A Look At The 5 Carolina Hurricanes Pending College Free Agents
By Alex Ohari
With college hockey seasons starting to wrap up, the Hurricanes have 5 former draft picks that they’ll have to either sign, or let walk. Who are they?
The college free agent frenzy – for better or worse – is always an exciting time in the hockey world. It allows teams to sign a potential player without giving up any assets for that player – although history would suggest that the whole ordeal is overhyped.
There’s two phases of college free agency. The first phase, which is now currently underway, is that college seniors who have no previous NHL affiliation (undrafted) are free to sign with any NHL club (or any team in general) as soon as their respective college season ends.
The Hurricanes have dipped into the phase one pool in previous years. Last season, they added UMass forward Jacob Pritchard on an entry-level deal. In years prior, they added players such as forward Andrew Poturalski and goaltender Rasmus Tirronen.
Phase two of free agency involves NHL affiliated players (guys who were drafted by NHL clubs). Each team is given until August 15th to sign their graduated senior players – or they lose such player to free agency.
An example of this is Chase Priskie – who was drafted in 2016 by Washington. He finished his senior year at Quinnipiac last spring – and opted against signing with the Capitals. He became a free agent on August 15, 2020, and was signed by the Carolina Hurricanes on August 17th. The Capitals received no compensation for Priskie.
The Hurricanes figure to be heavily involved in the college free agent rush this year, as they have 5 players who’re projected to be unrestricted free agents on August 15th. In this article, I’ll outline who these players are, take a look at how their college careers unfolded, and if they’re likely to be signed by the team or not. Let’s get started.