With Warren Foegele being traded to the Edmonton Oilers and Brock McGinn signing with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Carolina Hurricanes are left with a hole in the top-nine of their forward group.
Aside from the top-six group, featuring Sebastian Aho, Martin Necas, Nino Niederreiter, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen and Vincent Trocheck, the only other legitimate top-nine forwards on the team are Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast. This leaves a third-line spot open on the wing.
Looking internally, other bottom-six forwards are Derek Stepan, who should center the fourth line, as well as Jordan Martinook, Steven Lorentz and Josh Leivo. Stepan, Martinook and Lorentz would make for a solid fourth line, but Leivo shouldn’t really then be counted on to take a spot on the third-line.
In terms of the prospect pool, it’s a stretch to think that any of the team’s prospects could jump right into a top-nine role. Seth Jarvis could be a big part of the team’s future but has still played just nine games of professional hockey in his career. There’s 21-year-old Dominik Bokk as well, but he could still likely use a bit more time in the AHL. Nobody else really stands out as potential options, meaning the Hurricanes would probably be better off looking to fill the role externally.
The pool of available free agents is quite thin at this point, with most of the decent options having found new homes already. If the Hurricanes did go this route, a short-term fit would be ideal. Some cheap options could include Derick Brassard, Ryan Donato or Nikita Gusev.
If none of those free agent options or others are appealing enough, the team could turn to the trade market instead, either for a third-line option or someone who could potentially play in the top-six, bumping Nino Niederreiter down to the third line. That said, the Hurricanes do still have to leave enough cap space to sign Andrei Svechnikov, which would make adding a high-end forward slightly more challenging.
It’ll be interesting to see what the team does but we should likely expect them to add another top-nine forward before the start of next season.
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Do you expect the Hurricanes to add a top-nine forward this offseason?
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