Will John Carlson sign with the Hurricanes?
The Carolina Hurricanes are the reigning Stanley Cup champions, but that does not mean general manager Eric Tulsky is going to stop pushing to make his formidable squad even better.
After a report from NHL insider Frank Seravalli that the Hurricanes were offering promising defenseman Alexander Nikishin in a package for Connor Hellebuyck, Tulsky struck a different major move, acquiring the rights to pending unrestricted free agent John Carlson from the Anaheim Ducks during the draft on Saturday for a sixth-round pick and prospect Kyle Masters.
Carlson, who is widely believed to prefer signing with an East Coast team, now has the chance to sign with the champs after an impressive run in Orange county as a rental for a Ducks team that made it to the second round.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Jonny Lazarus and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed whether or not Carlson will forego free agency and ink a deal in Carolina ahead of July 1.
Jonny Lazarus: As we enter free agency week, John Carlson made news as well during the draft because the Carolina Hurricanes were able to acquire his rights, but John Carlson has not signed anything yet or have a deal in place with the Carolina Hurricanes. What do you think happens there?
Carter Hutton: It would be interesting to watch this one play out, right? Carolina, and I listened to Tulsky talk the other day, and it seemed like there was a lot of pressure on him to try to make this team better. It seems like they are so quick to park it and move on, which I do respect, and I think for the Carolina Hurricanes it’s like a quick turnaround, right? You think about winning the Cup, and now you have to go to free agency. You have the draft, you have development camps going on right now, and you’re just trying to celebrate a Stanley Cup win… I think for John Carlson, going to a veteran group I think this could be a factor where he takes a decent number at his age and where he’s at just to be part of a team that has a winner here. Again, there’s been talk about Hellebuyck. There’s been talks about ways they can make their team better, and I think for Carlson to be a part of that winning culture after being about West, he obviously wants to be back East, and I could see this being a factor here, Jonny.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…