The Carolina Hurricanes have signed Jesper Fast to a three-year deal.
The first offseason signing for the Carolina Hurricanes will ink former Ranger forward Jesper Fast to a three-year $2M AAV deal.
While the Hurricanes remained silent during the opening day of Free Agency, they make a small splash today by signing right winger Jesper Fast. The right-handed shot spent his first seven seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers after being selected in the sixth round in 2010 and will be playing for a different team for the first time in his NHL career.
In those seven years, he has played 422 games scoring 55 goals and racked up 147 points. He will be a solid third-line forward and will basically supply the role that Justin Williams had physically on the ice. The difference being that Fast is much younger and much more agile as his surname would suggest.
Welcome to the #Canes, Jesper! pic.twitter.com/t4jj7qYqSq
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) October 10, 2020
The $2M AAV is only a tad more than the $1,850,000 AAV given to him by the New York Rangers over the last three seasons. For the type of offense he will bring to the bottom six, this deal is extremely well crafted and could help set the stage for Warren Foegele, who can be considered his mirror on the left-wing as he seeks his next contract in arbitration.
Speaking of Foegele, matching up Fast with Foegele and Captain Jordan Staal could result in a very dangerous third line. One balanced enough to eat up minutes and still find the back of the net. This can be a very fun line to watch. Ryan Dzingel could also find some new energy playing with Fast after finishing last season disappointingly.
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This addition to the Carolina Hurricanes has an impact beyond just a simple signing. This team, as is, has a complete roster now (considering both Foegele and Haydn Fleury, who elected for salary arbitration, will get signed). This frees up the team to “wheel and deal” in order to improve the roster as it stands.
Don Waddell surely has some more tricks up his sleeves. There is still over $5 Million in cap space available and three different goalies on one-way deals. Now, most of that cap space is reserved for Foegele and Fleury, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room to improve the netminding or the offense via trades. Time will tell what the Carolina Hurricanes plan to do.
Question for CC Readers: How do you feel about the Jesper Fast signing?