Top 5 Defensive Free Agents the Carolina Hurricanes Should Target

The Carolina Hurricanes have submitted their expansion draft protection list and with their protections, they will only have 4 players under contract on the defensive side. With Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reporting that Ron Francis is more than likely going to select Jake Bean in the expansion draft, the Canes have to target some free agents. With Joey Keane and Max Lajoie not quite ready for full time NHL time, they need to look to free agency.

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With Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei being protected and Jake Gardiner highly unlikely to be taken, the Carolina Hurricanes have a good amount of holes to fill on the blueline.

Gardiner has been surrounded by buyout and trade rumors; that being said, Max Lajoie is probably the closest prospect to being ready for full time NHL minutes, seeing as he got to play in games 3 and 4 in the first round against the Nashville Predators.

Joey Keane could also be close, but he could use another year in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves.

Jesper Sellgren could also get some consideration as he has had a few years in the SHL and could be NHL ready, but there are a litany of options in free agency and a few good ones that could fit in well with the Canes.

The only honorable mention I will have on this list is, of course, Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton should 100% be re-signed but (as reported), the Carolina Hurricanes are looking more at around $6.5 million and Hamilton is looking for something around $8 million. Hamilton would complete the top 4 that the Hurricanes have had for the past 2 years.

His production is incredibly tough to replace outside of a trade that brings someone back of equal offensive output and the closest thing you have to that this free agency is Tyson Barrie, who wants the same amount of money and term, while being 2 years older. It is also rumored that Barrie has a high chance of being re-signed by the Edmonton Oilers.

The Carolina Hurricanes have the money to offer a contract of that magnitude to Hamilton with plenty of cap space to spare. He has very low injury concern, as he made a full recovery and played at that same Norris-caliber level after the leg injury back before COVID was a thing. He has good chemistry with the team, and other teams that were rumored to be in on Dougie Hamilton have gotten other players – see Philadelphia with Ryan Ellis.

With that being said, here are my personal top 5 defenseman that the Carolina Hurricanes should target in free agency, the first one being someone currently located in Boston, Massachusetts.

5. Mike Reilly

I wrote about Mike Reilly of the Boston Bruins in my top 5 free agents that the Carolina Hurricanes should target, so its only prudent that he finds himself in the top 5 defenseman the Hurricanes should target because he is quite possibly the perfect player to replace Jake Bean. A puck-moving, 3rd pairing left-handed defenseman who is also solid defensively is something that the Hurricanes should look at and Mike Reilly could be the answer.

Another one of the outcasts from Ottawa’s defensive core in the past few years, Mike Reilly was traded two days before the 2021 NHL Trade Deadline to the Boston Bruins for a 3rd round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.

Reilly hovered around a consistent point every other game, with 19 points in 40 games with the Senators and 8 points in 15 regular season games. To go along with that, Reilly had 4 points in 11 playoff games, weirdly enough not having a single goal throughout the entirety of the 2020-2021 season.

Taking in an analytics take on Mike Reilly, Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic has his projected contract as being 4 years at $4.1 million. Dom cites Reilly’s 51% expected goals rate as being “impressive with a poor Ottawa team, being the best puck mover behind Thomas Chabot. His move to Boston bumped his expected and actual goals rate to 60%. He plays extremely sheltered minutes but has a low bust rate over the next seven years.”

With Mike Reilly expressing interest in returning to Boston, and Kevan Miller recently retiring (as well as Brandon Carlo, his defensive partner being re-signed), the Bruins are more than likely going to bring back Reilly.

He is also not going to be the most expensive player ever to bring back, and the Bruins have a good amount of cap space; that is why Reilly is low on this list. He would, theoretically, quite possibly be the best replacement for Jake Bean if Bean gets selected in the upcoming expansion draft.

3. Ryan Suter

Time to dive into the dangerous world of potential Dougie Hamilton replacements. We’ll start with Ryan Suter. Suter, recently bought out by the Minnesota Wild on the backend of a massive 13-year contract, was absolutely shocked to get bought out. In fact, he was on the phone with former teammate Zach Parise when he got a call from GM Bill Guerin, who ended up breaking the news to him that he was going to be bought out. With news leaking of Ryan Suter not wanting to sign in Canada, could Suter fit in Raleigh?

Suter, currently 36 years old, is in the last couple years of his career. Being a stalwart defenseman for the Minnesota Wild for the past 9 years, he has been a top-pairing defenseman playing time-wise, right up until this last year.

This past year, normally playing alongside Matt Dumba averaging around 20 minutes per night, he had 3 goals and 16 assists for 19 points in 56 games. Suter doesn’t take a ton of penalties; he’s only registered 24 penalty minutes in the last 2 years combined and he plays on the power play.

