Carolina Hurricanes: Sign Jordan Martinook to two year extension

The Carolina Hurricanes continue to secure their future today, signing forward Jordan Martinook to a two-year extension that keeps him in Raleigh until 2021.

Don Waddell has been a busy man as of late. After trading for Nino Niederreiter and signing Teuvo Teravainen to a long five-year deal, our favorite lovable turtleneck-wearing General Manager was nowhere near done. With their third major transaction in the last two weeks, the Carolina Hurricanes have extended veteran forward Jordan Martinook to a two-year deal with a AAV of $2 Million. The left shot winger was acquired last summer by the Carolina Hurricanes from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for center Marcus Kruger, along with an exchange of 3rd and 4th round draft picks.

Although Kruger was then packaged along with several unsigned prospects and flipped back to the Chicago Blackhawks – the team that originally drafted him – the Carolina Hurricanes won that trade by a landslide. In the 50 games played this year, Martinook has posted 10 goals and 3 assists. That is as many points as Kruger has put up since the beginning of last season. Jordan Martinook, on the other hand, continues to improve his game.

His 10 goals so far this season is four more than his total last year in 81 games with the Coyotes, and only a single goal shy of his career high. He has also proven that he can fit anywhere in Coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system. He has spent time on the first line along All-Star Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen. He has centered rookies Andrei Svechnikov and Warren Foegele. It seems that no matter where you insert him in the roster, Jordan Martinook delivers.

He delivers in many ways, not only in his ability to finish a play and score, a feat he did thrice for a first career hat-trick against the Florida Panthers in November. He has proven to be a tough, hard-hitting player, joining Micheal Ferland and Brock McGinn as one of the team’s unofficial enforcers.

He showed this last week against the Edmonton Oilers. After being lifted off his feet, dumped into the Edmonton bench and given as many three extra cheap shots by known villain Zack Kassian, Martinook immediately came back out to confront Kassian for his evil deeds and repaid them not long after by scoring a goal off of a beautiful feed from Svechnikov.

The two year deal at $2 million per is only $200k AAV more than his last contract that he signed in Arizona. The fact that the pay bump he accepted is only a 10% raise is one of the factors that indicates that Jordan Martinook is committed to playing in Carolina, and playing well. Other factors of course include the birth of his new baby boy, Chase, last week. The infectious energy and attitude he has has earned him many fans in the tar heel state:

Jordan Martinook will be a welcomed member of the Carolina Hurricanes for as long as he stays with the team. Perhaps he will have earned a more significant pay bump when the team readdresses his contract in two years. For now, his addition and the play he brings to the table, both scoring-wise as well as intangibles will hopefully be a part of a playoff run as the season ends. Mostly so we can see how much facial hair he can grow during the post-season.

Don Waddell will hopefully continue to be busy as the trade deadline approaches. At the least, he has one more player contracted past the end of the season, allowing him to focus on improving the team via trade. This focus will be critical as the window of making the playoffs this season has opened up after a stellar month of January all but undid the loss streaks of the previous two months. The only true large contracts left over his head belong to Sebastian Aho and Micheal Ferland.

Question for CC Readers:

Did Jordan Martinook deserve more? Should he have been signed for a longer term? Should he have been extended at all?