OG Fans - July 2, 2025

It was shaping up to be a boring start to free agency. The top free agent, Mitch Marner, got traded to Vegas the night before and signed an eight-year deal. The three key free agents from Florida who would have looked good on any roster - Sam Bennett, Brad Marchant, and Aaron Ekblad - re-signed with Florida. Nik Ehlers - who seemingly wasn’t going to re-sign with Winnipeg and was tops on the Hurricanes shopping list - said he was going to take his time and not sign right away. Evan Bouchard, Ivan Provorov, Patrick Kane, Morgan Geekie, Claude Giroux, Matthew Knies, John Tavares - all re-signed before they could hit free agency. Boring.

Then Eric Tulsky did his best impression of the unnecessarily hot Hot Topic mom from the 90s commercial for Long Island’s Fun Zone, told us to “hold on, kids”, then worked out a deal with the New York Rangers for defenseman K’Andre Miller. The 25-year-old Miller came at a price, with the Canes sending a conditional 2026 first round pick (either the Canes original one or Dallas’, whichever is better), a 2026 second round pick, and defensive prospect Scott Morrow to Manhattan. Tulsky then signed Miller to an 8-year, $60 million contract, committing the Canes to Miller for the long term.

While Miller’s name had been mentioned on trade boards due to his restricted free agent status and the Rangers desire to shake up what had been a highly disappointing team this past season, the Canes targeting him was unexpected. With the Canes already looking at Jaccob Slavin, Shayne Gostisbehere, and highly touted rookie Alexander Nikishin on the left side, Miller’s acquisition (and large salary) seems to drop him in a top four role, which either leaves Gostisbehere or Nikishin on the outside looking in. Morrow’s insertion into the deal takes away a right-side defenseman as well, leaving the Hurricanes with only Sean Walker and Jalen Chatfield on the right side, as Brent Burns is currently without a contract. More than likely, it means Gostisbehere slides over to the right side, a position he’s played a lot in the past, despite being a lefthanded shot.

Miller is a large (6’5”, 209lbs), athletic player who has speed, a strong shot, and isn’t afraid to play the body. He can make bad decisions though, and that’s part of the reason the Rangers seemed to give up on him. The Hurricanes system is good at hiding mistakes though, and taking a tool that doesn’t always work right elsewhere and using it to its full potential. Miller still has tons of potential, and if the Canes can harness that, the $7.5 million AAV will look like a bargain several years down the line.

As for Morrow, losing one of the stronger prospects that the Canes have had in a little while is disappointing, but while I mentioned before that the Canes can hide mistakes, they also seem to know when to cut bait with someone who isn’t going to work. There’s no question that Scott Morrow has tremendous offensive ability and potential, as his scoring at the AHL level as a rookie showed, but it still remains to be seen if he is ever going to have the defensive ability to be a reliable defenseman at the NHL level. Morrow has dealt with questions about his defending and his desire to get better at it since high school, and if questions about your compete level still exist going into your age 23 season, especially on a Rod Brind’Amour team, it might be better to make him someone else’s problem while he still has value.

Yeah, but $7.5 million? Sure, the number for Miller seems to be a little higher than expected (AFP Analytics had a long term extension at around 6 years, $6 million per), but the number likely comes from the alleged original way the Hurricanes were going to acquire Miller - an offer sheet. As I mentioned over on Bluesky (follow me!) a $7.5 million AAV offer sheet would have been worth a first, second, and third round pick in 2026. I don’t think the Rangers would have matched that (if offered), but there’s a minor issue with that offer sheet - the Hurricanes don’t have their 2026 3rd round draft pick. Now, it’s completely possible the Hurricanes reached an agreement with Miller, reached a tentative trade with Utah (who holds the Canes 2026 3rd), and called up Chris Drury and mentioned the option of the easy way or the hard way.

Why give them the option instead of just signing the offer sheet? Two things - first, if Utah knows the Canes want that 3rd in order to do a larger deal, they may ask for a “sweetener” to come their way. Teams can get held hostage for the assets they want when their plan is obvious - just ask the New York Islanders at the recent draft and James Hagens. But, more importantly, if the Canes wanted to sign Miller to an offer sheet at $7.5 million, they could only offer him a five-year deal. If they had signed him to the contract they would end up signing - $60 million over 8 seasons - the full dollar amount gets divided by five and not eight (as per the rules, that state that for compensation purposes the total amount of the contract is divided by the number of years OR five, whichever is smaller. So, the 8 year, $60 million contract ends up coming in at an AAV of $12 million, which earns the Rangers four 1st round draft picks, something I’m sure the Canes didn’t want to do. The trade allows the Canes to structure the trade how they want, while allowing the Canes to sign Miller to the contract they wanted to.

Anything else? Some quick hits because this is getting long:

• Logan Stankoven signs for 8 years, $48 million ($6 million AAV). It’s another bet on a young player, but if there ever seemed to be a player made for this system and Rod Brind’Amour, it’s Stankoven. AFP had him projected at 6 years and around $7 million, so this seems like a win already for the Canes. 
• Goaltender Cayden Primeau is acquired from Montreal for a 7th round pick, then signed to a $775,000 contract. Primeau is a very good AHL goalie, but it remains to be seen if he’ll ever be a good NHL goalie. The cost is low, and assuming he clears waivers, should be the #1 goaltender for the Chicago Wolves next season, and solid depth in case of an injury to Fredy Andersen or Pytor Kochetkov.
• Free agent defenseman Mike Reilly signs for 1 year, $1.1 million. A depth signing, but one I love. Reilly is a decent two-way defenseman who probably deserves a regular chance somewhere, but he chose the Hurricanes. You could do a lot worse.