Jake Guentzel has been traded!

Jake Guentzel has been traded.

It would seem that the Carolina Hurricanes have officially given up on the possibility of retaining Guentzel's services, trading his rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.

In exchange the Hurricanes will receive a third round draft selection in 2025.

This is a crazy turn of events as rumors suggesting Guentzel's camp had demanded a contract of 8 years at an average annual value of $8 million from the Hurricanes, with the Hurricanes reportedly accepting those demands earlier this week. That being said it took the Hurricanes some time to come to this decision, and it would appear as though Guentzel and his camp now feel that they can do better on the open market.

The Lightning cleared significant cap space at the draft on Saturday, trading both defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and forward Tanner Jeannot in two seperate deals, and it would appear that Guentzel is how they plan to utilize that newfound cap space.

This would seemingly also put an end to any possibility of Steven Stamkos returning to Tampa Bay.