{"id":45616,"date":"2021-07-25T19:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T01:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/spotlight-on-hurricanes-avalanche-with-free-agency-looming\/"},"modified":"2021-07-26T01:09:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T01:09:00","slug":"spotlight-on-hurricanes-avalanche-with-free-agency-looming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/spotlight-on-hurricanes-avalanche-with-free-agency-looming\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Hurricanes, Avalanche with free agency looming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In
In this April 30 photo, Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog (92) skates past goaltender Philipp Grubauer during the first period of the team's NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks in Denver. Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic still is not sure the team will be able to bring back Landeskog and Grubauer. )AP Photo\/David Zalubowski, File)<\/span>David Zalubowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hours after signing Norris Trophy finalist defenseman Cale Makar to a long-term contract, Joe Sakic still is not sure the Colorado Avalanche will be able to bring back captain Gabriel Landeskog and starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Colorado’s general manager said. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful we can come to terms, as well, and have them signed and to be part of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that the NHL draft is over, the Avalanche situation is one of many with more questions than answers with free agency looming. The spotlight is also bright on the Carolina Hurricanes in their talks with defenseman Dougie Hamilton, the Washington Capitals finalizing a deal with captain Alex Ovechkin and Stanley Cup champion Blake Coleman’s landing spot because he likely won’t return to the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n

Many of these situations need to be resolved one way or the other before free agency opens Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf free agency starts and we know we need a defenseman, we can\u2019t be patient and wait for Dougie to make a decision,\u201d Carolina GM Don Waddell said Wednesday. \u201cWe want Dougie back, and we\u2019re hoping we can do that this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton would be among the most coveted free agents, along with Landeskog and Grubauer. He’s a 28-year-old right-shooting defenseman who can produce offensively, so of course the Hurricanes would rather sign him than let him walk for nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur still No. 1 objective is to get him signed \u2014 that hasn\u2019t changed at all,\u201d Waddell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve let Dougie know. We\u2019ve been very open about what we think the value is and his value might be higher someplace else. But we\u2019re talking about a team that\u2019s trying to win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

So is Colorado, and Sakic acknowledged the roster last season is the deepest during this Cup-contending window. Makar at $9 million annually gives the Avalanche some certainty, but that’s still 11% of the salary cap and there’s only so much room to go around.<\/p>\n

That makes the situations with Landeskog and Grubauer all the more intriguing. Landeskog has been captain since 2012 and Grubauer their No. 1 goalie the past three years and the Avalanche are built to win now.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we want all of us back, especially Landy and Grubi,\u201d Makar said. \u201cThey\u2019re such key pieces to our team, and those are definitely guys that I\u2019d love to see back and hopefully the club can work out something with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals will almost certainly work something out with Ovechkin, whose $124 million, 13-year contract is expiring. General manager Brian MacLellan told reporters Saturday the team is \u201cmaking progress\u201d with the goal of getting a deal done before the market opens Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A different question is Washington center Evgeny Kuznetsov, who was rumored to be in available in a trade. But the Capitals are not hellbent on moving him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a good player,” MacLellan said. “We like the player. I don\u2019t know. We\u2019ve never said we\u2019re trading Kuznetsov. I said we were open to discussions on most of our players on the trade market and if it comes up, it comes up and if it doesn\u2019t make sense, same as always.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lightning could try to recoup a late draft pick by trading Coleman’s rights like they did Barclay Goodrow to the Rangers, or he’ll just leave in free agency. Toronto is having that internal debate now about forward Zach Hyman, who they gave permission to talk to other teams and agreed to the framework of a contract with Edmonton.<\/p>\n

For the Oilers to sign Hyman for eight years as a way to spread out his cap hit, it would take the Maple Leafs signing the contract and trading him. Otherwise, he could only get seven years \u2014 at a higher cap hit \u2014 if he signs with Edmonton on Wednesday, and Toronto wants a real asset to facilitate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big benefit to me of adding the eighth year on in terms of the cap savings to the team that\u2019s going to sign him,\u201d GM Kyle Dubas said. I know that there\u2019s a narrative that we should just get something, but when you\u2019re saving a team significant dollars on the salary cap that comes with a cost and we\u2019re not going to bend on that.”<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https:\/\/twitter.com\/SWhyno<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

More AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NHL and https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP_Sports<\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – In this May 6, 2021, file photo, Carolina Hurricanes' Dougie Hamilton (19) skates with the puck against the Chicago Blackhawks during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C. Hamilton would be among the most coveted free agents. He's a 28-year-old right-shooting defenseman who can produce offensively. (AP Photo\/Karl B DeBlaker, File)<\/span>Karl B DeBlaker<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

this April 30 photo, Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog (92) skates past goaltender Philipp Grubauer during the first period of the team's NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks in Denver. Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic still is not sure the team will be able to bring back Landeskog and Grubauer. )AP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2545],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-avalanche"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45616"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}