• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

Hurricanes 2024-25 Post Mortem and Off Season Stuff

cmaleski2 said:
This is the type of setup that could have the Canes surprising everyone (except for us), by signing Marner for 2 years at a $14.75 million AAV. Marner gets serious bank for 2 seasons with a Cup contender and is back as a UFA when the cap is at $113.5 million (up from $95.5 million this coming season).
Click to expand...
Yeah, like I said ... I could see Carolina being willing to go short term, and it wouldn't surprise me if Vegas was willing to figure it out as well. Vegas would have to do some fancy asset shifting but they've shown they're willing to get complicated for what they consider the right move. And they need playmaking almost as badly as Carolina needs top end talent. The other destination I keep hearing is LA, and they have the space to make that kind of big commitment and might actually prefer shorter term because they've got a big sea change coming when Kopitar's deal is up next season. It would probably mean they have to re-work their blueline though. Bottom line ... Carolina can drop huge money on a free agent right now without blowing any of their other position groups up to make it work. That puts them in a position to absorb an over-pay in a way none of the other teams really can. And a shorter term over-pay is easier to shift than a long one.
 
Just read Cory Lavalette's article in The Athletic about the logical possibilities for a 2C and I come away feeling underwhelmed. We also need an upgrade in goal, and that doesn't look too exciting, either. I trust GMET, but it's gonna take some wheeling and dealing to fill our critical needs.
 
There exists a pretty decent possibility that Kotkaniemi remains your 2C and that the current goalie group remains your 1A/1B going into next season. Would I like that? Nope. Just pointing out that the market for those position groups suck this summer. If Tulsky doesn't think whatever he can make happen in the market this summer will actually improve the group, he'll do what he did with Andersen's new deal this year and default to not making it worse.
 
I saw some pretty robust rumors that Carolina and Vegas were working on a deal that would sent Tomas Hertl to the Hurricanes, but they got shot down by the time I broke for lunch. Hertl would be a massive upgrade at center for Carolina, but his contract is frankly stupid. He's got another 5 years at a $6.7 million AAV and is currently 31. He'd be a 2C behind Aho but is a completely different kind of player. Big, direct, good around the net. FWIW, it sounded to me like sourced rumors and not your typical "reporter connects dots" stuff, but again ... it also got shot down.

Take that for what it's worth ... which ain't much ... but it is indicative of how much stuff is bubbling ahead of the draft this year.
 
jeffbear said:
I saw some pretty robust rumors that Carolina and Vegas were working on a deal that would sent Tomas Hertl to the Hurricanes, but they got shot down by the time I broke for lunch. Hertl would be a massive upgrade at center for Carolina, but his contract is frankly stupid. He's got another 5 years at a $6.7 million AAV and is currently 31. He'd be a 2C behind Aho but is a completely different kind of player. Big, direct, good around the net. FWIW, it sounded to me like sourced rumors and not your typical "reporter connects dots" stuff, but again ... it also got shot down.

Take that for what it's worth ... which ain't much ... but it is indicative of how much stuff is bubbling ahead of the draft this year.
Click to expand...
Saw the Hertl rumblings too and you have to wonder about Vegas clearing the cap space deck for Marner. If Tulsky is going that route for a 2C I hope the trade acquisition price isn’t that sky high because like you mentioned JB that contract is a bit stupid.
 
The Hertl contract isn't that bad on an AAV, but it probably won't look great those last 2 seasons when Hertl is 35, 36.

Hertl is ++ on faceoffs, so the Canes would like to have that along with Aho and Staal. But Hertl shoots left, so that would leave the Canes continuing to be weak at the dot when a Right hander would be better positioned.

Jack Roslovic actually was a surprisingly good 54.1% at the dot this past season in 355 attempts. That was by far the best he ever performed at faceoffs, by a lot (he was 43.2% before last season). As much as the Canes give Seth Jarvis chances to be our solution as a right handed faceoff option, he only went 34.2% last season. His shoulder injury might have contributed to that.

Not to say that we wouldn't figure it out if Hertl was our #2 center, but it would be great to get a #2 center who is a right hand shot and at least a 50% guy (ie give me Vincent Trocheck back please....)
 
Hertl, for me, is a utilitarian option at 2C. He's paid about what you'd expect for that kind of usage, but isn't really a threat to produce much more than 60-ish points going forward and you'd expect a pretty sharp decline as he loses speed. He'd be a really big upgrade for a 2 or maybe 3 year period and then the contract would be a problem. How much anyone chooses to care about that is up to them. Another niggle is that Hertl has never really been what you'd call a playoff ace and that HAS to be a consideration for Carolina. In 7 playoff campaigns, all with competitive teams, he's really only had two standout showings ... back in 2019 with the Sharks when he had 10 goals in 19 games and 2019 when put up close to a point per game in a shorter Sharks run. Otherwise it's been a bit lean in terms of playoff production. As for cost, one assumes it would be more picks/prospects than guys with term because Vegas would obviously be clearing the decks for a play at Marner ... and their hit rate on that kind of thing is remarkably good. Clearing out Hertl's salary would get them to around $15 million in Cap space, although there are rumors that Pietrangelo might go on LTIR which would make the math pretty irrelevant. As we know, Carolina is absolutely loaded with decent prospects even if they lack high end potential, and they have the surplus picks from the Dallas deal. This would be exactly the kind of move you'd expect Carolina to be sniffing around, even if it never actually happens.
 
