricanes (assuming a deal gets finalized), it could give him a chance to be the starter at AHL Chicago, putting him in line to be the first goalie recalled if injuries arise to Frederik Andersen or Pyotr Kochetkov.  It appears that opportunity might be enough for Miftakhov to give playing in North America another shot.

Orlov Expected To Test Free Agency

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The expectation is that Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov will test the open market next month, reports Pierre LeBrun in his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link).  The 33-year-old was somewhat of a surprise signing two years ago when he joined Carolina, eschewing a longer-term offer to accept a two-year, $15.5MM deal, one that was above-market at the time.  Orlov averaged 20 minutes a game this season while chipping in with six goals and 22 assists, making it nine straight years that he has eclipsed the 20-point mark.  While he likely won’t beat his most recent price tag, he should generate some strong interest in free agency.

Why The Hurricanes Can’t Get Over The Hump

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The Hurricanes have been near the top of the NHL standings for the bulk of the last decade. They’ve made several deep playoff runs during that time.

Despite being an analytically advanced and disciplined club, the team has just been unable to advance past the Eastern Conference Finals and fell once again this year in the third round of the playoffs. The Hurricanes are close and have been close for a while, but every year, something has been missing. The team hasn’t been able to put it all together.

Just what those missing links are has been hotly debated. One certainty is that a lack of elite finishing talent has been something that has eluded the Hurricanes for quite some time.

Carolina generates a heavy number of shots and scoring opportunities, but doesn’t have an elite 40-plus goal talent that can break games open on their own. The Hurricanes have brought those players into the fold, but they haven’t been able to keep them.

Last year at the trade deadline, the Canes acquired Jake Guentzel from the Penguins only to lose him after 28 games (17 regular season and 11 playoffs). This season, they traded for Mikko Rantanen in late January, only to trade him away after 13 games, after a disappointing stretch of play and lack of extension talks.

It’s not as though Carolina struggles to score as a team. They finished ninth in goals scored this season.

However, when the games tighten up in the playoffs and goals become more challenging to come by, the Hurricanes struggle to capitalize on the chances they generate. That’s never been more evident than in this year’s series against the Panthers, when they posted just 10 goals in five games.

Carolina has nearly $28.5MM in available cap space and just three roster spots to fill for next season, according to PuckPedia. That puts them in a very advantageous position if they want to go big game hunting in free agency and take a run at Mitch Marner or Nikolaj Ehlers.

The issue here is that Marner and Ehlers aren’t exactly snipers, so they might not be the right target for Carolina. However, on the RFA market, JJ Peterka of the Sabres could be available, and at age 23, he is coming off 28 and 27-goal seasons.

Another issue that has plagued Carolina is that their goaltending has been solid but unspectacular. Frederik Andersen, Antti Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov have been a formidable platoon over the last few years, but have been unable to steal a series when they’ve been deep in the playoffs.

It wouldn’t be fair to place blame on the goaltending. However, in the third round, teams need their goaltender to steal them a game or two if they hope to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

It’s unlikely that the Hurricanes make a change next season as they have both Andersen and Kochetkov signed to deals at an affordable combined rate of $4.75MM. The old cliché that ’if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ applies here, as it’s hard to fault the goaltending. However, Carolina shouldn’t expect their current platoon to steal them many games later in the playoffs, given that they haven’t been able to do so in the past.

In previous years, the Hurricanes have dealt with injuries to key players during the playoffs, such as Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teräväinen. This year, their stars were healthy, but they still dealt with a pair of injuries to right-shot defenseman Sean Walker and Jalen Chatfield. Rookies Scott Morrow and Alexander Nikishin had to make their postseason debuts in their absence, and the former looked especially overmatched.

The Canes have been blessed for years with an incredible amount of depth and have been able to overcome injuries to their key players. However, when a star like Svechnikov goes down, there is no way to overcome it without more high-level finishing talent.

Even championship teams can fall in the playoffs if they lose a top-six winger or top-four defenseman. Pittsburgh dealt with this on several occasions during the primes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin when they lost multiple top-end pieces.

In 2011, the Penguins were a Stanley Cup favorite until both stars went down to injury, and the Penguins fell in the first round to Tampa Bay. In 2015, it was their defense that took a beating as the Penguins lost three of their top four defensemen, and again, Pittsburgh was bounced in the first round.

However, in 2016 and 2017, Pittsburgh overcame injuries to Marc-André Fleury and Kris Letang to win back-to-back Cups, eventually dispelling the injury excuse and achieving success despite not having full use of their roster. If Carolina wants to take the next step, they will need to do the same and overcome the adversity of losing essential pieces if and when it happens.

The Penguins teams of 2016 and 2017 relied heavily on their star power to overcome the injuries and obstacles. At some point, the Hurricanes will need the same if they hope to take the next step.

You can’t fault the stars for Carolina’s losses, as Sebastian Aho has been nearly a point-a-game player in his playoff career, and Svechnikov has been good in the last two playoffs.  It comes back to the issue of not having enough firepower to help the stars that are there. Unless Carolina can add some elite scoring, as well as have their goalies steal some games in the latter stages of the playoffs, they might end up back here again next year.

Perhaps the tweak doesn’t need to be as dramatic as adding high-end forwards, but rather prioritizing the finding of players who can capitalize on the many high-danger chances they generate. The Hurricanes had just two players (who played more than 20 games) who shot over 15% last year, while a team like the lowly Sabres had five players do so.

Finding players who can capitalize on scoring opportunities won’t come easily, but there are a few players out there that Carolina could target. The aforementioned Rust and Rakell both shot north of 15%, as did Peterka.

Vancouver’s Brock Boeser is another player who has shot the lights out over the last two seasons, firing at a rate of 19.6% during 2023-24 and 17.2% this past season. Matt Duchene would be another potential target after shooting 19.7% this past year. Both are pending unrestricted free agents

The issue with targeting players who have a high shooting percentage is that there can be significant fluctuations in the numbers, and those players tend to have inflated perceived value, which can drive up the cost to acquire them. If the Hurricanes wanted to go cheaper, there are plenty of options available who can shoot with precision.

Washington’s Andrew Mangiapane is a career 14.4% shooter and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer; his value declined this past year after he posted just 28 points (14 goals and 14 assists) in 81 games. Jonathan Toews could be another target if he does indeed return. Toews hasn’t played since the 2022-23 season, but he is a career 13.8% shooter and shot 17.2% in his final season two years ago.

Photo by Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

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