May 21, 2024 | 12:08pm ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

HURRICANES TOP FREE AGENTS HOPE TO STAY

Brett Pesce, defenceman

With eight pending unrestricted free agents on the roster, the Carolina Hurricanes could look a little different next season.

Forwards Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, Jordan Martinook and Stefan Noesen, and defencemen Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei, Tony DeAngelo and Jalen Chatfield are all set to become UFAs July 1, while young stars Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas lead the list of pending restricted free agents.

Speaking with the media alongside head coach Rod Brind’Amour on Monday, Hurricanes GM Don Waddell acknowledged that he would like to keep everyone, but that seems unlikely – the Hurricanes have roughly $30.9 million in salary cap space going into next season.

“We’d like to sign them all, (but) there’s this thing called the salary cap that won’t allow us to do that,” Waddell said. “Rod and I have talked, (but) we haven’t sat down and really prioritized player-by-player. We know that we’d like to try to keep as much of our D together; we’ve got one of the best D corps in the league.”

With Pesce and Skjei, the Canes are at risk of losing one of their defensive duos this summer. Both are expected to be hot commodities if they hit the open market. As TFP’s David Pagnotta has reported on multiple occasions, which the players confirmed on Monday, contract talks between Carolina and their top pending UFAs were minimal this season.

Skjei admitted there “hasn’t been a ton” of contract negotiating during the season and he’s just looking for a “fair offer” from the club.

“We’ll see what that looks like,” Skjei said.

“(Raleigh is) an unbelievable place. Great people here; coaching staff, players, medical (staff), everything. It’s an unbelievable place to be. We’ll see what happens in the next month or so.”

Pesce shared Skjei’s sentiment about the city and team.

“Obviously, I’m hopeful we can work something out here,” he said. “Everyone knows I love it here.”

Teravainen, who also wants to stay, left the possibility open that he could test the market in July. He will be coming off a five-year, $27 million contract.

“You never know, it’s kind of a new situation for me now,” he said.

One area of the team the Hurricanes want to address is the centre position, as Waddell revealed he would like to add a right-shot centreman to the roster next season.

“We’d love to get a right-hand shot centre to balance our left shots,” Waddell said. “As we know, there just aren’t a lot of those guys out there. If we can find one of those guys that can win faceoffs on the right side, I think that’s what he would like.”

With Guentzel also atop Carolina’s priority list, one player that could make the rounds in the trade mill is Necas, whom the Hurricanes were reportedly willing to listen on this season.

After putting up 28 goals and 71 assists last season, the 25-year-old tallied 24 goals and 29 assists for 53 points in 77 games this season.

Necas is arbitration eligible this summer and the Hurricanes could explore a move if the right opportunity presented itself.