Carolina Hurricanes History: Top 5 Free Agent Busts

While sometimes being a great source to improve a team, free agency also has it’s fair share of busts. Which players would be considered in that light for the Carolina Hurricanes?

For players, free agency is usually the dream. It gives them the right to pick their destination and, usually, have a bidding war for their services. Naturally, the risk factor in free agency is high, and teams have their fair share of buyers remorse.

Take a look at the landscape of the NHL. There are multiple buy-outs every year, and the majority of those bad contracts were handed out during what’s become known as the “Free Agent Frenzy”, which historically has produced more zeroes than heroes.

For some teams, though, it has come to be an advantage. The lure of bright lights, big cities and blank checkbooks from rich owners appeal to marquee free agents. The Carolina Hurricanes, however, haven’t had those luxuries; in turn, they haven’t given out many regrettable free agent contracts, but there are a few that stand out.

Today, we’ll look at 5 contracts given to free agents that the Hurricanes at this time probably regret. I would like to note that, not included on this list, are the impending free agents the Hurricanes re-signed before they became UFAs (Tuomo Ruutu, Cam Ward, Joni Pitkanen, etc).

#5 Lee Stempniak

In hindsight, Lee Stempniak wasn’t a horrible signing for the Canes, so the fact he’s on this list is a testament to how smart the team has been with FA contract negotiations. That said, Stempniak wasn’t a particularly good signing, either.

After putting together a good season of 5- points split between New Jersey and Boston in 2015-16, former Hurricanes GM Ron Francis reached into the free agent market and gave Stempniak a 2 year deal worth $2.5M annually.

At the time, Stempniak was 33 and coming off his best season in nearly a decade. The first year of Stempniak’s contract wasn’t all that bad. He managed to score a respectable 40 points in 82 games for the Hurricanes, playing a lot with Jeff Skinner, but his inconsistency, lack of physicality and inexcusably large role left a sour taste in the mouth of Hurricanes fans.

Fans and hockey media figured Las Vegas would take his contract in the expansion draft, but they opted against it, so Stempniak returned for 2017-18, which was a disaster for him and the team. After missing half the season with an injury, Stempniak returned and was completely ineffective. He scored a putrid 3 goals in 37 games, and his 9 total points was a huge drop from the previous year’s 40.

His ice-time also dropped nearly 4 minutes per game, and, after the season, Stempniak was shown the door along with the regime who signed him. Since then, Stempniak spent the past season with the Boston Bruins farm team, AHL Providence, and even suited up in 2 games for the real Bruins. Now 36, Stempniak looks like he’s reached the end of his storied 911-game NHL career. But he definitely won’t be remembered for his time in Raleigh.

#3 Tomas Kaberle

Here’s where the list gets good. Tomas Kaberle. Where do I even begin?

The Hurricanes made a big free agent splash in July of 2011, signing free agent reigning Stanley Cup champion defenseman Tomas Kaberle to a 3 year, 12.75 million deal. Then GM Jim Rutherford would go on to proclaim Kaberle as one of the top puck moving defenseman in the NHL.

Which, to be fair, he was in Toronto. Sadly, he was the exact opposite for the Hurricanes. After 29 completely forgettable games, the Hurricanes shipped Kaberle off to Montreal for Jaroslav Spacek, cutting ties with their prized free agent barely 6 months into the contract.

Kaberle, the 12.75 million dollar man, never scored a single goal for the Hurricanes, and was -12 in his 29 games with the team. Kaberle would go on to be a frequent healthy scratch in Montreal and was bought out by the team in the summer of 2013. Spacek played 34 games for Carolina.

#2 Scott Darling

While not technically an unrestricted free agent, the Hurricanes acquired Scott Darling without a contract, so I’ll make an exception for him to be on this list, because, boy, does he ever deserve to be.

Hand-picked by now ex-GM Ron Francis as the savior of Hurricanes goaltending, I was personally shocked at the collective praise from fans and media the Hurricanes got for signing a 28-year goaltender with 75 games of NHL experience to a 4 year, 16.6 million dollar deal. I tried to warn everyone.

The contract, obviously, wound up being a total disaster. In his first year, Darling won just 13 of 43 games and had a .888 save%, being thoroughly outplayed and losing his starting role to Cam Ward. However, the Hurricanes hoped it was just a rough year, and endorsed a bounce-back from Scott.

Ward moved on to Chicago, and Petr Mrazek came on board to compete with Darling, who was magnificent in the 2018 preseason. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury, and Curtis McElhinney came to Carolina via waivers. The duo of C-Mac and Mrazek effectively put an end to the Scott Darling experiment.

On November 29th, 2018, Darling was waived. He would only play one more game for Carolina, on December 14th, starting in a 5-4 loss to Washington. He was also ineffective in 14 games for the Charlotte Checkers.

So with his last chance faded away, last month the Hurricanes shipped Darling off to Florida for goaltender James Reimer, who figures to compete for a backup role with the Canes this fall. Darling was immediately bought out by the Panthers.

So with his swift fall from grace, Darling remains a free agent, and is focusing on his personal well-being first and foremost. However, at 30 years old, his NHL future looks grim, and all parties involved wish things would have went differently during |Darling’s Hurricanes tenure.

Darling finished his Hurricanes career with a 15-25-9 record and a .887save%, which amounts to over 1 million dollars per win when considering the 16.6 million deal the team signed him for.

#1 Alexander Semin

Despite also technically breaking the rules criteria for this list, there was no way I was leaving Alex Semin off it. The Semin saga started in July of 2012. The Hurricanes initially signed Semin to a 1-year deal for 7 million, after his brilliant run in Washington.

From there, things were looking great. Semin, on a line with Eric Staal and Jiri Tlusty, was a revelation for the Canes in the lockout shortened 2013 season, scoring 44 points in 44 games with the Hurricanes, and proving his worth. Unfortunately, that was his pinnacle Hurricanes season.

On March 25th, 2013, with Semin having put up 30 points in 30 games, the Hurricanes signed Semin to a 5-year, 35-million deal (7M AAV), which turned out to be a disastrous move for the franchise. He never matched that 44 point production for the Hurricanes again.

The following season, in the first year of his mega contract, he played 21 more games than the previous year (65) and scored 2 fewer points (42), but did manage to scored 9 more goals (22) while battling injuries. Sadly, it was downhill from there.

After wrist surgery in the summer of 2014, Semin was never the same. He scored just 6 goals in 57 games for the team in 2014-15, and was frequently benched by coach Bill Peters. That was the end for Semin as a Cane. The team bought out his contract in June of 2015, a mistake of which the team is still paying 2.33 million annually to Semin through the 2021 season.

After his Hurricanes career dissolved, Semin made just 15 more appearances in the NHL, scoring 1 goal for the Montreal Canadiens. His ineptitude saw him land on waivers again, and, too proud to go to the AHL, Semin left for his Russian homeland, where he’ll surely remain to end off his playing career in the KHL.

Semin, when all is said and done, collected 42 million dollars from the Carolina Hurricanes, and scored just 41 goals, making his contract easily the worst in Hurricanes history.

Question for CC readers: Who would be in your top 5?