Canes GM Don Waddell: Teams asking about Max Pacioretty!

It's a good news/bad news situation right now if you're a fan of the Carolina Hurricanes, who enjoyed another great regular season campaign in 2021-22 before ultimately being felled by the New York Rangers in the second round of the postseason.

The good news is that general manager Don Waddell was able to make up for the free agent loss of Nino Niederreiter by taking advantage of the Vegas Golden Knights cap crunch, acquiring veteran forward Max Pacioretty in exchange for literally nothing. But the bad news is that shortly after his acquisition, Pacioretty suffered a torn Achilles tendon and underwent surgery; his expected recovery time is approximately six months, meaning that the earliest that Canes fans can see him suit up on the ice in a regular season game is around mid-February. 

Until then, Waddell revealed that since Pacioretty's surgery, he's actually been receiving calls from fellow general manager's regarding his potential availability, and also said that he won't go the route that the Tampa Bay Lightning did with superstar forward Nikita Kucherov during the 2020-21 season: 

"Waddell says on 99.9 FM The Fan, teams have been calling since the Pacioretty news broke. Effectively says he won't Kucherov Pacioretty. With that in mind, is there anyone you'd like to see the Canes get to replace Pacioretty for now with who is supposedly available?"

The likes of Phil Kessel and Paul Stastny remain available on the free agent market, and so does Nazem Kadri - though the latter would likely be outside of Carolina's price range.