Hurricanes Looking To Acquire Temporary Aid On Defense

The injuries have piled up for the Carolina Hurricanes, especially on defense, as the team has had four rookie defensemen play for them already this season. When players like Jaccob Slavin, K'Andre Miller, and Shayne Gostisbehere come back, that is going to change, but the Hurricanes have the cap space to address their issues in the short-term and aren't willing to wait and see.

Frank Seravalli reported, "They're actively looking to acquire a stopgap to aid their banged up blueline." The Hurricanes currently have a defensive group consisting of Nikita Nikishin (rookie) and Sean Walker, Jalen Chatfield and Joel Nystrom (rookie), and Mike Reilly and Alexis-Charles Legault (rookie), with Domenick Fensore (rookie) as the 7th defenseman.

The Hurricanes are 7-4-0 despite this, but want to keep up with the division leaders and end the season as the top team to have an easier first-round matchup. Both Slavin and Miller have lower-body injuries and Gostisbehere has an injury to his abdomen. All four of the rookies have combined for 24 regular season games, 22 of which have come this season.

The Hurricanes have plenty of money for a contender (over $7 million) and don't have to use much at all to address their hopeful short-term problem. Some teams have more experienced defensemen who just aren't getting into games this season due to the good health of the team or lots of depth. The Hurricanes only have to go after one of these players and insert him into the lineup. This eliminates the usage of so many rookies all at once, also negatively impacting the goalie and potentially overworking players like Nikishin and Walker.

I wouldn't expect the Hurricanes to spend more than $2 million on a stopgap defenseman to help them out in the short term. Just having another option can't hurt, even if the team is saving lots of money to target another star ahead of the trade deadline later in the season.