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Sebastian Aho

Teams Contacting Top RFAs As Interview Period Opens

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The NHL hasn’t seen an offer sheet in some time, but with an unprecedented amount of talent on the restricted free agent market this season some have speculated might be time for it to happen again. Today that speculation has turned into reporting that some teams are reaching out to at least inquire about the possibility. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Mitch Marner’s camp has received calls from multiple teams, while Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports on similar situations regarding Kyle Connor and Sebastian Aho. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Carolina Hurricanes remain at the forefront of any negotiations with their young free agents, but even this kind of outside contact is irregular for the NHL offseason.

Today was the first day teams could contact restricted free agents, and while it has likely happened in the past the media chatter this year has been at another level. It is important to remember that the player has to agree to sign an offer sheet and his original team is then given a chance to match it. If they choose not to, that team receives compensation in the form of draft picks depending on the value of the signed deal.

The Maple Leafs and Jets especially are in tight financial situations given their proximity to the cap ceiling, and could be at risk of an offer sheet if a team were willing to go high enough with the salary. That said, giving up a number of future draft choices just for the opportunity to overpay a player does seem quite counter-productive in terms of building a competitive team. Still, the RFA group includes some incredible talent this year that may never be available again.

Metropolitan Notes: Lee, Aho, Marleau, Subban, Provorov

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Talks continue to be ongoing, but so far there has been no contract agreement between the New York Islanders and their captain Anders Lee. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that he saw Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello and Lee’s agent, Neil Sheehy were having a lengthy discussion during the draft Saturday. However, with unrestricted free agents being allowed to talk to other teams Sunday, a potential deal could be even more challenging.

In fact, Newsday’s Brian Heyman reports that he spoke to Lee, who remarked that the two sides haven’t reached an agreement yet.

“I never thought it would get to this point, but I guess it’s the nature of what this week means,” Lee said.

Lee said his first choice is to remain with the Islanders, but the belief is that the two sides remain far apart when it comes to term with New York likely wanting to avoid giving the veteran too long of a contract considering he’s already 28 and the team may not want to pay big into his mid-30’s.

  • Carolina Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said that he had a “great discussion” yesterday with Sebastian Aho’s representation, according to NHL.com’s Michael Smith. The 21-year-old forward will be a restricted free agent on July 1 and the team hopes to lock Aho to a long-term deal now. He scored 30 goals and 83 points last season, both career highs and continually has shown improvement every year. “I think things are going to move along. … The good thing is I don’t think we’re terribly far apart. They want to get a deal done as much as we want to get a deal done.”
  • Smith also tweets that Waddell was thrilled to walk away from the Patrick Marleau deal with a future first-round pick and said that while the rumors suggest that Carolina intends to buyout Marleau, Waddell said they intend to talk to Marleau and see if he is interested in staying with Carolina. “For us, when you can pick up assets like that, like a 1st round pick, that’s important for the future. The plan would be to meet with Patrick, talk with him and see where he’s at. If he wanted to be a Hurricane, we’d certainly love to have him.”
  • Before trading for P.K. Subban earlier today, New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero said he spoke to both Taylor Hall and former Devil Brian Boyle about Subban before pulling the trigger on the deal, according to NHL.com’s Amanda Stein. Subban, who possesses a powerful personality, wanted to make sure that Subban would be a good fit as well as making sure that Hall approved of the deal, considering the Devils must convince their star player to re-sign at some point. NHL.com’s Dan Rosen also confirmed from Shero that the Nashville Predators did not retain any salaries as part of the deal.
  • Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi reports that the Philadelphia Flyers haven’t gotten very far yet with restricted free agent defenseman Ivan Provorov. General manager Chuck Fletcher said that progress with Provorov is slow because the team is waiting for the market to set before signing him. However, Fletcher did admit the team is much closer to signing restricted free agent Travis Sanheim and Scott Laughton.

 

Calgary Flames, Matthew Tkachuk Taking Time To Get Deal Done

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The Calgary Flames have many offseason tasks they must deal with this summer, but the No. 1 priority of the team is locking up their top restricted free agent, Matthew Tkachuk. However, with a number of big-name restricted free agents cashing in on mega contracts in the last couple of years, the negotiations are expected to take a while. In fact, The Fourth Period reports that the two sides are in no rush to get a deal done quickly.

