Carolina Hurricanes: Scott Darling To Be Bought Out

The Carolina Hurricanes are expected to buyout the contract of Scott Darling, who started in only eight games in the 2018-19 season. He experienced two seasons with the Hurricanes and spent the majority of his time this season with the Charlotte Checkers.

Scott Darling was acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, with the Blackhawks taking a 3rd round pick that originally belonged to the Ottawa Senators in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Ron Francis took a chance on trading for a pending unrestricted free agent that he could have acquired in free agency, a little more than two months after the trade on April 28th, 2017.

Darling is large and at first sight, he can be seen as a great signing when Francis signed him to a four-year contract that averaged annually at $4,150,000. He’s 6’5″ and 225lb, his performance with Chicago was impressive, as he was the backup to Corey Crawford.

With Chicago, Darling’s record was 39-17-9, his save percentage standing tall at .923%, goals against average at 2.37, and he registered four shutouts. He took over in net in the series against the Nashville Predators in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, as he led the Blackhawks to win the series, and ultimately paving their way, to give Scott Darling a ring and his name on the Stanley Cup.

He was expected to be the starter for the Carolina Hurricanes, with veteran Cam Ward as his backup. Darling saw an abysmal record of 13-21-7, his save percentage at .888% and goals against average at 3.18. The Hurricanes had no choice, but to go back to Ward being the starter in the 2017-18 season, where the Hurricanes missed the postseason yet again.

Darling was injured in the 2018-19 preseason, that saw Curtis McElhinney being claimed off waivers by Don Waddell, who was solid in net. Darling returned with bad performances, with his record at 2-4-2, save percentage down to .884%, and goals against average at 3.34.

Waddell had seen enough and placed Scott Darling on waivers on November 29th, 2018. No teams claimed Darling off of waivers and Darling cleared waivers, being sent down to the Charlotte Checkers.

Darling started off decent with the Checkers, getting three wins and a loss early. His performance started slipping, with his record going 5-6-2, with a save percentage of .882% and 3.40 goals against average. Darling found himself as a backup on the Checkers, to Alex Nedeljkovic. Darling took a personal leave of absence in February 2019.

At the time of the trade and signing, Scott Darling made sense. Cam Ward’s prime was over and it was time to move on to get a long term goaltender who could back up Carolina’s stacked back-end. The Hurricanes did not make a mistake on signing Petr Mrazek to a reasonable one-year contract to test him out, before going all-in, unlike they did with Scott Darling.

To open up even more cap space, Scott Darling is to be bought out by the Hurricanes, when the buyout period opens. Darling’s time is over with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Question for Cardiac Cane Readers: Where will Scott Darling end up? Will Darling retire instead of searching for a new team?