- Pierre LeBrun reported Monday that Alexander Nikishin asked Carolina for a trade after last season
- The 24-year-old is still an unsigned RFA with Hurricanes camp opening Thursday
- Read below for what Carolina wants back and where the market on him stands
Alexander Nikishin still wants out of Carolina.
Pierre LeBrun reported Monday in The Athletic that the Hurricanes defenseman asked for a change of scenery after last season, and that nothing about it has softened since.
LeBrun was running through the unsigned restricted free agents left around the league when he got to Nikishin:
“The 24-year-old RFA requested a change of scenery after the season, and one thing that was made clear to me Monday is that the request remains in place.”
That request has not moved him anywhere yet. Nikishin is still without a contract, and the Hurricanes open training camp Thursday at Lane Arena in Morrisville.
Price is the holdup. Carolina has spent the summer telling teams it wants a roster player coming back, not a pile of draft picks, and nobody has met that yet. Elliotte Friedman named Nashville last week as one club that had kicked tires.
What Carolina would be moving is a legitimate rookie season. Nikishin put up 11 goals and 33 points in 81 games, finished plus-18, averaged 18:11 a night and worked both special teams. He added 17 playoff games on the way to a Stanley Cup.
There is a clock on the rest of it. The new CBA kicks in at midnight ET Tuesday and drops the ceiling on re-signing extensions from eight years to seven, which is squeezing RFA files all over the league this week. Adam Fantilli in Columbus and Cutter Gauthier in Anaheim are in the same pile.
Carolina needs a camp roster by Thursday. Right now its best young defenseman is neither signed nor sold on staying.