Both Calgary and Tkachuk have already had initial discussions, but negotiations aren’t expected to pick up again until later this month, most likely after the NHL Entry Draft. Much of the initial discussions likely dealt with the type of deal that Tkachuk is looking for as he could either sign a short-term bridge deal or a long-term deal. If the team isn’t ready to shell out an expensive long-term deal, they could offer a three-year bridge deal in hopes of seeing whether Tkachuk is worthy of such a deal that would take him to his final year of restricted free agency.

Several restricted free agents have cashed in recently, especially in Toronto as Auston Matthews signed a five-year, $58.2MM contract ($11.63MM AAV) in February, while William Nylander signed a six-year, $45MM deal ($6.96MM AAV) in December after holding out. There are quite a few key restricted free agents this offseason and Tkachuk might want to wait some of them out to see what the market sets at, including Toronto’s Mitch Marner, Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, San Jose’s Timo Meier and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor amongst others.

Tkachuk is coming off a breakout season in the final year of his entry-level deal as he potted 35 goals and picked up 77 points this season, something they were hoping for after they drafted him sixth overall in 2016. A physical, menace-type player, Tkachuk is critical to the team’s long-term plans, but with plenty of cap concerns approaching, the team could opt to give him a little less money if he accepts a shorter-term deal. However, a long-term deal might be the preferred outcome in case Tkachuk continues to take steps forward in his development, which is quite possible considering he’s still only 21 years old.

The Flames are projected to have more than $14MM in cap space this offseason, giving them the room to lock up Tkachuk to a long-term deal, although the team still has other key restricted free agents in Sam Bennett, Andrew Mangiapane and goaltender David Rittich to sign. The team also must decide on whether to bring back unrestricted free agent Mike Smith in net to pair with Rittich. If not, the team will have to find a goaltender on the free agent market to replace him. That could take up a significant amount of cap room, although there have been rumors the team could move one of their veteran defenseman, either T.J. Brodie or Travis Hamonic, to open up some more cap space and free up a defensive roster spot for some of their upcoming defensive prospects. General manager Brad Treliving might also attempt to trade forward James Neal and his bloated $5.75MM AAV contract, although finding a taker might prove to be a challenge considering he has four more years remaining on his contract.

Pacific Notes: Boeser, Brodie, Schmaltz

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While the names of Mitch Marner, Sebastian Aho, Brayden Point and William Karlsson are popular names brought up amongst the multitude of upcoming restricted free agents this summer, one name that often gets missed is Vancouver Canucks winger Brock Boeser. The 22-year-old has been a key figure with the Canucks the past two years as he’s combined for 51 goals and 111 points in the last two seasons, making him quite an interesting figure, considering Vancouver needs to lock him up.

The Athletic’s Harman Dayal (subscription required) analyzes what it might take for the Canucks to sign Boeser this summer. While the Canucks have the cap space to be generous to their young forward, the scribe writes they need to be cautious as both Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes will be watching as they will also be looking for new record-breaking deals in the next two years, but when noting that it took Boeser a couple of years to break into the league before his entry-level deal kicked in, the best comparisons are Filip Forsberg and Jordan Eberle. With those numbers in mind, the scribe says that a rough estimate puts Boeser at approximately $7.25MM with Boeser likely asking for $8MM, while the Canucks hoping to keep it as close to $7MM as possible.

However, with no eligibility for arbitration or a potential offer sheet to use as leverage, Boeser isn’t exactly in the prime situation to force the Canucks to pay $8MM unless he wants to hold out.

  • While there has been talk that the Calgary Flames might be ready to move on from defenseman T.J. Brodie with their influx of talented blueliners ready to take bigger roles in the near future, The Athletic’s Kent Wilson (subscription required) does an in-depth look at Mark Giordano as well as his impact on Brodie. The scribe notes that Brodie, who looked to be on the decline a year ago, had an improved year when paired with Giordano, but when he wasn’t playing with the star defenseman, Brodie’s numbers were extremely mediocre, even more suggesting that Calgary might be best served in moving Brodie now before his value slips even more. The 28-year-old will be in a contract-year at $4.65MM, which might make him even more valuable to other NHL teams.
  • Craig Morgan of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that Arizona Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz, who the team acquired last November but only appeared in 17 games before going down with a season-ending meniscus injury, is changing his diet in hopes of being in the best shape of his career. With a history of eating burgers and cheese curds, the team has asked him to start eating healthier this summer. “I have never really cooked in my life,” he said. “It was always easier to go out or order something, but learning how to cook healthy food is a big step, and you can really focus on that in the summer.”

