Top 5 Free Agents the Carolina Hurricanes Should Target

The Carolina Hurricanes have been a top team in the NHL for the better part of 4 years now, and have shown that they can do it in the playoffs too. The Canes’ window is open now, and to get over the hump and make it back to the Stanley Cup Final, they have a few more needs to shore up the lineup and then they’ll be right back to the Final.

Now, going into the 2021 offseason, the Carolina Hurricanes have around $28 million dollars to play around with, and in these scenarios I’m only going to take into account a signing of Andrei Svechnikov as that is the only “set-in-stone” extension that is going to happen. I’m going to use the rumored number from Elliotte Friedman of $8 million dollars for 3 years. So, going into this mock free agency, the Canes will have about $20 million dollars.

To me, there are 3 big needs that are going to need to be addressed in the offseason for the Carolina Hurricanes. The first need is depth scoring past Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Martin Necas, Vincent Trocheck, and Nino Niederreiter. It’s not that any of these guys here are a no-show, but if any of them go down we have a tough time replacing any of them.

The 2nd biggest need is going to be a left-handed defenseman. When the expansion draft rolls around, the Carolina Hurricanes are more than likely going to lose one of Brady Skjei or Jake Bean as Ron Francis is unlikely to take Jake Gardiner or Warren Foegele. With Rod Brind’amour’s decision to healthy scratch Jake Gardiner in favor of Jake Bean, it might be likely we’ve seen the last of Gardiner in Carolina colors. For the purpose of continuity, we’ll have the Seattle Kraken taking Jake Bean.

The last need that isn’t probably going to be an issue is goaltending. All three goalies of Alexander Nedeljkovic, Petr Mrazek and James Reimer are going into free agency this year, with Nedeljkovic alone being a RFA; Mrazek and Reimer are both UFAs. Nedeljkovic is 99% going to be back next season with Mrazek or someone else being a backup/1B starter. Reimer will be a wonderful backup in a situation like Tampa Bay, Nashville or maybe even back in Toronto (to make Steve Dangle happy again).

So let’s start the list with the honorable mentions, guys that would make the list if only for some guys that were better at their positions. These guys are more than likely who the Carolina Hurricanes would/will go after instead of the big ticket guys.