Hurricanes reportedly give free agent dman permission to speak to other teams early
The Carolina Hurricanes don't always operate the same as other franchises. They've never been afraid of allowing their players to look elsewhere for deals, knowing that they'll try and match the offer. It's been reported by Elliotte Friedman, that Don Waddell has given Tony DeAngelo permission to seek deals elsewhere.
Due to the current cap crunch of the Carolina Hurricanes, DeAngelo an RFA will be a casualty of free agency. Given that signing Martin Necas is definitely a priority, there will be more defensemen available that aren't RFA and don't have arbitration rights, unlike Tony.
It's hard telling if DeAngelo would take a team-friendly discount for his production this season, which would include helping the Canes move into the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
DeAngelo came to Carolina on a one-year «show me» deal after he was put into exile by the New York Rangers. During the summer, DeAngelo was bought out of his two-year deal with the hockey club, and Carolina took a flier on him hoping they could separate his talent from his off-ice baggage. Causing no known issues off the ice this year, he put up 10 goals and 41 assists for 51 points in 64 games. For a defenseman, that is solid production on the backend.
Despite him causing little to no trouble, it looks like his time in Carolina has passed.
While DeAngelo has been a net positive, for $1 Million dollars for 1 year AAV, it sounds like he will not be making whatever raise he's due by the arbitrator in the Hurricanes organization.
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