Five unqualified restricted free agents the Canes should sign

Evgeny Svechnikov

Yes, he is Andrei’s brother, but that is not everything you need to know about Evgeny Svechnikov. While he will not be the biggest name even among unqualified restricted free agents, uniting the set of brothers in Raleigh would be kind of neat. Plus, there is some talent with Evgeny Svechnikov. He is a former first-round draft pick you know. While he didn’t have the best of years this year with Winnipeg, it doesn’t mean he’s bad.

With just 7 goals and 12 assists in 19 games with the Jets this year, it became clear that scoring was not the strong suit of Evgeny Svechnikov. While he is still quite young, injuries have derailed his career and there’s not a lot that can be done about that. These have been freak injuries like sticks and pucks to the head and broken legs. Not muscle tears from working too hard. These are so unfortunate.

This does likely mean E Svech will never hit the heights he was once projected to but that doesn’t mean he has to be considered a useless player. He would need to adapt his game, but do you not think that he’d be more likely to find success adapting his game when his little brother is one of the best players on his team? We may never know but it is fun to think about.

If you Evgeny Svechnikov on a one-year, league-minimum deal, or even go as high as 850k, 900k. There’s no reason not to. Obviously, if the demands are the sun and the moon, you let him find a different place, but if everything lines up just right, the money and the team need to finish completing the roster, this would be a transaction I’d enjoy seeing. Even if Evgeny was just the extra forward.

Question for Cardiac Cane readers: What unqualified RFA would you like the Canes to target?