Elliotte Friedman breaks silence from vacation as Hurricanes star defenseman could be traded

Elliotte Friedman resurfaced in August from his vacation with an Alexander Nikishin update, and the Carolina Hurricanes defenseman may not reach training camp.

Friedman told listeners he does not sense anything imminent, but expects action at some point, and advised keeping an eye on it between now and camp.

That last phrase is the part worth pulling apart.

Insiders rarely attach a timeline to a situation with no formal deadline. Nikishin has no arbitration rights and cannot be offer sheeted, so nothing on the calendar forces either side to blink.

Eric Tulsky has been clear about the ask, turning down picks from the New York Rangers in June because Carolina wanted a useful roster player back. Roster players are the one currency that gets harder to spend as summer ends.

By late August most contenders have their blue lines set and their cap committed. A team willing to send back a regular in July quietly stops answering in September, because the hole it creates is now its problem.

That depreciation rarely gets priced into these standoffs.

Nikishin's market does not shrink because his value drops, it shrinks because the shelf of available roster players empties out.

Friedman reported the Rangers got close enough to talk contract with Nikishin directly, and that is where it fell apart. Any acquiring team now has to clear two bars, paying Carolina's price and satisfying an agent chasing a number north of $8 million.

Carolina carries about $9.88 million in cap space with Nikishin as its only unsigned regular, per The Hockey News, so this was never a money problem. Tulsky prefers the version of this roster where that money buys something else.

Add the speculation about attaching Jesperi Kotkaniemi's $4.82 million cap hit and the list of clubs that can absorb both gets short.

Short lists tend to move fast once they move at all.

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