Canes Country’s 2023 Trade Deadline Central

A thought experiment: if every kid in a class turns in their homework prior to the deadline, does the deadline really mean all that much in the first place?

The NHL is about to find out. A wild week of trades with big names moving and salary cap space getting dumped all over the place might mean that today’s trade deadline is a far cry from the frenzy that we normally see every year at 3:00 on deadline day.

I mean, Joel Edmundson is #3 on the TSN trade bait board, and no disrespect intended to the former Hurricanes defenseman, but if Joel Edmundson is one of the biggest names left on the market, you could say that the pickings are a bit slim.

In other words, get ready for a lot of talk about deals that have already happened. Which, to be fair, isn’t the worst thing in the world — ten years ago there was literally nothing to talk about and the first deal of the day involved two minor leaguers. So, yeah, talking about week-old deals in that context certainly is an improvement.

The Hurricanes have a little more than $2.5 million in cap room after their acquisitions of Shayne Gostisbehere and Jesse Puljujarvi. So, while Tom Dundon and Don Waddell said they expected the Canes to be “aggressive” leading up to the deadline, it seems exponentially more likely that they won’t make a deal for the sake of making one given who is off the board now. Of course, we said that three years ago on deadline day as well, and all they did was stun the world by picking up Vincent Trocheck and Brady Skjei.

We’ll be around all day with updates if and when the Canes make any deals. In the meantime, play nice in the comments, and enjoy the circus that is Canadian TV coverage of the deadline.