Sure, the Hurricanes may have kicked tires on a Miller trade, but they seem well below New York in interest.
Forget any other teams that have been connected to the situation by insiders. No, the Carolina Hurricanes aren’t really an option. Neither are the Dallas Stars or the New Jersey Devils.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested on Wednesday evening that the Rangers and Hurricanes are two teams that have been allowed to speak with Miller’s agent, Brian Bartlett, though the purpose of those talks weren’t made clear by Friedman.
But a source suggested to Postmedia that Carolina’s interest remains pretty minimal: like every GM out there, they’d be interested in a deal if they can win the trade. And that’s not just about Miller, it’s about what else would be included in a potential deal. If, for instance, Hurricanes were to move Jesperi Kotkaniemie and Jack Roslovic, they’d likely need another forward going back to them, just to make their roster work.
So, really, all eyes should remain focused on the Rangers. That deal seems to be the closest to becoming a reality. It would seem that the holdup remains how the deal would be structured. To move Miller, the Canucks are going to have to attach some sort of sweetener, whether that’s salary retention (which you suspect the Canucks are wont to do) or adding a prospect, of which the Canucks don’t have many and the few good ones they have they don’t want to deal.
And so we wait. All of us: Those of us on the outside, obviously, but also the people inside the Canucks, in the dressing room, who do look like they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. And they’ve been waiting a while now.