Today, the Carolina Hurricanes announced that they have signed left-shot defenseman William Lagesson to a one-year, two-way deal. This two-way deal seems to be the same as the rest the Hurricanes have signed this season. League minimum cap hit paying him a little more than $200 thousand at the AHL level, with $235 thousand certain to be going to the Swedish defender.
At 26, Lagesson really is what he is at this point in his career. There’s not exactly a lot of room left for development in his career trajectory. However, what Lagesson is now could still be very beneficial to the Hurricanes should they experience blueline injuries. We may see Lagesson in the NHL at this point but having played 60 games between his time in Edmonton and Montreal should make Lagesson a member of the Chicago Wolves.
Lagesson was a member of the Oilers for the first part of his career but was traded at the deadline in exchange for a rental that the Oilers decided to keep. Montreal opted to not bring back the Swedish defenseman so he was an unrestricted free agent. Carolina hence got the chance to sign the Gothenburg native. As the 2014 4th-round pick comes to Raleigh, he’s got a skill set that the organization decided they needed.
At 6’3, 205 lbs, Lagesson is a big body presence. I am stating the obvious, but this dude is massive. Capable of smashing opponents into pieces, Lagesson has the ability to be consistent in his own end and put up some decent offense. He’s got 7 career points so far, and 5 of them came from this last year. He’s not going to suddenly set the world on fire in the offensive zone. This is not a player that is going to win the Norris trophy, but he could be a reliable call-up in a Covid outbreak.