There was a lot of chatter in various places about a Hertl trade to the Canes being done but not yet officially registered. Hertl has a full NMC until July 1st, at which point he has the old Brent Burns M-NTC where he can submit a list of 3 teams he is willing to be traded to (for the next 4 seasons of his contract, the final season in 29-30 he submits a 15 team trade list).

Before or after July 1st, Hertl can only be traded to the Canes if he is willing to be. It could very well be that Hertl has approved but both sides are holding the trade until after July 1st to keep Vegas on the hook for the $2.5 million signing bonus. Or it could be that there is no trade....
 
cmaleski2 said:
There was a lot of chatter in various places about a Hertl trade to the Canes being done but not yet officially registered. Hertl has a full NMC until July 1st, at which point he has the old Brent Burns M-NTC where he can submit a list of 3 teams he is willing to be traded to (for the next 4 seasons of his contract, the final season in 29-30 he submits a 15 team trade list).

Before or after July 1st, Hertl can only be traded to the Canes if he is willing to be. It could very well be that Hertl has approved but both sides are holding the trade until after July 1st to keep Vegas on the hook for the $2.5 million signing bonus. Or it could be that there is no trade....
Click to expand...
Hertl off the books in Vegas with a much longer term left than Wild Bill Karlsson makes sense. Clearing space for Marner also makes sense and having all that done in principle ahead of time would be good business for Vegas. When you look at the sparse free agent center market I can understand why Tulsky feels that finding a better fit in the trade route is the way to go.

Does it cost a package of Blake and a first round pick for Hertl?
 
I would expect the trade to include a 1st round pick of some sort and maybe a prospect or 2. I don't think the Canes would be willing to part with Blake.
 
cmaleski2 said:
I would expect the trade to include a 1st round pick of some sort and maybe a prospect or 2. I don't think the Canes would be willing to part with Blake.
Click to expand...
If it’s essentially a salary dump for Vegas, that should be the extent of it. The Canes got Haula from Vegas for Nicolas Roy, who was a good but not great prospect with 7 NHL games under his belt and a conditional 5th rounder. Hertl > Haula but if they want to clear space, they’re not going to take on any salary if they can help it.
 
cmaleski2 said:
There was a lot of chatter in various places about a Hertl trade to the Canes being done but not yet officially registered. Hertl has a full NMC until July 1st, at which point he has the old Brent Burns M-NTC where he can submit a list of 3 teams he is willing to be traded to (for the next 4 seasons of his contract, the final season in 29-30 he submits a 15 team trade list).

Before or after July 1st, Hertl can only be traded to the Canes if he is willing to be. It could very well be that Hertl has approved but both sides are holding the trade until after July 1st to keep Vegas on the hook for the $2.5 million signing bonus. Or it could be that there is no trade....
Click to expand...
From Hertl's perspective it's just a matter of changing addresses and uniforms. Vegas under Cassidy plays a hybrid system that's not that different than Carolina's and he'd be used in much the same way in terms of role and ice time. And you'd have to consider the two teams as basically identical in terms of competitive prospects in the near term.

And yeah, the kind of chatter I was seeing yesterday was well beyond the usual rumor stuff. It sounded like there was a deal in the works and then somebody either pulled the plug or hit pause.

Not sure you'd need to include a player of Blake's profile in this kind of deal, as I'd expect more of a picks-based package because the whole point for Vegas would be shifting Hertl's salary. That said, it wouldn't shock me if the Canes sold high on Blake. Stankoven changes the metrics for Carolina up front. He's an absolute keeper but his size combined with the size of several other mainstays on the roster is a factor in roster construction. I really, really like Blake but his value is pretty good right now and you have to keep in mind what's behind him in the system ... two more small but dynamic forwards in Nadeau and Robidas. I could absolutely see Blake being included in a trade package this summer.
 
Last edited:
I kind of expect Blake to be traded this off season. As the Canes tend to draft a lot of undersized skilled forwards and since you can't build a team with all these small forwards you really need to trade some of them for other needs. That just makes perfect sense and Blake is probably the one with the highest value right now.
 
It's not impossible that we trade Blake as part of a deal that involves a more established (and hopefully bigger) winger. I definitely agree his value is probably at a peak at the moment.
 
I love this time of year, and this year, especially. GMET knows exactly what the Canes need and has the money and assets to make it happen. Will the prevailing 'wisdom' that top players won't go to Raleigh be a factor? Probably, but I don't think that's as big an issue as some people think. But it's certainly fun considering all of the possibilities - and yet I still think Tulsky will surprise us.
 
The small, skilled forward element is here in waves with Blake, Stankoven, Nadeau and Robidas to name just a few, sell high on Blake while you can, if that means getting a player or two you need to balance the roster you have to do that! I feel like Stankoven and Nadeau could both be a bit better fit here long term as much as I like the creativity and skill Blake brings.
 
I don’t think we have any untouchables for the right return. Our mix needs to be bigger but still capable of playing our system and we need a reliable scoring element.

Well Slavin is untouchable.
 
CanadaCanes said:
The small, skilled forward element is here in waves with Blake, Stankoven, Nadeau and Robidas to name just a few, sell high on Blake while you can, if that means getting a player or two you need to balance the roster you have to do that! I feel like Stankoven and Nadeau could both be a bit better fit here long term as much as I like the creativity and skill Blake brings.
Click to expand...
Jarvis is one of those small guys. Jackson has an inch on Jarvis…sharing for what it’s worth.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top