Cardiac Cane
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Carolina Hurricanes: Stay or Go; UFA Edition

ByAlex Ohari|
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - JANUARY 08: Trevor van Riemsdyk #57 of the Carolina Hurricanes skates against the New York Islanders at NYCB Live at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on January 08, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. The Hurricanes defeated the Islanders 4-3. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - JANUARY 08: Trevor van Riemsdyk #57 of the Carolina Hurricanes skates against the New York Islanders at NYCB Live at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on January 08, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. The Hurricanes defeated the Islanders 4-3. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – NOVEMBER 23: Sami Vatanen #45 of the New Jersey Devils skates against the Detroit Red Wings at the Prudential Center on November 23, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Red Wings 5-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – NOVEMBER 23: Sami Vatanen #45 of the New Jersey Devils skates against the Detroit Red Wings at the Prudential Center on November 23, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Red Wings 5-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Sami Vatanen

It’s almost irrelevant to include Sami Vatanen on this list, but because of his impending free agent status I will, for the sake of the readers. But it’s certainly quite possible that we’ll never see Sami Vatanen suit up in a game for the Carolina Hurricanes.

After coming over from New Jersey at the trade deadline, Hurricanes fans were ecstatic to get a guy that could replace Jaccob Slavin on the top powerplay unit. Unfortunately, the Canes traded for a frequently injured player who was, in fact, injured, and that could be history.

Let me just hammer it right down to the point here. Vatanen will not be back with the Carolina Hurricanes next year. For starters, there’s no way they could fit a new contract for him into their cap budget – he’ll likely want a long-term raise on his current $4.875M AAV – and to faciliate that, they’d likely have to move a contract like Jake Gardiner’s.

It really makes no sense to do that. For one, Gardiner has settled nicely into the team, and will definitely have a lower cap-hit than Vatanen will command. Vatanen’s long injury history, as well as the fact that, you know, he hasn’t actually played a single game for the Carolina Hurricanes, all but seals the fate here.

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There’s also no way to justify paying Vatanen likely upwards of $5 million per year when he would slot in behind both Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce on the right-side. The Canes figure to have both Hamilton and Gardiner around to run their powerplay units next season, so letting Vatanen go won’t hurt them at all.

Should the NHL season resume at some point, the Hurricanes will hope Vatanen can give them any semblance of a contribution after parting with prospect Janne Kuokkanen to acquire him. But as far as free agency goes, Vatanen already has one foot out the door.

Stay or Go: Go.

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