DALLAS _ The Carolina Hurricanes made their big splash at the NHL draft and sent a message to their dressing room at the same time, trading former top-10 picks Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin to the Calgary Flames for 6-foot-6, two-way defenseman Dougie Hamilton, big winger Micheal Ferland and prospect defenseman Adam Fox on Saturday.
Lindholm and Hanifin, both restricted free agents, were traded after they rejected the team's contract offers this weekend and will be reunited with former Hurricanes coach Bill Peters in Calgary.
The Hurricanes came into draft weekend wanting to shake up their roster, and while Jeff Skinner was the player most likely to be moved _ and still could _ the breakdowns in negotiations with the restricted free agents opened the door to the biggest trade of the NHL offseason so far and the first big move of Tom Dundon's tenure as owner.
So exit two players once seen as essential pieces of the franchise's foundation, and enter an elite offensive defenseman and the kind of menacing forward the Hurricanes have lacked in recent years. The message: No one is safe from being traded, especially those whose contract demands may not be justified by their performance so far.
Hamilton, a 25-year-old elite right-sided defenseman, has three years left on a contract that pays him $5.75 million and has recorded more than 40 points in each of the past four seasons. His arrival not only jump-starts the Hurricanes' offense but opens the door to a potential Justin Faulk trade. The Hurricanes were leery of replacing Faulk's minutes on the right side, but Hamilton is more than capable of handling the workload along with Brett Pesce and has recorded more than 40 points in each of the past four seasons.
The 26-year-old Ferland is a powerful 6-foot-2, 209 pounds and can play on either wing. He particularly excelled in Calgary at playing alongside the Flames' smaller, skill players, scoring 21 goals last season. Ferland has one year to run on his $1.75 million contract.
Fox, a third-round pick by the Flames in 2016, is a highly rated right-shot defenseman headed back to Harvard next season and will attend the Hurricanes' development camp in Raleigh next week.
Earlier Saturday, the Hurricanes used their second-round draft pick, 42nd overall, to take a future Harvard player with a famous NHL name _ Jack Drury, son of Ted and nephew of Chris. That, along with Colorado's selection of Raleigh's Tyler Weiss, looked like the day's biggest news until the Canes pulled the trigger on the trade in the middle of the fifth round.
They're almost certainly not done. Skinner is still out there. A Faulk trade is newly feasible. And the Hurricanes still need a goalie after losing out on Philipp Grubauer this weekend. They made their first big move Saturday, but it's just the beginning.
