Top 5 Defensive Free Agents the Carolina Hurricanes Should Target
By Nick Bass
4. Travis Hamonic
A target of the Carolina Hurricanes at the 2021 Trade Deadline, Travis Hamonic finds his way to number 4 on the list. He was rumored to be moved to Raleigh last season, but ultimately wouldn’t waive his No Movement Clause as he wanted to stay in Western Canada. With Jim Benning not offering him a contract (so far), and his willingness to move away from the Canucks, he ends up here on this list.
Travis Hamonic, currently 30 years old, played 38 games this year putting up 3 goals and 7 assists for 10 points in 38 games on a mediocre Vancouver Canucks team with a horrid defense. Averaging around 19 minutes a night with defensive partner Quinn Hughes, this was far and away the best pairing the Canucks had last year.
Looking into his advanced numbers, things get a little ugly. He didn’t have a good year this year in Vancouver, with the second lowest Corsi on the team; the only one worse was Alex Edler. He doesn’t create a load of rebounds, his expected goals is low, but he did have the best ratio of takeaways to giveaways at just less than a 2:1 ratio.
Hamonic battled injuries and a big COVID break in Vancouver, plus the fact that the Canucks (especially the defense) were just not good on the whole this past season.
Hamonic could play sparing minutes on the penalty kill, and would be perfectly suited for a bottom pairing roll, helping to stabilize a potentially more offensive defenseman on the other side, whether that be Jake Gardiner or someone else in the system. His upcoming contract shouldn’t be that big or even that long.
Projecting his next contract is a little tough, especially for someone who doesn’t normally do that kind of thing. His last contract that he signed with the Vancouver Canucks was for 1 year at $1.25 million with a No Movement Clause. My guess is he probably gets signed for something around that money for potentially 2-3 years, which could be a very nice low-risk signing with decent upside as a solid third pairing guy.
With Hamonic, you know what you are going to get – a mostly steady third pairing guy that can be extremely serviceable in the right role. The Carolina Hurricanes wouldn’t be looking for someone to push play aggressively or to completely shut down another team’s top line, they would just look for someone decent overall, and Hamonic could be a perfect solution to that third pairing right-handed defenseman problem the Hurricanes currently have.