The Carolina Hurricanes are struggling to score right now. With their defense playing spectacular, trading for a guy like Matt Duchene could really help.
It almost seems too good of a match. Before this current season, the biggest questions for the Hurricanes were goaltending and scoring. Excluding October, goaltending is doing enough to get the Canes into the playoffs. Carolina just needs a few more goals.
The Colorado Avalanche are floundering at the cellar of the Central Division with the potential to move in a different direction. The surprise departure of a Patrick Roy and the underwhelming offense has the Aves bottom of the West. They only have one million in cap space and might want to open some up.
Its a marriage that could be just too good to pass up. And the pieces are potentially there for the Carolina Hurricanes to make a run at one of the Avalanche forwards. I speak of course of Matt Duchene.
Drafted 3rd overall in 2009, Duchene is the kind of player Carolina sorely lacks. He is pure speed and offense. In 2013-14, the last time Colorado made the playoffs, he led his team in scoring with 70 points in 71 games. That is type of production the Hurricanes could use. Adding an elite offensive weapon would move Carolina from the outskirts to firmly in the hunt for playoff hockey.
He won’t come without a price though. Thankfully, this is where Carolina is a good fit with Colorado as a trading partner. There are a couple different directions the Aves could go in terms of a return on Duchene. The Canes have loads of picks and prospects to deal if the Avalanche want to go full rebuild. If Colorado wants to speed up their turnaround, they would be really keen on the swap of Duchene for Carolina defenseman Justin Faulk.
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There is no question that the loss of Justin Faulk would hurt Caniac Nation. He was the sole bright spot in an otherwise dark last couple of seasons. But, if the Hurricanes want quality, they are going to have to give up quality.
Based of what’s happened in the previous year, there is good evidence to suggest a deal for Duchene involving Faulk would work. Over this summer, the second largest trade was the straight swap of Taylor Hall and Adam Larsson by Edmonton and New Jersey. Hall is a comparable player to Duchene and Larsson, while not as offensively impressive as Faulk, is certainly similar in value to the Canes #27.
The other example happened about a year ago last season. The Columbus Blue Jackets traded Ryan Johansen to Nashville for Seth Jones. Duchene and Faulk are better than Johansen and Jones respectively, but the logic of trade is the same. The Preds added an offensive presence they desperately needed and Columbus accelerated their retooling with Jones on the blue line.
What makes this trade possibly more attractive for the Hurricanes is that Faulk is in many ways part of Carolina’s defensive excess. Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce are a truly dominant pairing. Noah Hanifin‘s offensive game is coming around and there are a multitude of young talented d-men in Charlotte. Also, Faulk hasn’t been as offensively proficient compared to the past two years. He also holds the team’s worst plus/minus rating.
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Still, this is a hard move for General Manager Ron Francis to make. Faulk has been the centerpiece of Carolina’s blue line for almost 4 years now. Francis would certainly rather keep Faulk and trade prospects and picks for Duchene. That might not be an option though. In order to get Carolina over the hump, trading Faulk for Matt Duchene is what maybe needs to be done.