The Carolina Hurricanes will have some key players in need of new contracts next offseason but apparently, they’re looking to get some of those concerns taken care of sooner rather than later.
According to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, general manager Don Waddell said he’s hoping to get a new contract done with Dougie Hamilton prior to the start of the 2020-21 season. Gulitti did note, however, that negotiations on a contract haven’t started yet.
An noteworthy quote in Gulitti’s article was a comment that Waddell made, regarding whether Hamilton would get a long-term deal. While Waddell said that he’s not inferring that Hamilton won’t get a long-term deal, he did point out the fact that the market has changed and few players were able to secure long-term deals in free agency this year.
These are some fairly interesting comments made by Waddell. To start, it’s great that he’s seemingly trying to be proactive on getting Hamilton an extension as soon as possible. Hamilton is going to be due for a big contract and it would be a huge benefit for the Hurricanes to have a number locked in prior to the 2021 offseason, so they know what they have to work with when it comes to cap space.
The note on long-term contracts gets you thinking a bit though. While Waddell did point out that he wasn’t saying they won’t give Hamilton a long-term deal, it does raise some questions. We kind of just assumed he would be getting a maximum-term deal (or very close to it), so it was interesting to hear about it from Waddell’s perspective. If Hamilton entered the free agent market next offseason, we can imagine that he’d get multiple long-term offers, meaning the Hurricanes may be forced into it anyways, even if they’d like to avoid it for whatever reason.
Regardless, hopefully this is a smooth negotiation for both sides and ideally, Hamilton will have a contract before the puck drops for the 2020-21 season.
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Here’s today’s poll questions (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Do you think the Hurricanes will re-sign Dougie Hamilton before the start of the season?
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