Poll: Toughest First-Round Opponent For Tampa Bay Lightning?

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It’s been months since any team in the East other than the Tampa Bay Lightning was considered to have any real chance at the top seed in the conference. The Lightning have been one of the most dominant regular season teams in recent memory, locking up the President’s Trophy more than two weeks ago and joining the 60-win club earlier this week.

What has also been clear for some time is that Tampa would be destined to face the Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round of the playoffs, as their two divisional rivals have been near the top of the league standings for much of the year and always on a collision course to play each other in round one due to the NHL’s current playoff format. Yet, it’s easy to forget that the Lightning too have to win in the first round. Many have taken it as a foregone conclusion that Tampa would advance, but upsets occur in sports and the Lighting are as susceptible to a collapse as any heavy favorites that have fallen in the past.

So who has the best chance to knock off the regular season champs? Well, the defending Stanley Cup winners would have been an ideal match-up, but the Washington Capitals pulled out of range of a wild card finish earlier this week and clinched the top seed in the Metropolitan Division with a win on Thursday. The New York Islanders, with their suffocating defensive style and stellar goaltending, also would have been an intriguing opponent, but they have also assured themselves of a non-wildcard spot. Finally, the star-studded Pittsburgh Penguins would have made for a difficult and highly entertaining series with the Bolts, but a win on Thursday night guaranteed that they cannot finish any lower than seventh in the conference.

That leaves three potential opponents for Tampa Bay in round one: the Carolina Hurricanes, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Montreal Canadiens. Two of these three teams will make the playoffs – Carolina has clinched a playoff berth with a Thursday night victory – but only one will be lucky enough to land the second wild card spot and go up against the Lightning. Of these three, which one could pull off the eight seed upset?

The Hurricanes are on pace to finish seventh in the East and avoid Tampa and they cannot be caught by the Canadiens. However, if the the Blue Jackets pass by Carolina, the team would have to celebrate their first postseason in ten years by playing the Bolts. The ’Canes could give the Lightning problems with their ability to suppress shots, as they are the only team in the conference that allows less than 29 shots per game on average. A defense corps that is among the deepest and most talented in the league makes offense a struggle for the opposition and the added bonus of consistent play in net explains why Carolina is eighth-best in the league in goals against per game. Despite the franchise’s lack of postseason experience of late, Justin Williams and Jordan Staal are also major assets when it comes to playing smart, tough playoff hockey. The main concern for the Hurricanes though is that they have not been as successful offensively as they have been defensively. Despite leading the league in shots per game, the team is 16th in goals for per game and 20th on the power play and they’ve lacked game-breaking scoring talent this season outside of Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen. It’s impossible to expect to shutout Tampa Bay, so if Carolina can’t find some secondary scoring they could struggle against the Bolts.

As of now, Columbus looks like the favorite to finish eighth and play Tampa. That might not be what GM Jarmo Kekalainen expected when he added Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, and Adam McQuaid at the trade deadline, but those moves will certainly help anyway. The Blue Jackets franchise has never won a playoff series and doing so against this Lightning team would be a tall task. However, they have both considerable talent and a chip on their shoulder. Like Carolina, Columbus does not allow many shots nor many goals and additionally have the best penalty kill in the conference. Unlike Carolina, they also have a star goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky. The Jackets would need Bobrovksy to shake off past struggles in the postseason, but if he does the Vezina Trophy-winner could be a game-changer. Offensively, Columbus has had an up-and-down year but are currently 12th in goals for per game. Duchene and Dzingel are major additions to a forward unit that already included elite talent like Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson. Unfortunately, all of this ability up front has still not led to consistent offense nor has it cured a miserable power play. Failure to capitalize on opportunities could be the Achilles heel of this team.

