Canes didn't make a trade recently, but they're still getting an impact from this one

So the Carolina Hurricanes have been linked to a lot of different moves this offseason. They've been busy.

They've been active. They brought back Tony D'Angelo. They've re-signed him. That was the most recent signing.

He spent last season with the Philadelphia Flyers. But they brought back Tony D'Angelo. They brought in Demetri Orloff. So they brought in two more defensemen.

I know Shane Gosta's pair didn't come back, but overall, Orloff, I would say better than Gosta's pair. Then you bring in D'Angelo. So your defense got even better with the addition of Orloff. Also, you added Mike Bunting up front, which I think is a great move. Also, you added Brendan Lemieux, who is like a fourth line guy, tough guy, who had, I think, five fights in 45 games last season. He had five fighting majors. Carolina Hurricanes as a team as a whole last season in the regular season had six. So, you know, got that toughness in there a little bit.

He checks that box. Exactly. It's okay. But yeah, you lost a couple of guys like Paul Stastny, Derek Stepan. These were like depth guys, like fourth line depth guys. Now, Stastny a couple of times would bump up in the lineup if needed.

But otherwise, that's what you lost. So the core of your team's back, you brought back Jesper Faust. You brought back Jordan Stahl. You got the contract extension done with Sebastian Ahoyo.

But there was a deal that was out there. There was a trade proposal or there trade rumor, I guess you could say, that the Carolina Hurricanes were going to try make another trade with the San Jose Sharks to bring in a defenseman like they did last offseason for Brent Burns and to go get Eric Carlson. Eric Carlson last season had over 100 points, was the Norris Trophy winner for best defenseman in the NHL.

He's 33 years old, has a salary cap hit of over 11 million dollars. My thing is, they didn't need Eric Carlson. Eric Carlson got traded in a three-way deal between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Montreal Canadiens and the San Jose Sharks. Eric Carlson's going to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fine. Now, the Penguins are in the same metropolitan division as the Carolina Hurricanes. So there's that impact, I guess you could say. Now they got to face them four times a year.

That's fine. Gaines are already a great team already. I ain't worried about that. The Carolina Hurricanes didn't need to be in the running for Eric Carlson. I'm happy they did not make this trade because I'm happy with the fact that they're not going to be locked in with the players contract for four more seasons when that player is aged 33 and getting older.

And you know what? I bet that his point production and stuff is just going to decline each of those four seasons. Now, if he puts up another 100 points this upcoming season, fine. But again, you're looking at four more years of a player at age 33 getting older that I don't think you're going to get the production based off the cost that you were going to, you know, based off the cost that they had to get them, wasn't going to be worth the deal.

It's okay. Now they do have questions the Carolina Hurricanes in regards to, now what do they do with their defense? As of right now, they have eight defensemen on their roster. Slavin' Burns is your top defensive pair.

You have Sheng, you have Pesci. Then you have Orlov, you have Chatfield, and then DeAngelo, and then also Dylan Coughlin. Dylan Coughlin last year played in 17 games. He's on a one-year restricted free agent contract.

He's making $850,000. He's that, he's that extra, he's the healthy extra. That's what he was much of last season. He was the healthy extra. Just in case there's an injury, he was ready to step in.

Otherwise, that's where he was. And that's okay. There's a role for that in the NHL. But you have seven legit NHL defensemen on your roster.

Seven? Rob Brind'Amour's not going to dress seven. He's going to dress 12 forwards and six defensemen.

So you got decisions to make here. So I'm happy they didn't try and go out and get Eric Carlson. They didn't need it. Now they got Michael Bunting in free agency from the Toronto Maple Leafs to play up front. Andrey Svechnikov, hopefully everything in his recovery from his ACL injury, that everything's going well, and that he's ready to go come season start. If not, fully healthy, like he'll be healthy enough to play, then continue to gain form as the season goes along. Get stronger as the season progresses.

