Carolina Looking to Trade Star Forward Due to Cap Restraints

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Wade Messier
July 20, 2023 (11:29 PM)

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It's no secret that the Carolina Hurricanes are still actively trying to acquire defenseman Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks. This has been a long and tricky process, as Carolina doesn't have the cap space to make a trade work as is. Because of this, we could see one of their best players get moved as a cap casualty.

Bye Bye Teuvo

Trusted NHL insider Elliotte Friedman has just reported that the Hurricanes have been talking to teams about the possibility of trading Teuvo Teravainen.

"I think they've talked to some teams about Teravainen, if they need to make some cap room, I think Carolina has a few things going on out there" - Elliotte Friedman

This is quite a shock considering Teravainen has been one of Carolina's best players for years now. What makes this even more odd is the fact that Teravainen is just 28 years old, and on a very reasonable cap hit for the next two years.

Straight Cap Dump

When asked if this would be to recoup assets and gain some cap space in the process, rather than purely a cap dump, the poster of this Tweet had this to say.

"I believe as a full cap dump to try and clear space to land Karlsson."

This is just puzzling, as Carolina has a very good top-six piece in Teravainen that they could surely gain assets in return for. Instead, it looks like they'd rather just get rid of his contract to make space for Karlsson, which is just poor asset management.

While we don't have all of the info that Hurricanes GM Don Waddell does, we're certainly questioning this move right now.

As Seen on Blade of Steel - Carolina Hurricanes potentially moving on from star player as a cap casualty