Then there’s Montreal, who need some help to make the playoffs, but could make waves if they do. The Canadiens can only end up in the eighth seed, so it’s Tampa or bust. Montreal can never quite be counted out with Carey Price in net and Shea Weber on the blue line, but the question is whether the other pieces are there to pull off not one but four wins against the Bolts. To their credit, the Habs have been a very balanced, consistent team this season that is right in the middle of the pack when it comes to goals and shots for as well as goals and shots against. Their power play is dead last in the NHL, which is obviously not typical of a playoff team, but it’s hard to find many other holes in their game. The problem is that nothing jumps out as being good enough for a massive upset, either. If Max Domi and Tomas Tatar stay hot and Price stands on his head as usual, anything is possible, but the Canadiens have simply been a good team and anyone who beats the Lightning will need to be great. Can they step up?

What do you think? The standings might say Columbus is the most likely opponent for Tampa Bay at this point, but who would be the toughest match-up for the President’s Trophy winners?

Metropolitan Notes: Holtby, Bjugstad, Niederreiter

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The Washington Capitals finally broke their seven-game losing streak, but there still is plenty of concern on whether the Stanley Cup champions can re-establish themselves as top candidates to re-capture the title this season. While many point to fatigue as the team played a lot of extra games in the playoffs last season, there are even bigger concerns, including the goaltending.

Perhaps one of the biggest area of concern, according to The Athletic’s Scott Burnside (subscription required) is the play of their goaltending, most particularly the play of Braden Holtby, who is posting another disappointing regular season. Despite an impressive Stanley Cup championship run during the playoffs, Holtby struggled during the regular season with a 2.99 GAA and a .907 save percentage. This year has been even more disappointing as the veteran has a 3.10 GAA and a .905 save percentage. He ranks 19th, among goalies with 20 or more appearances, at even-strength save percentage with a .918.

“The goalies have just lost it here,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said. “They’re flailing away at it, letting in bad goals at bad times, stuff like that.”

  • Seth Rorabaugh of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that the impressive play of Pittsburgh Penguins’ newly acquired center Nick Bjugstad could eventually bring about head coach Mike Sullivan’s dream of spreading out Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel over three lines. The belief is that the additions of Bjugstad as well as Jared McCann should open up multiple possibilities on offense which neither Derick Brassard or Riley Sheahan did. “Nick Bjugstad is a guy that’s shown an ability to score in this league,” Sullivan said of a player whose career season of 2014-15 saw him score 24 goals and 43 points in 72 games. “He’s a 45- to 50-point guy. He has more upside, he’s still young. He brings more size to our team and a whole lot of skill.”
  • News & Observer’s Chip Alexander asks the question ’What was Paul Fenton thinking?’ when referring to what so far looks to be a steal of a trade when the Carolina Hurricanes acquired Nino Niederreiter from Fenton and the Minnesota Wild for Victor Rask. Niederreiter has sparked the team with five goals in five games as the team has gone 3-1-1 in that span, including a big victory over Vegas Friday, while Rask has just one assist in Minnesota over four games. Niederreiter seems to have found a home on the team’s first line next to Sebastian Aho and veteran Justin Williams.

2019 All-Star Rosters Announced

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The NHL has announced the four rosters for the 2019 All-Star Game today, scheduled to be held on January 26th in San Jose. Earlier today, Alex Ovechkin, who was elected captain of Metropolitan Division squad, told the league that he wouldn’t be attending and will accept the punishment of missing one game either before or after the break. Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Auston Matthews will represent the Pacific, Central and Atlantic respectively, as the other captains. A replacement Metropolitan captain for Ovechkin has yet to be named.