Looking into his advanced numbers, his goals above expected is a .4, which is the second highest on the Wild. His corsi number of 48% is tied for 2nd highest on the Wild, and he was on ice for 55.2% of the Wild’s goals this year. Not too bad for a guy that is currently 36-years old still playing a high amount of minutes.

The downside with him? He isn’t good defensively. You can definitely tell that his foot speed isn’t where it was and he is starting to show his age. All things considered, he’s still projected to be a top-pairing defenseman heading into next year because of his extremely solid offensive ability.

What would a potential contract look like for Ryan Suter? Well I know for one thing, it won’t be the same length as his last one and it quite possibly would be a lot smaller than his last contract. My guess is, because of his age, Suter takes a one year deal at around $2.5-3.5 million. Would Suter replace all of Hamilton’s ability? No, not at all. Would he replace his offensive output? Still no, but he could definitely replace some of the point output that Hamilton has brought to Raleigh.

2. Jake McCabe

Another assistant captain looking at a upcoming team change, Jake McCabe finds himself at Number 2 on my list. McCabe is more of that third pairing guy the Carolina Hurricanes need to look for, and could be the very best of the options. Now, anyone from Buffalo after the year they just had is interesting, but McCabe is a legit defensive defenseman that’ll get a ton of attention on the open market.

McCabe, currently 27 years old, had 1 goals and 2 assists for 3 points in 13 games for the Buffalo Sabres this past year, before being sidelined for 6-8 months with an ugly knee injury. On February 22nd, it was announced that McCabe had suffered injuries to his MCL, ACL and meniscus, which would keep him sidelined until October – just in time for the next NHL season.

Now, I know that injury sounds incredibly ugly, but nobody seems to be overly worried that he won’t be ready to return in this upcoming year. In the slight minutes he played in Buffalo, he played very impressively. He doesn’t bring a lot offensively, but the Carolina Hurricanes aren’t looking for that. His defensive numbers had him as a top 4 shutdown guy before injury and he should very much be able to keep up that level of play when he returns to the ice.

Heading back to Dom from The Athletic here, he has his projected contract at around 2 years at $2 million dollars as his injury holds him back from getting a bigger payday. He can be a shutdown 2nd pairing guy but the Hurricanes signing him to play a stabilizer to maybe Jake Gardiner or someone else could be a perfect situation for both sides.

The Carolina Hurricanes get a worse version of Brett Pesce, but still a decent shutdown guy, and Jake McCabe gets paid and gets to play for a contender and prove his worth for a potential bigger payday in 2023.

1. Keith Yandle

The only other player that I could see somewhat coming close to replacing Dougie Hamilton’s production is Keith Yandle. Tyson Barrie would be here, if only for him more than likely re-signing in Edmonton. Yandle, recently bought out by the Florida Panthers, is an absolute ironman, only ever missing games because of getting healthy scratched (even when he really shouldn’t have been).

Yandle, currently 34 years old and one-half of an elite pair with Aaron Ekblad, had the last years of his contract bought out by the Florida Panthers on July 15th. Playing top pairing minutes, Yandle had 3 goals to go along with 24 assists for 27 points in 56 games. He led the top power play unit in Florida, which was pretty decent this past year, before being scratched in the playoffs and the Panthers running a 5 forward first unit.

Diving into his advanced stats, Yandle had a good year, mostly without his partner for the majority of the year due to Ekblad’s injury. He’s an offensive defenseman first with 217 shot attempts, his corsi of 65% is tied for the highest among all defenseman that played 500 minutes or more with Cale Makar, and his on-ice goals percentage of 62.2% was the highest on the Panthers.

Defensively, let’s just say it always helps that the Carolina Hurricanes have someone like Jaccob Slavin, AKA the best defensive defenseman in hockey, to play alongside anyone who plays on the top pairing. He isn’t a complete liability like Tyson Barrie would likely be, but Yandle’s defensive ability is far from a strong suit.

Now, what would a potential contract look like for Keith Yandle? This is where i’m going to struggle because I don’t think that he would take a massive pay cut from his previous contract. I think he could easily get a 3-4 year deal with some teams that are making a push for contention. But money wise, I don’t really have a clue. My best guess is going to be something around the $2-2.5 million range, as his age should be of some concern (even though this man never gets injured).

Would Yandle be an upgrade to someone like Dougie? Not at all, probably a decent downgrade. Would he replace his production? He’s definitely closer in terms to point production, but nothing replaces Dougie. In the end, though, Yandle could be a cheaper, less effective version of Hamilton which could help the Hurricanes in terms of signing players that need to be re-signed, and going after other players that could improve the team in other areas.