Well it was nice while it lasted.
We’ve been so locked into the Stanley Cup Final that it’s been forgotten that the rest of the league–except the Vegas Golden Knights–has been done for at least three weeks, and some as long as two months. That’s a lot of time to take a hard look at what you need to improve on your team. At least they let the Champs have their week to celebrate as well as the parade, but once that was done, the offseason was on.
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This last week has seen Brady Tkachuk head to Florida, Alex Tuch head to Washington, Bowen Byram head to Chicago, Buffalo get the fourth pick, and William Eklund head to Ottawa. With a free agent market that is just considered one of the weakest of all time and a load of teams with cap room, the trade market isn’t expected to slow down over the next few days.
That includes the Canes.
While the team had been able to enjoy the post-Stanley Cup glow as long as it could, with the Draft and Free Agency around the corner the front office is doing what it should be–looking at how to make sure the Cup is awarded to the Canes once again. There was no greater sign of that than on Wednesday night when TSN’s Darren Dreger posted that up to six teams had been circling around Alexander Nikishin. While the Hurricanes didn’t have much in the way of free agents this offseason, Nikishin was a big one. He’s a restricted free agent, as his initial entry deal officially started last season which allowed him to play in the playoffs.
That talk developed further on Thursday when Frank Seravalli reported that the Canes had made an offer for Winnipeg goalie and Jaccob Slavin USA Teammate Connor Hellebuyck, and that trade proposal included Nikishin.
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Nikishin has long been coveted by other teams since it became clear that the Hurricanes got a steal for the big defenseman in the 2020 NHL draft–the same one that netted Seth Jarvis for the Canes. This week, in fact, it came out that he was part of a proposed package to Calgary for Matthew Tkachuk. His is the name that always seemed to circle whenever the Canes were in for big trades, and it was pretty clear that the Canes valued him enough to keep him.
Hurricanes General Manager Eric Tulsky has famously not played much of the Insider game since taking over the job two years ago, and the evidence is that his major trades essentially came as surprises. No one knew that Mikko Rantanen was being traded the first time, all of the info about the second trade was coming from the Dallas side, and last summer’s trade of K’Andre Miller was out of the blue. So, any info that gets out about the Canes should be taken with a grain of salt–but there’s reason to think this has some teeth.
As noted, trades involve two sides and those two sides involve agents. Nikishin’s agents have been notoriously chatty about the Canes, and Hellebuyck has a no movement clause that he has to waive in order to be traded. It’s unlikely Winnipeg and Carolina would have gotten this far without Hellebuyck being asked if he would go to the Canes. As for the “up to six teams,” all it takes is a couple of other general managers that do play the game with the Insiders to say the same thing for a reporter to feel comfortable getting it out.
So why shop Nikishin now? It seems pretty clear that the team and Nikishin’s team can’t agree on the length of a contract as the Canes would probably want Nikishin to sign a max length deal like Jackson Blake, Logan Stankoven, and K’Andre Miller all did last summer. Nikishin is in the unique position because of his age to where he’s not going to really get much of a salary bump until he’s an unrestricted free agent, and with the cap exploding he and his team likely want a deal that just gets him to that date. Then you likely have a disagreement from both sides about how much each of those deals are worth.
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There’s also a good argument to make that Nikishin’s value will never be higher. He’s now in the United States, whomever gets him will have team control and probably be more willing to make him a centerpiece of their defense as opposed to the Canes who have other blue line prospects that can slot in where Nikishin played this year.
One thing is for sure–between Carolina being listed as a squad that Brady Tkachuk would have OK’d a trade to and the rumors swirling around Nikishin, it’s pretty clear that at least for the next week the Hurricanes front office is no longer thinking about last year.
The rest of us? Take a break from celebrating for the next week as the roster for 2026-27 takes shape, then sit back and watch as everyone continues to enjoy the fact that they are Stanley Cup Champions. With any luck the front office will put this team in a great place to celebrate again next year.
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