The full rosters are as follows:

Pacific Division

G John Gibson (ANA)
G Marc-Andre Fleury (VGK)

D Erik Karlsson (SJS)
D Brent Burns (SJS)
D Drew Doughty (LAK)

F Connor McDavid (EDM)*
F Johnny Gaudreau (CGY)
F Joe Pavelski (SJS)
F Elias Pettersson (VAN)
F Clayton Keller (ARI)

Central Division

G Pekka Rinne (NSH)
G Devan Dubnyk (MIN)

D Roman Josi (NSH)
D Miro Heiskanen (DAL)

F Nathan MacKinnon (COL)*
F Mikko Rantanen (COL)
F Blake Wheeler (WPG)
F Patrick Kane (CHI)
F Mark Scheifele (WPG)
F Ryan O’Reilly (STL)

Atlantic Division

G Jimmy Howard (DET)
G Carey Price (MTL)

D Keith Yandle (FLA)
D Thomas Chabot (OTT)

F Auston Matthews (TOR)*
F Nikita Kucherov (TBL)
F Steven Stamkos (TBL)
F John Tavares (TOR)
F David Pastrnak (BOS)
F Jack Eichel (BUF)

Metropolitan Division

G Henrik Lundqvist (NYR)
G Braden Holtby (WAS)

D John Carlson (WSH)
D Seth Jones (CBJ)

F Sidney Crosby (PIT)
F Taylor Hall (NJD)
F Mathew Barzal (NYI)
F Claude Giroux (PHI)
F Cam Atkinson (CBJ)
F Sebastian Aho (CAR)

*Denotes team captain

One final skater spot on each roster has yet to be announced, as it will be determined by the “Last Man In” fan ballot, a concept borrowed from Major League Baseball. The format of the current All-Star Game, which requires one representative from each team on these smaller 3-on-tournament rosters, was bound to cause some confusion with the initial selections. Seven top-twenty scorers were not selected – Mitch Marner, Brayden Point, Leon Draisaitl, Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk, Phil Kessel, and Gabriel Landeskog – and several will inevitably remain out of All-Star participation even after the fan ballot additions. Morgan Rielly, the league’s top-scoring defenseman, and Mark Giordano, enjoying an elite season on both sides of the puck, are two surprising omissions on the blue line. Several of the league’s top goalies are also going to miss out, ineligible for the fan ballot, including Ben Bishop, Frederik Andersen, and Andrei Vasilevskiy. The “Last Man In” will be an intriguing new addition to the All-Star process, with nominees to be named shortly, but more than a few notable names will be left out regardless. Meanwhile, the health of players like Price and Chabot for Team Atlantic and Hall for Team Metropolitan will bear watching, as those players may opt to skip the All-Star festivities, opening up more players to selection.

Eastern Notes: Nylander, Elliott, Hedman, Rask

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are running out of time to sign restricted free agent William Nylander and as each day passes, general manager Kyle Dubas may be more and more inclined to look to deal Nylander before they lose him for the season.

In Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada segment, Elliotte Friedman said that if/when the Maple Leafs decide to move Nylander, expect the Carolina Hurricanes to be ready to make a deal.

“When the time does come — if the time does come that Toronto decides they are going to deal [Nylander] — Carolina has made it very clear that they are all in,” said Friedman.

Carolina has a number of key assets that might interest Toronto, including defensemen Justin Faulk and Brett Pesce. Nylander would be another key piece for the Hurricanes to build up their forward core that already includes Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.

  • The Philadelphia Flyers lost one of their goalies Saturday when Michal Neuvirth was sent back home to Philadelphia for medical reasons. Now, Sam Carchidi of Philly.com writes that Brian Elliott left practice early today after he collided with teammate Travis Konecny. The injury-prone goalie left holding his head, but there is no update, nor is it known if he can play in Monday’s game against Arizona. If not, Calvin Pickard will fill in for him and the team may have to recall Alex Lyon from Lehigh Valley of the AHL. The 33-year-old Elliott has been adequate at best so far in 10 appearances this year. He has a 3.10 GAA and an .893 save percentage.
  • The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) reports that Tampa Bay Lightning head coach said defenseman Victor Hedman, who has been out since Oct. 26 when he collided with Vegas’ Ryan Reaves will be out on Tuesday, but could be ready to return later this week.
  • With lots of mailbag questions about Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, NBC Sports Joe Hagerty writes that he doubts the team would be able to trade the struggling Rask in any upcoming deal. The 31-year-old Rask, who has been outplayed by free agent Jaroslav Halak so far this season, has a 3.15 GAA and a .902 save percentage in six appearances. However, his contract ($7MM AAV for two more years after this one), but more particularly his no-trade clause will prevent Boston from moving him. While many teams might want to give Rask a new opportunity, Haggerty writes he doesn’t believe that Rask has any interest in leaving Boston and wouldn’t be willing to waive his no-trade clause.

