The Carolina Hurricanes made few moves this offseason and didn’t have much of a problem managing their cap situation. However, with key players like Dougie Hamilton and Andrei Svechnikov in need of extensions next year, will the Hurricanes still be in a good spot cap-wise?
Well, next year the Hurricanes will free up $14 million, based on players with expiring contracts, those being Ryan Dzingel, Jordan Martinook, Brock McGinn, Petr Mrazek and James Reimer. Alexander Semin’s buyout penalty will also finally come off the books, which frees up another $2.33 million. Obviously, that money will also need to be used to find replacement players if those listed aren’t re-signed but it’s still quite a bit of money to work with.
The expansion draft will also happen ahead of the 2021-22 season, which could impact Carolina’s cap situation. But there’s no clear answer as to who the Hurricanes will lose, so for now, I’ll use the roster as is, when looking at what the cap situation will look like.
Here’s the lineup, without the expiring contracts, including the bolded names of those in need of a new deal who we can expect to be back.
Slavin - HAMILTON
Skjei - Pesce
Gardiner - Fleury
BEAN
1G
2G
We can also include two other spares at $750,000 (the league minimum for the 2021-22 season), as placeholder salaries for the 23-man roster. This means the Hurricanes would have roughly $54 million committed, leaving $27.5 million (using a $81.5 million salary cap) left to be spent on Svechnikov, Hamilton, Foegele, Geekie, Bean, two goalies and two fourth-line forwards.
Again, this is all considering that Jake Gardiner is still with the Hurricanes, whose contract costs $4.05 million per year. It also has Bean, Fleury and Skjei on the roster, though it's likely one will be selected in the expansion draft.
Essentially, even with a conservative look at the potential cap situation, the Hurricanes are already in a fairly good spot to re-sign Hamilton and Svechnikov, among other members of the roster, in what will be an expensive offseason. Going forward, however, the team will need to continue to keep their cap situation for next season in mind, when making decisions with their roster.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
If the Hurricanes re-sign Dougie Hamilton to an eight-year deal, what's your prediction for the AAV?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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