The Carolina Hurricanes know they need more scoring up front to summit the hill.
A perennial playoff team under head coach Rob Brind’Amour’s reign, the Hurricanes have a good, not great, team that has lost to the Florida Panthers in two of the past three Eastern Conference Finals.
Carolina did acquire superstar winger Mikko Rantanen for a brief period, but ultimately flipped him to the Dallas Stars.
Now, as free agency approaches, they have a clear goal this offseason:
“The Carolina Hurricanes, not surprisingly, are ready to make a splash. They’ve got $30 million to spend and intend to inquire on pending UFA Mitch Marner, as many contending teams do, but their eggs are not all in that basket. The Canes are ready to take a run at several free agents and also are inquiring on the trade front,” Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic wrote.
Marner would instantly slot into a top-six forward role and would likely bump Seth Jarvis off Sebastian Aho’s right wing on the top line. Marner, a dynamic skater coming off of a 102-point campaign, would add some much-needed scoring pop up front and plays the responsible, defensive game necessary to thrive in Brind’Amour’s chaotic system.
However, despite having 741 points in 657 career games, Marner will come at a steep price, particularly for someone who has faltered during the playoffs.
His postseason stats are impressive on the surface (13 goals, 50 assists in 70 games), but there are serious questions about whether or not Marner’s play style is suited for the big games.
He does not check particularly well, nor does he excel below the goal line, where so many of these playoff games are won. Marner is expected to earn somewhere between $12 million and $14 million annually on his upcoming deal.
Marner is a terrific player, but at that cost and likely a significant term, he has not proven to be the piece that can get Carolina into the Stanley Cup Final.
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