With Andrei Svechnikov finally re-signed to a long-term deal, there's only one unchecked box left on the Carolina Hurricanes' offseason to-do list.
There's still a hole on the depth chart for one more skilled winger and about $4.5 million in cap space left to fill it. With a month to go before the first preseason game, it's really a question of whether the Hurricanes want to spend that money now or preserve that flexibility to load up at the trade deadline.
The most important skilled winger on the roster is Svechnikov, coming off a disappointing third season with the contract negotiations hanging over his head but at 21 still just scratching the surface of his extraordinary talent. It's unfortunate it took more than a year of off-and-on negotiations to come to what certainly looks like a reasonable compromise for both sides on Thursday — eight years at a cap hit of $7.75 million per season — but at least the Hurricanes avoided any offer-sheet embarrassment this time around.
As with that extended drama with Sebastian Aho, dragging things out had a deleterious effect on Svechnikov and by extension the Hurricanes, who desperately could have used a goal or two from Svechnikov in the postseason.
That said, the Hurricanes and Svechnikov landed in a good spot and well before training camp. If Svechnikov can resume the career trajectory he was on after his sophomore season — and there's no reason to believe he can't or won't — this contract will be a bargain for the Hurricanes.
There's also the security in knowing their cap situation now, secure in the knowledge of exactly how much they can spend in search of more firepower should they choose to do so.
And they should: For a team with Stanley Cup aspirations even after the free-agent departure of Dougie Hamilton, using that cap space on a top-nine forward would upgrade the one area that went generally unrenovated this offseason.
"If something comes up that makes sense between now and when we start we'll take a look at it," Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said Thursday. "If not, it gives us a lot of flexibility during the year."
They swapped out both goalies, retooled the defense in the wake of Hamilton's departure and renovated the fourth line. The one area where there's been no upgrade is among the top nine forwards, where the exits of Brock McGinn and Warren Foegele essentially leave one spot open.
They're set at center with Aho, Vincent Trocheck and Jordan Staal down the middle, so it's really just a winger — and preferably on the left, although that's required — on the shopping list. With Svechnikov's deal done, the Hurricanes can now pursue that help in earnest and there ought to be options in that $4 million window.
There would be more and better options if they could figure out a way to wriggle out from under Jake Gardiner's contract, with two years left to go at $4 million per for a defenseman who, with the addition of veterans Ian Cole and Brendan Smith in free agency this summer, is entirely surplus to requirements.
It may be easier to solve cold fusion than shed that contract at a reasonable price, but stranger things have happened. In the interim, absent a sweetened deal or long-term injured reserve machinations, the Hurricanes will have to drag the remaining two years of the Gardiner contract around like luggage.
That extra $4 million in cap space could be the difference between adding a useful forward or a true impact player. At the end of a long and tumultuous summer, with Svechnikov safely re-signed, it's the one area where the Hurricanes still need help.
