State of the Hurricanes: Win Streak Wonders and Rival Makes Bold Move
By Adam Burruss
A division rival makes a bold move
With the trade deadline coming in a month, many linked Carolina with forwards on the market, and the most prominent of those forwards got moved to a division rival.
The New York Islanders traded forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Aatu Raty as well as a top-12 projected 2023 first-rounder for Canucks forward Bo Horvat.
Horvat got linked to the Hurricanes plenty due to his availability, but the Islanders struck first on the move to get him.
How likely was it that Horvat ended up a Hurricane? Carolina typically does not like to deal for pending free agents at the cost of Horvat without an agreed extension. Even with all the connections between the two, the speculation may not have aligned with the front office’s thought process.
Horvat’s fit with the Islanders seems odd, though. The Islanders are outside of a playoff berth and have tough odds of making it. Even if they sign Horvat long-term, they made their team older and do not exactly have a Stanley Cup ready roster.
What does this mean for Carolina, though? They need to make another move, obviously. The Islanders took off an easy target for the team, and now they need to pivot toward another option. Will they target a pending free agent similar to Horvat that they can extend, or will they chase after players with multiple years already locked into place? That has yet to be seen.
Even if the team did not consider Horvat as much as NHL media thought they did, it does not help them to have less options. Let’s see how they move forward.