Rachel Barkley
The Carolina Hurricanes were notably quiet Friday, acquiring only one player, Nic Deslauriers, an hour before the deadline closed. However, up until the final minutes of the deadline, it was noted that they were working with the New York Rangers in an attempt to bring Vincent Trocheck back to the ‘Old North State‘.
The deal had fallen flat by three o’clock, and Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky soon joined the media, where he described this season’s prices as having been too high. Now, one of the NHL’s top insiders, Elliotte Friedman, has revealed what he heard the steep asking price for Trocheck may have been.
Monday, Friedman joined Sportsnet’s The FAN Hockey Show to discuss his perspective on the trade deadline. One of the first topics he dove into was the Rangers’ price tag for the 32-year-old centerman.
“I’ll say this, I spoke to another team that was in on Trocheck,” he said. “They told me that the Rangers were looking for a first-rounder, a player off your roster, and a legit prospect. It was a lot, and they decided not to pay it.
“I heard that was the ask. I don’t know what Carolina was willing to do, but [Tulsky] just said ‘hey, this is too much for us’.”
A Truly Overpriced Trade Deadline
Realistically, a first-round pick, roster player, and quality prospect isn’t a notably high-price for someone to fill a top-six center role. However, if the price remained the same for Carolina as it did for the team Friedman referenced, the Rangers may have had an eye on specific players or prospects that the Hurricanes weren’t keen to part ways with.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi had been the top name on the trade block, while Alexander Nikishin was rumored to have had his name out there for the right price: a superstar-level player with a good contract. With that in mind, Kotkaniemi would have likely been the only roster player the Hurricanes would have been willing to trade away for Trocheck, and the Rangers would have likely been looking at other players instead.
Further in the show, Friedman noted that he believed the Hurricanes looked into other players who could have filled that role, but ultimately came up with nothing.
Many believed that Robert Thomas could have been a good fit in Carolina, but Friedman also reported that the cost the Buffalo Sabres would have paid to the St. Louis Blues, if the attempted deal had gone through, would have ‘decimated’ the Rochester Americans, adding that they would have had to trade for AHL vets just to fill their roster.
Considering what the Hurricanes had to lose, it seems that the conservative deadline approach may have been better than it initially seemed.
