The Carolina Hurricanes have traded goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic to the Detroit Red Wings, in exchange for a third-round pick in this year’s draft and the rights to goaltender Jonathan Bernier.
Nedeljkovic is 25 years old and was great with the Hurricanes this season, posting a .932 save percentage in 23 games. The strong season led to him being named a finalist for the Calder Trophy. Since the time of the trade, Nedeljkovic has signed a two-year contract with the Red Wings, with a $3 million cap hit.
Bernier is 32 years old and is a pending unrestricted free agent. He posted a .914 save percentage in 24 games with Detroit this season.
I’ll give more of a breakdown on this trade in the coming days but for some quick thoughts: this was a horrible decision for the Hurricanes to make. Nedeljkovic was reportedly asking for $3.5 million per season from Carolina, according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, which was completely reasonable. If the Hurricanes weren’t even willing to pay a price like this for Nedeljkovic, I can’t see how they’ll actually be able to continue building a contender in the coming years, without being willing to pay fair value for their players. Nedeljkovic had the potential to be the team’s long-term starting goalie and to trade him away for nothing, just as Carolina had seemingly finally found a solution in net, is a decision that could set the team back by quite a bit. This is an embarrassing move for the Hurricanes.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Hurricanes Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Canes for updates on articles, Hurricanes news, etc.***
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»