Team: 2021-22 Carolina Hurricanes

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 29, 2021

Published: Jul. 29, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Probably not super realistic, but if they wanted to go "all in" on this year and use their remaining cap space efficiently, I think this would be a risk worth taking. Original concept came from Caniac555 so shoutout to him - made a few adjustments though.

I don't mind keeping Gardiner if only one additional top 6 type forward is brought in or two cheaper middle 6 guys, but to bring in two potential high level scoring players I had to move him out. Could also potentially go on LTIR but for the sake of the argument I moved him.

I also kept Nino since the cap space is there - putting him on the 3rd line gives this team 3 really tough lines to play against and scoring up and down the line-up. He can also jump into top 6 in case of injuries (Tara....)

Tara trade seems like fair value to me but let me know if I'm being biased and need to adjust. Just seems like with the injury risk and cap hit, there's not a ton of interest. Understand STL probably doesn't want to retain so made the draft pick a 1st instead of a 3rd to sweeten. Can also include a third team with extra cap space and throw them a pick to eat some of the salary.

LeBrun reported that Canes are in on Saad among a handful of other teams (NJD, LAK, COL, maybe others) so who knows. Would be a great fit. Tatar would be a good pick-up for the third line as well if they could get a good contract on him. Haven't heard any rumors linking him to CAR and understand his playoff struggles but I personally think those are blown out of proportion. MTL had plenty of guys who weren't productive offensively and benched other players they shouldn't have. They made a great run but it was predominately built around Price and team defense imo.

Defense might look a little different but figure they'll mix and match for the first half of the season until they figure out what pairings they like. Seems like left side would be pretty set in this order if Gardiner was to leave. Lajoie is a good 7D and I think Sellgren is close but probably will make the jump next year as some of the short term D contracts expire.

Even with the loss of Dougie I think the defense 1-6 is very solid, but maybe with a little less scoring punch. The PP really seems lethal too so that would be a couple of exciting units to watch.

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