The Hurricanes quietly add a goalie with Carolina ties before free agency starts

While other teams were re-signing big pending free agents to long-term deals on Monday, the Carolina Hurricanes were very quiet. They'd already done most of their work in the lead-up to the draft, waiting patiently for free agency to begin on Tuesday. However, they weren't completely silent, making a small deal with the Canadiens for a goalie.

As evening turned to night, the Hurricanes announced they'd acquired goalie Cayden Primeau from the Montreal Canadiens for a seventh-round pick in the 2026 Draft. Primeau was incredible at the AHL level this season, going 21-2-3 with a .927 save percentage and a 1.96 GAA in 26 games for the Laval Rockets. Primeau received a qualifying offer from Montreal on Monday before being traded.

His time in the NHL hasn't been fun. Primeau has played 55 games with Montreal since being drafted in the seventh round in 2017, going 13-24-7 with a 3.69 GAA. He was 2-3-1 in 11 appearances this season with a .836 save percentage. With Samuel Montembeault seizing control of the net and Jakub Dobes cementing himself as the backup, it made little sense for Montreal to hang onto Primeau.

He's a solid depth addition in a very weak free agent goalie class

This is not a move that will move many needles for the fans, but it also didn't need to be. To put it nicely, this free agent class between the pipes is rough. The Canes have a solid duo in place in Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov. Barring something big, that's who the Canes are riding into Opening Night with.

Adding Cayden Primeau addresses two issues. First, it gives the Chicago Wolves an experienced goalie to be their starter, with Dustin Tokarski and Spencer Martin becoming free agents, and Yaniv Perets not receiving a qualifying offer. Ruslan Khazheyev and Nikita Quapp are the only two goalies signed, and they're both largely inexperienced.

Second, the Hurricanes can call upon a goalie with legitimate NHL experience when Andersen or Kochetkov has to miss time. Add to it the fact that he's young (25 years old) and comes from a family with Hurricanes ties. His father, Keith, was the Hurricanes' captain in 1998-99, before holding out and being traded for Rod Brind'Amour.

All of this is to say that this is a perfectly fine move by the Hurricanes to fortify a position of organizational weakness. The Canes needed to find a third-string goalie, and they've done exactly that, assuming they sign him to a new contract. It's not the biggest move in the organization's history, but it could prove to be a smart, low-risk, high-reward decision.