The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that they’ve placed Evgeny Kuznetsov on waivers for the purpose of a mutual contract termination.
The move comes after reports surfaced regarding a possible move to the KHL for the forward a couple of days ago. Kuznetsov was acquired by the Hurricanes at the trade deadline from the Washington Capitals, and had another year remaining on his contract at a $3.9 million cap hit.
"Ultimately both sides agreed this was the best course of action for both the player and the team."
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) July 17, 2024
More on the #Canes placing forward Evgeny Kuznetsov on unconditional waivers.https://t.co/xykcaMO8BE
There are both some positives and negatives to Kuznetsov’s departure. On one hand, Kuznetsov failed to really come close to reaching the same levels of past success after joining the Hurricanes, and getting $3.9 million off the books leaves the Hurricanes with more cap flexibility as well.
On the other hand, Kuznetsov could still be a contributing member of the top-nine, for a team who already lost Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen and Stefan Noesen. Plus, the cap flexibility arguably isn’t quite as useful now as it would’ve been ahead of July 1, and the third-round pick the Hurricanes gave up for Kuznetsov is a sunk cost, even if the impact is relatively minimal.
In other news, the Hurricanes also re-signed Jack Drury to a two-year contract today, carrying a $1.73 million cap hit.
JACK IS BACK 😤 pic.twitter.com/ylGeuphONo
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) July 17, 2024
His deal also comes in slightly cheaper than expected - I had projected a two-year contract for Drury to come with a $2.15 million cap hit, at HockeyComparables.com
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