Hurricanes Make Blockbuster

Canes acquire Nathan Mackinnon from Preds in blockbuster trade.

The newly acquired Nathan Mackinnon arrived in Toronto this morning to meet his new team for tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs. 

Friday night the Hurricanes made an absolute blockbuster acquiring superstar center Nathan Mackinnon from the Nashville Predators, along with a 5th round pick, and 4 minor leaguers in exchange for Nino Neiderreiter, Connor Zary, Ryan McLeod, Will Cuylle, Denver Barkey, Samu Tuamaala,  and a 2025 1st round pick. 

GM Mike Giletto discussed the reasoning behind the trade in a press conference with media Friday following the trade, “It’s not every day a player like Nate becomes available. We gave up a lot of our future, along with current depth, to pull off a trade like this but when a guy of Nate’s caliber becomes available you do what you can to make it work”

MacKinnon has 25 goals and 58 points in 54 games with the Preds, and has 3 years left on his current contract with an AAV just shy of $6.5 million.

The Hurricanes recalled Jack Drury, Adam Beckman and Glenn Gawdin up from the AHL. Gawdin will be making his DCHL debut while Beckman will be making his season debut.

Based on the lines at morning skate this is what we can expect from the Hurricanes tonight against Toronto:

Tuch-MacKinnon-Point

Toffolli-Trocheck-Nelson

Parise-Stephenson-Hall

Gawdin-Drury-Beckman

Hurricanes currently sit 1st in the Wild Card with 66 points and look to have a strong second half of the season with their new number 1 center.