On Tuesday, Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford told the Raleigh News and Observer that veteran forwards Jerome Samson and Tim Wallace will not sign new contracts with the team before the market opens on July 5. Additionally, the News and Observer reports that the Hurricanes will not present qualifying offers to restricted free agent forwards A.J. Jenks, Andreas Nodl and Luke Pither, defensemen Justin Krueger and Joe Sova, and goaltender John Muse. All of those players will now become unrestricted free agents.
Barring the eventual return of any of those players, which could still potentially occur at a later date, the Hurricanes are now likely to devote some of their free-agent efforts in a search for replacements. Depending on how the NHL team shapes up, the Checkers could be most thin at forward, where Zac Dalpe and Riley Nash, who will both require waivers for the first time, and Brett Sutter - three of the team's top five scorers from last season - headline a group of NHL hopefuls.
On defense, Charlotte will still have enough players to field a lineup, though coach Jeff Daniels has stated the organization’s desire for an experienced veteran to balance the incoming youth movement led by Danny Biega, Keegan Lowe and, potentially, Ryan Murphy.
In goal, the Checkers could still end up with some combination of Justin Peters, Mike Murphy and Rob Madore, though the latter two are still without contract for next season.
Meanwhile, Carolina did present qualifying offers to its other restricted free agents, a group that is made up of forwards Dalpe, Nash, Zach Boychuk and Jared Staal and defenseman Michal Jordan. Sutter and defenseman Brett Bellemore, who were set to become unrestricted free agents, signed new one-year, two-way contracts with the Hurricanes last week.
An updated free agent list can be found here.
