The Rangers were reportedly right on the doorstep of landing Alexander Nikishin this summer, only for the whole thing to fall apart over the contract side of the deal.
Elliotte Friedman said on the latest episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast that New York came “extremely close” to acquiring the Carolina Hurricanes defenseman in a trade that was nearly completed before it unraveled. The rumored return was a pair of first-round picks, but the deal never got over the finish line because the sides couldn’t sort out an extension. “But they couldn’t work out a contract, so it never happened.”
That breakdown left Carolina frustrated, since the trade had reportedly been agreed to in principle with the contract extension attached. Nikishin, a restricted free agent, was said to be seeking a five-year pact in the neighborhood of $9 million to $9.5 million per season. The Rangers may have been in the eights, though that part has been disputed.
The bigger question now is whether New York circles back.
Nikishin’s summer turned messy, and it apparently cost him time before he finally settled things. He also changed agents, which suggests the process did not go the way he wanted.
Hurricanes coach Rob Brind’Amour took a broad view of that kind of situation: “They hire agents to tell them what to do. Sometimes it’s good advice.
Sometimes, not so good advice. At the end of the day, it doesn’t affect us when we get guys in the locker room, and we’re all together, and those guys are out of it,” said Hurricanes head coach Rob Brind’Amour.
For the Hurricanes, the matter is now resolved - at least for the moment. Carolina signed Nikishin to a one-year, $3 million deal after he skipped camp and pushed for a trade throughout the summer. GM Eric Tulsky didn’t make a spectacle of bringing him back.
Tulsky also said, “I can’t claim to tell you what was in the player’s head…” Still, the timing mattered. As the clock ran down, Nikishin’s options to actually play this season were fading fast. “So we got to a time where there was an agreement to be made and we got it done.”
Tulsky added, “This has been a long process, but we look forward to him re-entering our locker room ready to contribute with the Hurricanes, as he did during a Stanley Cup championship season last year,”
There’s still a wrinkle that could matter later. According to PuckPedia, after this one-year deal, assuming he plays 10 games, Nikishin will become both offer sheet and arbitration eligible. That could push future talks in a different direction, and it may also sharpen the incentive for Carolina to get something longer term done - or revisit trade conversations with another team.
If the Rangers are still interested, Tulsky will likely listen.
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Alexander Nikishins situation with Carolina has already been one of the more unusual stories around the team this year, and it only looks more layered in hindsight. The defenseman had been at the center of a contract standoff before ultimately staying put, giving the Hurricanes a talented blue-line piece to keep building around while also closing off one of the more intriguing offseason paths on the board.
What makes the whole episode linger is how close the team may have come to a very different outcome. For all the talk about keeping Nikishin in Raleigh, there was a window when a move elsewhere was very much in play, and that possibility now hangs over what the Hurricanes chose to do. Even with the deal done, the broader question of how aggressively Carolina explored the market around him still gives the story a little more bite. [Read more 🡒]
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The details, though, never lined up cleanly enough to push things over the top, and Friedman said the talks stalled for a mix of reasons that varied from team to team. For Carolina, it was part of a broader chase that suggested the Hurricanes were at least seriously exploring ways to shake up the position, even if the final hurdle remained out of reach. For a team that keeps looking for the edge in net, that makes the latest Hellebuyck chatter worth a second look. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Suddenly Face A Dmitri Voronkov Decision Fans Wont Ignore
The Hurricanes are still sorting through the kind of roster questions that usually linger until the market starts to move, and Jalen Chatfield is one of the quieter ones with real weight behind it. Carolina has not had recent contract talks with the defenseman, and there are no current plans to resume them, which leaves his future hanging as the club continues to think through its next round of decisions on the back end.
Chatfields situation fits into a broader stretch of uncertainty around the league, where teams are weighing not just trades but spending priorities and their own pending free agents. For Carolina, the lack of traction on an extension is the notable part, especially with the season now far enough along that every pause starts to look meaningful. If the sides do not revisit things soon, the path forward gets clearer, and not necessarily in the way the Hurricanes would prefer. [Read more 🡒]