But the question is, can you add another scoring piece? Now the Canes were in the running apparently for Vladimir Teresenko, who signed a one-year deal with the Ottawa Senators. Canes don't have a lot of salary cap space, but they have a surplus of a position that a lot of teams covet. So for example, right-handed defensemen who can move the puck really well and can generate some offense, those guys are like left-handed starting pitchers in Major League Baseball, right? Like everyone needs them or lefties out of the bullpen.

Everyone needs them, but a lot of people have trouble finding them. Like they're a lot harder to come by, and the Canes just have like a surplus of them. Eventually one of these teams is going to have to move. Now the name being floated out there, most likely to be traded, is Brett Pesci. Brett Pesci is, you can argue, the top penalty killer. At least he skated the most penalty killing minutes for the Carolina Hurricanes this past season, was up there. Also one of the leader in block shots among the defensemen last season, and has an offensive touch to his game as well.

And he skates in the top four and he's 28 years old. Yeah, a lot of teams are going to be giving up a lot to get that guy, because he's going into the final year of his contract. If Carolina's not able to assign him to a long-term deal, well then guess what? I can maybe make a trade for him, work with his agent before the trade to make sure I get a deal set in place so I can lock that guy up for the next several seasons.

Now it's going to cost you a little bit to trade for him because of a position that he plays and what, you know, a lot of teams covet that. So can you flip that into another top forward? You still need that goal scoring touch. The Carolina Hurricanes last season were in the top two overall in the league of scoring chances and high danger scoring chances.

It's like these advanced stats, right? Basically, are you generating shots but really, really good ones? You're not like, oh, I'm just going to flick a little wrist shot from the blue line that the goalie clearly sees and I can just catch it easily and stop the play. That's not a high danger scoring chance. We're talking like within five feet of the net, you know, traffic in front, those kinds of scoring opportunities. They were top two in the league last season in that, right up there with the New Jersey Devils. The Kings finished 15th in scoring and goals per game last season. So you're generating chances but you ain't scoring the goals.

So what should you do? It ain't going out and getting more defense. It ain't going out and getting Eric Alston. Your goals allowed and each of the last couple seasons you've been like top five in the NHL. And that's with a multitude of goalies coming in. You're one of the best in the NHL in terms of goals against and scoring chances against.

You're one of the best. You don't need more defense. You need more guys up front.

More guys that can fecking finish. Now, that's something they brought in last year with Max Pacharetti but only played in five games. With those five games, you saw him on the ice. It's like, oh, there's something a little bit different here. But with the tearing your Achilles twice, rough.

Yeah, those are hard to come back from and not hurt again. But he's off in Washington now. Right. Which is totally fine. Carolina, even Don Waddell said, you know, you can't rely on that. You just can't rely on that.

And that's totally fine. So they thought they may have got that last year. So missing Pacharetti, pretty much the entire season. And then Sebastian Koff also going down. He's still got to the Easter conference final. Now goal scoring from the blue line, they led the league in defense for goals scored.

That's not the problem. But nonetheless, they need to make a move to take one of their defensemen that they have. My guess, it's either Shea or it's Pesci.

And they need it. My guess, most likely Pesci. They need to turn that into a top six forward, someone that can score. Who's that go-to guy, right? Who's that go-to guy up front for them?

Maybe Sebastian Aho continues to develop and be that. Maybe it's Swetshnikov. This isn't the first time we've seen Swetshnikov miss time in the playoffs. In the bubble, he had a lower body injury in the bubble back in 2020.

And he had to miss some time. And we also saw him in 2018, 2019, when the Canes made that run to the Easter conference finals. He got in that fight with Alex Ovechkin, got knocked out, missed the rest of the playoffs. We didn't see him play in the playoffs this past season. So we haven't seen fully healthy Swetshnikov multiple times really in the post season over the last five years. That's something I want to see as well going forward.

That's actually I think a big question mark that we haven't really talked about a whole lot. Is that Swetshnikov has missed post season time three of the last five post seasons. I like to see that young man healthy because he's that darn good. And this Canes team right there. I think he won a cup. We're far from it. But the Canes did not trade for Eric Carlson. And I'm okay with that. I 100% support it.