In the upcoming off-season, Carolina has a lot of their younger players coming up for contract renewal as restricted free agents or RFA’s. For those that do not know, a restricted free agent is someone under the age of 27 that has also not played 8 seasons in the National Hockey League. If they are unsigned past the opening of free agency, Carolina will still hold their rights but they are eligible to be offer-sheeted.
It is very rare that we see a player offer-sheeted. In fact, the last two players to receive one are now both on the Hurricanes roster, so it’s an uncommon occurrence to happen in this day and age. Mainly due to an unwritten rule of moral decency between the general managers, offer sheets are used sparingly. No one wants to be forced into a position where they lose a good player for less than they are worth.
With that said, Carolina has four of their roster from this season coming up this summer as restricted free agents. Each one has a different skill set and plays a different role. Some had fantastic years, others struggled during the 2021-22 campaign, and while some might already be looking out the door, Carolina still controls what happens with their futures moving forward.
I’m only going to be talking about the RFA’s on the Hurricanes roster for now. This is because if I was going to dive into the Chicago Wolves roster at this point, we could be there a while with a lot of the good prospects that the Hurricanes have in the Windy City are still coming along and are going to be extended on two-way deals in all likelihood.
Anyway, that is enough talking about nothing for now. Let us start with the first of these restricted free agents.