The Carolina Hurricanes Could Look Like A Different Team Next Season
Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period joined TSN Radio in Montreal and was asked about the changes that could be coming with the Carolina Hurricanes with so many free agents this summer.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
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Host: “Dave, we saw the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Center on Saturday Night, and you know, that’s a really good team. But what do you think the offseason looks like for a Carolina Hurricanes team that has only three defensemen under contract?
RFA status on (Martin) Necas and (Seth) Jarvis. Necas is being eligible for arbitration. And you also have (Teuvo) Teravainen as an unrestricted free agent. That is a team that, if they don’t win, like there’s a lot of change coming or not.”
Dave Pagnotta: “There’s a lot of potential for change. Absolutely. And those contract negotiations with Teravainen, Brett Pesce, and Brady Skjei, were almost non-existent this season. They had some conversations going into the season. There was some back and forth, but from a negotiation perspective, you know, there’s talks which are nice. And they try to shift the narrative, but at least that’s the message: hey, we’re talking, but you’re talking, but are you negotiating?
No, they weren’t with those guys this season. So they’re gonna have to get their act together relatively quickly when their season comes to a close after the playoffs to try to figure out what they want to do. Then you’ve got Jake Guentzel, whom I think they’re going to go all in for. They have relayed the message that they want to go all in to try to sign him to an extension. So we’ll see kind of where that goes.
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But, you know, Necas, this was a guy that was put into a package for Elias Pettersson, and obviously that didn’t get anywhere. They made it known that they would be willing to listen on him to other teams. It seems to be some type of, well, maybe they’re scared a little bit of what they think he may ask for as an RFA if they get to arbitration. So that could be a player that we may see, or at least hear about a little bit more in the summer. Once the season ends, once we get closer to draft time, there’s that potential.
So you’re right. There could be a decent amount of changeover in Carolina this offseason if they don’t address certain things relatively quickly between the end of their season and July one.”
