Remembering The Biggest Trade Deadlines in Hurricanes History: Return to Relevance
After nearly a decade without postseason hockey, it took some massive changes to turn a struggling franchise into a consistent threat in the Eastern Conference.
By Ben Huffman
Entering the 2018-19, the Carolina Hurricanes had gone through widespread changes. The organization had a new owner, a new general manager, and a new head coach. They named a new captain. They earned the second pick in the 2018 draft and selected a franchise-altering sniper. They also made one of the best in-season trades in franchise history. All of this, along with the continued development of their stars, allowed the Canes to finally break their drought in 2019 en route to an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals.
For the final part of this series, we'll look at the trade deadlines from 2020 through 2023. I'm skipping the 2019 deadline because they didn't do anything substantial to improve their team. The trade mentioned above for Nino Niederreiter happened over a month before the deadline. These trade deadlines were all about improving their team as they tried to push for postseason success, something they got a taste of in 2019. Some of them worked out, while others left a lot to be desired.