Carolina Hurricanes: The Case for Acquiring Josh Manson

Expansion Draft Implications

With Staal not waiving, the Carolina Hurricanes would probably opt to protect Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teräväinen, Vincent Trocheck, Andrei Svechnikov, Nino Niederreiter, Jordan Staal, Jesper Fast, Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce, and one of Jake Bean, Haydn Fleury, Brady Skjei or Josh Manson. My guess is that they’ll protect Manson in this scenario and hope Ron takes Haydn Fleury or Brady Skjei. Maybe make a trade that protects Bean as well, for even more Dougie leaving insurance.

That would be the first scenario, now let’s say that Jordan Staal does waive. This will now let you have some more flexibility going into this draft, as you can protect another person and know that they won’t select Staal because of his age and contract (but it would be totally funny if he did).

With Staal waiving his NMC, the Canes could now protect Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teräväinen, Vincent Trocheck, Andrei Svechnikov, Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce, Jake Bean and Josh Manson. This is a slightly riskier move, as this would let Francis have his pick of Nino Niederreiter, Jesper Fast, Brady Skjei, Jake Gardiner and Haydn Fleury. But this would effectively lock in a top 5 defensive core in the league and keep your main stalwarts on the offensive side.

On the Anaheim side with the expansion draft, this doesn’t really affect any plans they have, as Rees doesn’t need to be protected. So, what do you think? Should the Canes go out and acquire Josh Manson, maybe focus on another part of the team, such as top 9 scoring, or stay put with the team that they have?