Josh Lavallee/NHLI via Getty ImagesThere's a reason Guentzel was the most coveted player at the deadline, and he showed his point-per-game prowess immediately after the Hurricanes acquired him. What else does this mean, though?
He is going to cost a ton of money, money the Hurricanes cannot afford to dish out without sacrifice. If Guentzel, who already has a Stanley Cup, is emphasizing getting paid at his next destination -- and with the cap raising, why wouldn't he? -- he could be signing an AAV north of or around $8 million.
According to CapFriendly, the Hurricanes will have around $27.3 million in cap space (keep in mind the cap is set to rise, etc) headed into free agency.
You've got pending unrestricted free agents in Guentzel, Jordan Martinook, Stefan Noesen, Teuvo Teravainen, Jalen Chatfield, Tony DeAngelo, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei. You've got RFAs in Seth Jarvis, Jack Drury and Martin Nečas, with Nečas and Drury eligible for arbitration.
It's logistically impossible for the Canes to bring back all (or even most) of these names. Jarvis, Pesce, Skjei, and Teravainen will all cost you a pretty penny, and so will Necas if he isn't finally traded.
Then you've got former GM Don Waddell leaving for the Blue Jackets. Assistant GM and analytics genius Eric Tulsky took over in the interim, and it looks like he's going to get Carolina's GM job permanently. While that's great for Tulsky and his many fans, and he's done great work behind the scenes in the front office for years, he's taking over at an extremely pivotal point with so much to get done. There will be hard, unpopular decisions off the bat, and judging by Friedman's report, shopping Guentzel and taking care of the bulk of the free agents who'd been with the team longer might be the direction he takes it.
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