Carolina Hurricanes: Top Six Forwards in Free Agency

Evgenii Dadonov

This should be a name that long-time Carolina Hurricanes fans should remember because, at one point, he played for the organization in the AHL. Evgenii Dadonov is going to hit the free-agent market this summer in all likelihood. With Florida looking to off-load salary and free up money, I think it’s close to a certainty we see Dadonov in the free-agent market.

Dadonov is a player who’s very comparable to Teuvo Teravainen in my opinion. He often flies under the radar, often puts up very good point totals, and his defensive game is just totally ignored at times despite being towards the top of the league in most analytics and advanced metrics. This is not something to rely on entirely, but it’s certainly promising.

Dadonov has recorded 111 assists and 91 goals for 202 points in 280 NHL games. It’s a small sample size, but very respectable totals. But why has someone as old as Dadonov only played 280 games I can hear some of you asking already. Dadonov decides he wanted to return home to Russia instead of playing in the AHL when he was with the Hurricanes organization.

In his stint in the Kontinental Hockey League, he managed 224 points across 5 seasons. This came in the form of 101 goals and 123 assists across 271 games. It shows his production is sustainable. A genuine duel-threat, Dadonov can pass the puck around the corner, and have it land on a dime in a drain, or let off a quick shot with his really speedy release.

When someone can put the puck on a stick as well as Evgenii Dadonov does here, you know you can rely on them to be a great play-maker. When his shot is every bit as devastating as his passing ability, he does become quite the commodity to chase this off-season His defensive ability is just as good too, which really does bode well to make a complete player.

Dadonov is 31 years old, and isn’t exactly in his youth anymore. Any contract Carolina sign with a player of this age would need to be accommodating to that. He’s not always going to be this kind of player. However, he’s still producing so he deserves to be paid what he is deserving of if he is to become a Carolina Hurricane.

Again, with Dadonov at his age, he has a decision to make. He can either come to a team like Carolina and go after a Stanley Cup Championship, he can go chasing the biggest payday possible, or he can stay with the Panthers and enjoy the sunshine and low taxes despite not having the best team around him or receiving the biggest pay-cheque.