Hurricanes Post Expansion

Canes lose John Carlson to expansion.

The Canes will look way different on the blue line next season. The team is expected to move on from pending UFA defenseman Mark Giordano, and just lost John Carlson to Seattle in expansion draft. 

Prior to the protection lists the Hurricanes traded Jordan Eberle to Calgary for Travis Dermott and a 2nd round pick. With an influx of forwards, it was very likely that the team was gonna lose Eberle to expansion anyway. Since the team traded for Dermott, the Canes protected him, along with Sam Girard and newly acquired Brandon Montour as their three defensemen. Point, Trocheck, Neiderreiter, Barzal, Greenway, Nelson, and Stephenson were the forwards that were protected.

GM Mike Giletto claims that exposing John Carlson was solely a finance move. “When we handed him that big contract we expected to compete for a Cup. We didn’t even make it to the second round. John is a tremendous player but in order to take the next step we had to make a tough decision. Clearing up the over $14 million that John makes allows us to allocate that toward other parts of the roster and maybe we can get better and make a deep run. We felt like it was a win win situation by exposing him. Either Seattle doesn’t take him and we get to have John Carlson for another year, or we clear up 14+ million.”

John Carlson had 109 points in 162 games with the Hurricanes and was -33. 

After losing Carlson, the Canes will have roughly $24 million in cap space, with 3 or so open roster spots. 

The Canes go into Saturdays draft without their first round pick after trading it to Seattle to protect Oskar Lindblom and Alex Nedeljkovic.  The Canes do, however, have 3 second round picks and will stay busy on day 2 of the draft.