It had been a long day. Some teams were using all of their allotted time, even in the later rounds to make their draft decisions. Then came Carolina, and time had expired while the world waited for them to make pick number 192 in the Draft.
What happened?
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Eric Tulsky and company smacked everyone in the face with another shocking trade announcement. The Hurricanes traded their final pick, along with Kyle Masters, (leant to Greensboro last season), to Anaheim for the rights to John Carlson. Yes, that John Carlson.
Carlson will be a Free Agent come July 1st, so the Canes have three days to sign the defenseman. It won’t be easy.
While the blueliner is a bit long in the tooth at 36 years old, he had 14 goals and 60 points last season in 71 games playing for both the Capitals and the Ducks. He averaged playing over 23 minutes a game and he is going to be highly sought after if he makes it to free agency.
The Caps traded him to the Ducks at the deadline last season for a conditional first rounder and a third rounder. He is coming off an eight year, 64 million dollar contract averaging $8 million a year. The rumor is that he is looking for $9 to $10 million for next year.
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Obviously, this puts Alexander Nikishin’s future with Carolina in question. Also, if Carlson is signed, that would most likely end any Connor Hellebuyck or Zach Werenski rumors as well.
His hardest shot last season was clocked at 99.77 MPH, so he still has it. He was ranked in the top 80% with his skating.
https://www.nhl.com/nhl-edge/skaters/john-carlson-8474590
His offense is rated higher than his defense but Carolina could probably live with that.
Stay tuned. We will find out within the next three days.
The Canes could manipulate their salary cap situation a bit if they decide to buy-out Jesperi Kotkaniemi. If I had to guess, they tried to trade the center for a draft pick today and were unsuccessful. He was healthy scratched 40 times during the season and never saw any action in the playoffs.
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“KK” currently earns $4.8 million annually. The buy out, if it happens before July 1st, would be about $850,000 per year for eight years. So the savings to the Cap would be about $4 million per year. We will get more details about this later if it happens.
I asked Darren Yorke about the situation after the Draft today and this was his answer.
“We’ll evaluate what happened today and as we go through July 1, we’ll always try to do what we think is the best thing for the organization to get better.”
Prospect Development Camp starts soon with on ice sessions at Invisalign Arena. These sessions are open to the public. All draft selections today will attend except for Wiggo Sorensson.
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Monday, June 29th
10:00 a.m.: Skills sessions
3:00 p.m.: Skills Sessions
Tuesday, June 30th
9:00 a.m.: Fitness testing
1:00 p.m.: On-ice testing
Wednesday, July 1
10 a.m.: Skills Sessions
