The Carolina Hurricanes had been one of the teams most linked to now-New Jersey Devils goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.
They had a non-Alexander Nikishin offer on the table, but the Winnipeg Jets insisted on getting some immediate forward help.
That’s where the Canes hit a snag.
As insider Elliotte Friedman noted on the October 24 edition of Saturday Headlines, Carolina tried to find a forward the Jets would like by calling other teams to see what could be out there.
“The Hurricanes really wanted to get Hellebuyck. One of the issues was the Jets really wanted immediate forward help, and Carolina wasn’t trading a (Logan) Stankoven, a (Seth) Jarvis or a (Jackson) Blake.”
This is the sort of moment where Canes’ fans would be holding their collective breath, thinking that GM Eric Tulsky would part with one of the most important pieces of the team’s forward group. Because of his reluctance to do so, Tulsky called around to see if there was anything else he could find to entice Winnipeg.
“What Carolina did try to do, I heard from a few teams today, was they tried to reach out to other teams to figure out forwards that Jets might have interest in. And they were going to trade for those players and flip that player to the Jets to get Hellebuyck. Obviously, it didn’t work. But Carolina, which wanted him badly, did try to do that in order to facilitate the deal.”
It’s unclear what the Hurricanes tried to do. But one has to think that whoever Tulsky had in mind had to be someone along the lines of Dawson Mercer.
Hurricanes Were Right Not to Trade Core Pieces
The idea of jettisoning Stankoven, Jarvis, or Blake is something that could have significantly undermined the Hurricanes’ core.
While adding Hellebuyck would have been a major upgrade at a critical position, the bottom line is that the organization proved it can win without a high-end goalie.
That said, keeping guys like the aforementioned trio would have been much more conducive to the team’s success than potentially losing one for the sake of adding the three-time Vezina Trophy winner.
Still, missing out on Hellebuyck has to sting the Hurricanes. And it probably hurts even more that Hellebuyck landed in the Metro Division.
But until Hellebuyck actually shows that he can win in the postseason, the addition is negligible.
Carolina May Still Target a Goalie This Season
While it doesn’t seem like the Hurricanes really need a goalie at the moment, there bottom line is that the club may still see what’s out there.
At the moment, the pickings are certainly slim. But it wouldn’t be out of the question to see Carolina kick the tires on some netminders out there. The play of Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov, of course, will minimize that need to a certain extent. If both goalies play well and stay healthy, the Canes may just cross that item off their list.
But then again, there could be an incentive for the Hurricanes to try and match what the Devils have done.
Don’t look now, but there might just be an arms race brewing in the Metro.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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