Hurricanes Making Progress In Contract Talks With Sebastian Aho

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The Hurricanes have made progress towards locking up star winger Sebastian Aho to a long-term deal, reports Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News and Observer.  GM Don Waddell acknowledged that he’s hopeful a deal can be reached by the end of the season.  If he’s unsigned at that point, he will become a restricted free agent this summer but will not have salary arbitration rights.

The 21-year-old is off to a prolific start to his year, setting a franchise record for a consecutive point streak to start a season while also equalling an NHL record for the most consecutive games with an assist to start a season.  While negotiations have been ongoing since the start of the year, it’s reasonable to suspect that this has boosted the asking price as talks progress.

Waddell provided a little insight into the talks, noting that there are roughly 20 reasonably-comparable players to the winger.  Aho and agent Gerry Johansson have three outliers on the high end of that scale while the team has three on the low end.  The two sides are looking to find a middle ground between the remainder of those comparables with Waddell stating that “The amount of money we’re talking, there’s not a crazy difference”.

One of the outliers on Aho and Johansson’s end is believed to be Sabres center Jack Eichel who is in the first season of an eight-year, $80MM contract.  Alexander notes that a deal like that is not on the table for Aho.

Some potential comparable players that aren’t on quite as expensive of a contract would include Winnipeg center Mark Scheifele, Colorado pivot Nathan MacKinnon, Calgary center Sean Monahan plus winger Johnny Gaudreau, and Boston winger David Pastrnak.  All of those players are top-line options on their respective clubs and carry cap hits between $6.125MM and $6.75MM.  With the Upper Limit increasing in recent years, the equivalent salary cap percentage could realistically stretch Aho’s next contract over the $7MM mark.

Carolina won’t have any issue fitting Aho’s next deal onto their books as they have just shy of $47MM committed to 13 players for next season, per CapFriendly.  He’s one of their lowest-paid players this season with a base salary of just $925K (the entry-level maximum) but by this time one year from now, Aho will almost assuredly be the top-paid player on the Hurricanes, surpassing center Jordan Staal ($6MM) for that title.

Metro Notes: Ho-Sang, Aho, Goalies

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The selection of Josh Ho-Sang in 2014 hasn’t worked out very well for the New York Islanders. The 28th-overall pick has played in just 43 games in the NHL, and failed to make the Islanders out of camp once again. Now, in a new piece from Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post, Ho-Sang doesn’t believe he even had much of a chance. Detailing how he rarely played in the preseason and was quickly cut, Ho-Sang also doesn’t feel as though he’s getting a very good opportunity in the minor leagues with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

This isn’t the first time the talented forward has spoken out about his treatment in the Islanders organization, as just last March he pointed out that they wanted him to work on his defensive game while the NHL team was giving up the most goals in the league. The 22-year old has just four assists and zero goals in his first nine games with the Sound Tigers this year, and might be getting close to the point of needing a fresh start in a different organization. There’s no indication that the Islanders are looking to trade him, but there is obviously a frustration between the two sides.

  • You won’t find that kind of divide between the Carolina Hurricanes and their own talented young forward, as Sebastian Aho is very happy to explore long-term deals with the club. Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer details the latest in contract negotiations, noting that both sides are looking for a long-term contract extension and believe it will get done before the end of the year. The two sides are relatively close in terms of salary, but are just working out where exactly the talented youngster will land among his contemporaries. Aho is off to an excellent start with 16 points in his first 11 games, and could easily surpass his career-high of 65 set last season. The 21-year old is in the final year of his entry-level contract, and looks like a budding superstar after making the move to center this season.
  • Meanwhile, Carolina also has some tough decisions to make when it comes to their current roster. The team still has three goaltenders with them after activating Scott Darling from injured reserve, and are obviously loath to lose one on waivers. Curtis McElhinney and Petr Mrazek have not been very good this season despite the Hurricanes strong start, but it’s not obvious which of the three goaltenders would provide the least value at the NHL level. For now, they’ll work with three on the roster according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, at least for their upcoming road trip.

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