Carolina Hurricanes trade Eddie Lack, Ryan Murphy to Calgary Flames for prospect, pick

The Carolina Hurricanes’ backup goaltending situation has been settled, and Cam Ward is the survivor.

Firsr reported by TSN’s Bob McKenzie, the Canes on Thursday traded Eddie Lack, Ryan Murphy and a seventh-round draft pick in the 2019 NHL Draft to the Calgary Flames in exchange for prospect defenseman Keegan Kanzig and a sixth-round pick in 2019. Carolina will retain half of Lack’s $2.7 million salary next season.

Lack leaves Carolina with a record of 20-21-9, a goals-against average of 2.75 and a save percentage of .902. He was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks at the 2015 Draft for a third-round pick. Murphy, the Canes’ first-round selection in 2011, played 151 games over parts of five seasons with Carolina. He scored six goals and 31 assists for 37 points in his career with the Hurricanes, skating to a minus-37 in that stretch.

Kanzig is a big (6’7”) defenseman who spent most of last season in the ECHL. He joined the AHL Stockton Heat after finishing a five-year junior career with the WHL’s Victoria Royals and Calgary Hitmen, playing in nine games with the Heat over the past two seasons while contributing two assists.

Trading Lack and Murphy, given that the Canes will retain half of Lack’s cap hit, removes a total of nearly $2.5 million off the Hurricanes’ cap number for next season, and virtually ensures that Haydn Fleury will be given every opportunity to make the team out of training camp.

The release from the team is below.

HURRICANES TRADE LACK, MURPHY TO FLAMES

Carolina receives 2019 sixth-round pick and Keegan Kanzig from Calgary

Ron Francis, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has traded goaltender Eddie Lack, defenseman Ryan Murphy and its own seventh-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, to Calgary in exchange for the Flames’ sixth-round pick in 2019, and defenseman Keegan Kanzig.

Kanzig, 22, completed his first professional season in 2016-17 season, spitting the year between the Stockton Heat of the American Hockey League (AHL) and the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL. The Athabasca, Alb., native earned two assists in six games with Stockton, and added one goal and four assists (5 points) in 40 games with Adirondack. Prior to turning professional, Kanzig (6’7”, 247 lbs.) played five seasons in the Western Hockey League (WHL), scoring 19 goals, earning 40 assists (59 points) and accumulating 565 penalty minutes in 319 regular-season games with Victoria and Calgary. He was drafted in the third round, 67^th overall, by the Flames in the 2013 NHL Draft.