Hurricanes, Martinook agree to two-year, $4m contract extension

Late last week, Jordan Martinook and his wife welcomed a new baby to the family. The Carolina Hurricanes apparently decided to celebrate the new arrival with a new contract extension for the proud papa.

The Canes and Martinook agreed Tuesday on a two-year, $4 million contract extension that will keep the third-line winger in Raleigh through the 2020-21 season. Martinook is in the final season of a two-year deal signed with the Arizona Coyotes in 2017 with an average annual value of $1.8 million.

Acquired from the Coyotes in May in exchange for Marcus Kruger, Martinook has been a third-line staple for the Hurricanes this season. Playing for large stretches opposite Andrei Svechnikov on a line centered by Lucas Wallmark, Martinook has been consistently productive, his ten goals this season just one off his career high with 28 games remaining.

(For his part, Svechnikov decided to celebrate his linemate’s new contract by...going on vacation.)

Martinook shares an agent with teammate Micheal Ferland, and while Ferland is likely to be traded before he becomes an unrestricted free agent July 1, Martinook (who misses the UFA age-27 cutoff by less than a month) will sacrifice a year of unrestricted free agency with his new contract. He would have been a restricted free agent with arbitration rights after this season.

The release from the team is below.

CANES SIGN MARTINOOK TO TWO-YEAR EXTENSION

Forward ranks sixth among Hurricanes in goals this season

Don Waddell, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has signed forward Jordan Martinook to a two-year, $4 million contract extension. The deal begins with the 2019-20 season and goes through the 2020-21 season and carries an average annual value (AAV) of $2 million per season.

”Jordan has really fit in well with our group and provides veteran leadership both on and off the ice,” said Waddell. ”He skates with a relentless energy that epitomizes the way Coach Brind’Amour wants the Hurricanes to play.”

Martinook, 26, ranks sixth among Hurricanes skaters this season with 10 goals, and has totaled 13 points (10g, 3a) in 50 games played. The Brandon, Man, native leads the team in hits (125), ranks first among Carolina forwards in blocked shots (28) and is a key member of the Carolina’s penalty kill, ranking second among team forwards in total shorthanded ice time this season (86:27). The Hurricanes acquired Martinook (6’0”, 196 lbs.) from the Arizona Coyotes on May 3, 2018, along with a fourth-round selection in the 2018 NHL Draft (Luke Henman) in exchange for Marcus Kruger and a third-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft (Ty Emberson).

Selected by the Coyotes in the second round, 58th overall, of the 2012 NHL Draft, Martinook has totaled 36 goals and 42 assists (78 points) in 297 career NHL games with Arizona and Carolina. He established NHL career highs in goals (11) and points (25) in 2016-17 with the Coyotes.