Hurricanes Have Tools to Make Blockbuster Trade With Jets

The Winnipeg Jets know the reality behind their situation as a number of their top-end players are running out of years on their contracts and the team hasn’t pushed further than the Western Conference Final. As a whole, the team constructed how it currently is hasn’t got the job done and seeing as they likely won’t be able to keep all of the stars, big changes are coming. It has been noted that the Jets don’t want a rebuild if they are going to trade players like Mark Scheifele, Connor Hellebuyck, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Blake Wheeler, but instead get good pieces in return that can make an immediate impact.

Most of these players have one year left on their deals and haven’t committed to re-signing with the Jets. The Carolina Hurricanes are one team that likes to take advantage of players before they are paid the big money. With the areas that the Hurricanes need to address this offseason, there are two targets in particular from the Jets that will interest them a lot – Scheifele and Hellebuyck.

Hurricanes Must Go All In

The Hurricanes remain as one of the best teams in the NHL, but their shooting percentage continues to be low. They can defend and win games, but can’t get past the conference finals. It should be noted that they were seriously banged up this postseason, but still didn’t make the trade deadline upgrades necessary. They arguably still have a second line center hole they would like to fill while both of their veteran goalies are set to become UFAs.

Related: Jets’ Hellebuyck Linked to 2 Teams That Would See Starter Traded

Neither Frederik Andersen nor Antti Raanta are reliable when it comes to staying healthy and that has been part of the problem when the games really matter. Hellebuyck on the other hand is very durable. The Hurricanes love cheap additions, and even though it won’t come cheap in terms of assets, they will only have to pay Hellebuyck, a franchise goalie, $6.167 million for one season. The same goes with Scheifele ($6.125 million) and Sportsnet says the Hurricanes could have interest in him if he’s made available for trade.

That would mean the Hurricanes could run with Hellebuyck and Pyotr Kochetkov for just over $8 million which would be dominant. As for Scheifele, the Hurricanes would get a very good 1-2 punch down the middle and Jesperi Kotkaniemi would be off the hook for a year at center despite the team starting to see results from him. The team’s problem was the second line center position and Scheifele is more than good enough to dominate matchups in that spot on Carolina.

Return for the Jets

Trading just one of Hellebuyck or Scheifele would garner a large return for the Jets, but together will bring a very good return that should keep the team competitive, avoiding the rebuild they don’t want to do. The starting piece would have to be Martin Necas and he’s signed for just $3 million until the end of next season. After that, he’s still under team control as he’s a RFA. A 24-year-old who put up 71 points will not be enough and I can see one or the other of Jack Drury and a second round pick or Ryan Suzuki and a first round pick being added to that.

Both Drury and Suzuki are NHL-ready which is what the Jets are looking for in return, and the Hurricanes can afford to give up a winger or two if they have Kotkaniemi shifting over to the wing and Andrei Svechnikov/Teuvo Teravainen back in the lineup and healthy. The Hurricanes also have a couple of good forward prospects that can fill in down the road. The blockbuster would provide the Hurricanes with a means of winning the Stanley Cup next season and the Jets with an inevitable and solid reset, not setting them back too far.