The Andrei Svechnikov contract stipulates that the Carolina Hurricanes have him locked into an eight-year contract paying an average of $7.75 million per season.

But if you read between the lines, you see the Hurricanes putting it in writing that they intend to give star players the big ticket necessary to keep them.

“I don’t know if I was sending a message, but I know our phones have been very busy in the ticket office today,” Carolina Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said. “It’s been an exciting day for our fans.”

Fair or not, Carolina’s willingness to pay top dollar to keep top players has been questioned. It took an offer sheet by the Montreal Canadiens to get Sebastian Aho the $8.46 million contract he received in 2019.

The Hurricanes didn't get Dougie Hamilton to stay this summer. He left and signed a seven-year deal with the Devils for an average of $9 million. Some view the decision to trade goalie Alex Nedeljkovic to be based on the fact that the Hurricanes were concerned of what he could get in arbitration.

But the 'Canes are committing $62 million to keep Svechnikov for eight years. “You like to reward your fans and our fans have been great,” Waddell said. “This is a way we can say thank you for your support because you are going to see Andrei in a Hurricanes uniform for a long time.”

Last fall, Waddell had said that he thought a “bridge deal” was the more likely approach to a new deal.

“Once we got through the season, on one of the first phone calls (with agent Mark Gandler), we talked about ‘let’s just talk about an eight-year-contract,’” Waddell said. “Maybe a year ago, it seemed easier to get a bridge done. But after the season, both mindsets shifted to a long-term deal.”

Svechnikov said the eight-year term “was actually an easy decision.”

“We have a great team here, great coaches,” Svechnikov said.

Svechnikov is 21 and he has the potential to score 40 or 50 goals in a season. If he stays healthy, Svechnikov could score 300 goals over the eight years.

The Hurricanes also extended coach Rod Brind’Amour this summer. He is also popular with the fan base. Owner Tom Dunden has been cast as a frugal owner, but has said continually he has no problem paying top players provided their demands aren’t unreasonable. The Svechnikov deal could be viewed as fair. I would have guessed that he would have gotten $8 to $8.25 million or $8.25 million. Maybe Svechnikov gave them a modest hometown discount.

But if you are Carolina fan all you care about is that he is locked up for eight years.
The Hurricanes will have a different look because they have new goaltending (Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen) and three new defensemen (Anthony DeAngelo, Ethan Bear and Ian Cole). They have $4.5 million in cap space remaining.

“We are still talking to teams about potentially adding to our group,” Waddell said. "We don’t want to delete from our group at all. We like how our team shapes us right now."

They will look at all of their options before the season. But they may just carry the cap space into the season because there will be other opportunities if teams have bad starts.

"Having flexibility with a salary cap is not a bad thing," Waddell said.

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