The Carolina Hurricanes have acquired a fifth-round pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft from the Montreal Canadiens, in exchange for the rights to defenseman Joel Edmundson.
#Canes send rights to Joel Edmundson to Canadiens for fifth-round draft pick
While this deal may be a bit surprising, it’s certainly not shocking to see Edmundson dealt ahead of free agency. The Hurricanes are deep on defense and they weren’t going to be able to keep their entire defense corps around for next season. With Edmundson likely to get term and a bit of a raise on his next contract, Carolina wasn’t going to keep him past this year.
Edmundson had 20 points and a plus-seven rating in 68 regular season games with the Hurricanes this season. Personally, I liked him quite a bit and I thought he was decent while playing in a larger role than he was probably meant for. That said, the Hurricanes have areas of weakness to allocate their cap space to and not re-signing Edmundson makes sense.
This deal is essentially a copy of the Kevin Hayes trade last year, where Winnipeg acquired a fifth-round pick from Philadelphia, in exchange for Hayes’ rights before he became a free agent. Considering Edmundson wasn’t going to be brought back anyways, getting an extra pick is a nice move by general manager Don Waddell.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Are you surprised that Joel Edmundson won't be back next season?
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