Over the next week or so, I’ll be looking at six free agents that the Carolina Hurricanes could target this offseason. Yesterday’s article looked at the pros and cons of signing Corey Crawford, and going alphabetically, today’s player profile will focus on Evgenii Dadonov.
Dadonov’s point production may have been down a bit this season, but he still managed 25 goals and 47 points in 69 games, a pace of 30 goals and 56 points per 82 games. Over his two previous seasons with the Florida Panthers in 2017-18 and 2018-19, Dadonov averaged 31 goals/72 points and then 28 goals/70 points per 82 games respectively.
For the Hurricanes, a goal-scoring winger is exactly the kind of player they’d need to round out their top-six. Dadonov would add a massive boost to Carolina’s second line and could be reunited with former teammate Vincent Trocheck.
Obviously, it’s not that easy though. Dadonov is probably going to command a five-year deal that could be worth up to $7 million per season, based on comparables. Maybe that number goes down a bit based on the flat cap but regardless, even if the Hurricanes were able to move Ryan Dzingel and Jake Gardiner to make room, that contract would take up just about all of Carolina’s remaining cap space. Add on the fact that he’s already 31 years old and it could be a bit of a risk for the Hurricanes.
Again, Dadonov is a quality goal-scoring winger that’s going to help whichever team he ends up with and if Carolina didn’t have more pressing needs, I’d say they should go for it. If they can manage to find a goalie at a reasonable price and still find a way to make room for Dadonov, I’d be all for it.
Unfortunately though, that’s an unlikely scenario and the Hurricanes probably shouldn’t commit that much cap space to add a winger when they're still in need of a starting goalie.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Hurricanes Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Canes for updates on articles, Hurricanes news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Would you be in favour of the Hurricanes targeting Evgenii Dadonov in free agency?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»