Hurricanes looking for top-4 defenseman: 3 possible trade partners

The Carolina Hurricanes lost defensemen Dougie Hamilton last week for the rest of the year with a nasty broken leg. Hamilton was having a Norris Trophy worthy season until he was injured. Armed with cap space and 4 picks in the first two rounds of the draft, Hurricanes GM Don Waddell is on the hunt for a replacement for the injured defenseman. There are plenty of quality defensemen rumoured to be available, but the price will not be cheap with the 2020 draft considered to be a "deep" draft by most NHL scouts.


The Minnesota Wild could have a couple defensemen of interest to Carolina. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that the Wild are listening to offers on Mathew Dumba, Jonas Brodin has also been mentioned as being shopped by the Wild. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin is looking to put his stamp on the team in his first year as GM. The price for Brodin would be less then that for Dumba. Brodin has one more year remaining after this season at $4.1 million cap hit. Guerin is said to be looking to improve his top-six forwards with skill, so even with an offer of a 1st round pick plus someone off the current roster, there may not be a match between the Hurricanes and Wild unless Waddell gets creative. Maybe the 1st round pick and former Wild forward Nino Niederreiter would entice Guerin to move Dumba? I doubt that would be enough for the Wild to bite.

The Philadelphia Flyers have been long rumored to be looking to move Shane Gostisbehere. Gotisbehere has been a healthy scratch this year and seems to have fallen out of favor in Philly. He can probably be had for Carolina's first round pick, not the one they have from Toronto. The one they have from the Leafs is top-10 protected for this season and would slide to next year if the Maple Leafs fall to bottom ten in the NHL. The Flyers would possibly take a 2nd rounder with a current roster player thrown in, maybe Jordan Martinook?

The Montreal Canadiens have had a nice influx of youth this season. The roster is young and GM Marc Bergevin has been reported by Sportsnet that he is checking what the price would be for defenseman Jeff Petry. It is believed that Petry could fetch a 2nd round pick and that the Canadiens want to get as many picks for this years draft. The Hurricanes have the New York Rangers 2nd round pick this year thanks to the Adam Fox trade last year. The Rangers 2nd round pick might be enough to pry Petry out of Montreal.

31 days until the trade deadline, who is going to make the first move?