Nino Niederreiter acquired back in January 2019, has been a great addition to the Hurricanes’ offense, accumulating 98 points throughout his tenure thus far in Raleigh. Set to be a pending UFA this summer, the Hurricanes have to look at all available options to determine what might be the best course of action. Do they choose to re-sign him for a considerable deal over names like Trocheck?
I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure what Carolina will decide to do with Nino. I do think he’s a player who’s high on their priority list, especially considering he’s been a consistent player when they need a big go-ahead goal, or a goal to get the game back even. There’s no denying that Nino has been one of the most consistent and reliable players since his arrival to Carolina back in 2019.
In regards to terms and money? I’d expect a significant pay raise is in order for Nino, though I’m not entirely sure what term we might be looking at for him. He’s perfect for the Hurricanes system, and it’s definitely a player they would want to lock up for a considerable amount of time, but obviously nothing like a 7-8 year deal.
As always with things like this, only time will tell how this plays out. I do see getting Nino to be quite the difficult process, as there are still a plethora of other pending contracts that need to be addressed, but that doesn’t eliminate the possibility of having Nino return to the already strong Hurricanes offensive core. Another big question to ask is: “If Nino goes, who would fill the hole to keep the strong offense complete?” Honestly, that all comes down to if the Hurricanes truly can’t sign him, or who’s available during Free Agency.
There’s no denying that Free Agency is set to have a decent list of names to choose from, so in the event, Nino cannot return to the Hurricanes, an alternative would have to be in order.