The Carolina Hurricanes have signed veteran defenseman, Nathan Beaulieu, to a professional tryout. Beaulieu is 30 years old and has played in almost 500 career NHL games.
Last season, the former first-round choice of the Montreal Canadians played in Anaheim where he played in 52 contests, gathering 4 assists. The most impressive year for the left-handed defenseman was in 2016 when he registered 24 assists and 28 points.
The Ontario native has some size to provide to the blue line, being 6’2 and weighing 200 pounds.
If you are scratching your head about this move, you are copying me as well as many Caniacs I am sure. General Manager, Don Waddell, seems to have a fixation on defensemen this summer.
Waddell has signed the top available free-agent defenseman Dmitry Orlov while bringing back Tony DeAngelo to the group. Oh yeah, he also recently signed Caleb Jones this month to a contract. Orlov and Jones join Beaulieu as three left-handed options on defense.
DeAngelo, being right-handed, will join Jalen Chatfield, Brent Burns, Dylan Coughlin, and Brett Pesce. Depth is important but this may be a bit excessive.
Naturally, it is possible that these depth signings are in preparation for a trade before the regular season starts. Pesce and Skjei are heading into their last years under contract but the indication has been to keep both players for now.
Another possibility is that since the Hurricanes will not have an AHL affiliate this season, they will be lacking the veteran depth that every other organization will have in the minors.
The young prospects will be lent out to other AHL teams but the veteran help on a normal AHL club will not be available to call up in case of injuries to the NHL roster.
If this is the case, it is still puzzling that these players are joining the organization just to be bumped far down an already deep defensive unit for Rod Brind’Amour.
Thankfully the season is approaching rapidly but it is puzzling to see defensemen continue to be brought into the mix while the forward position is left alone for now.
Stay tuned!