The strength of the Carolina Hurricanes team is their defense and goaltending but the defensive group is changing with further change expected after potential moves.
Rod Brind’Amour is a coach that likes to pressure the opponent and push the puck up the ice, but defensive responsibility is crucial to his system. The goaltenders succeed from this style and produce better when arriving in Raleigh.
The rock of the blue line has been Jaccob Slavin and that will be true for at least another two seasons as he becomes a free agent after the 2024-25 season.
Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce have become very strong second pairing together for the last few seasons and coincidentally become free agents after the upcoming season. Any player with an expiring contract will be in the rumor mill but Pesce owns the chatter now.
With that, Skjei has also become expendable due to potential acquisitions and exits.
Last season the top four pairings on defense were set and only the left defensive slot on the final pairing was needed. Calvin de Haan played well for most of the season and Shayne Gostisbehere was acquired at the deadline to provide some offensive spark.
Fast forward to July and Don Waddell went out and signed the top defenseman in the free-agent class by bringing Dmitry Orlov in on a two-year deal with a cap hit of $7.75 per season.
Extremely strong move considering this was a spot of need and was filled with the best available. It also pushes Skjei down to the bottom pairing, which helps make him expendable.
It is well discussed that Pesce does not have a contract extension and has been shopped by Waddell quite a bit. As much as this pains Caniacs around the world, Pesce does seem to be on the way out.
To support that theory, Waddell seems to have a crush on right handed defensemen to essentially replace Pesce.
The Norris Trophy winner, Erik Karlsson, is on his way out of San Jose with a very large contract. The Canes have been rumored to be one of the finalist to acquire Karlsson. Waddell is attempting to start a summer tradition of trading for Sharks defensemen after acquiring Brent Burns last year.
If this is not enough to add to an already strong defense, it appears that the Canes are close to finalizing a trade to bring back Tony DeAngelo from the Philadelphia Flyers. DeAngelo is another righty that has more focus on offense than defense.
Although the rumor seems to be a steal in value for what the Flyers would retain in salary and what the Canes would sent to Philadelphia, it creates an extremely odd situation on defense.
Jalen Chatfield and Brent Burns are the other right handed defensemen returning to the squad and both are coming off excellent seasons.
So why add a DeAngelo and potentially Karlsson?
Rumors are just rumors and we have quite some time before training camp opens but Waddell may be trying to mess with this group too much.
The locker room is strong and removing some key players that have been in Raleigh for awhile would be shocking for the players in itself but to bring in players that are not exactly defensively responsible would create a weakness where there was none.
DeAngelo could ultimately be for one season and done but Karlsson is under contract through the 2026-27 season. The effect on and off the ice could be felt for much longer, especially if the cup is not won this next season.