Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon explains how, and why, Carolina made its trade deadline splash

In the week leading up to the trade deadline, the Carolina Hurricanes poked around on Elias Pettersson and were looking at several potential moves. Jake Guentzel was just one of many among them at that point, and maybe not even the most likely to happen.

“We had a couple deals in the hopper,” Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon told the News & Observer on Monday. “There were a couple other things we could have done.”

It wasn’t until general manager Don Waddell called his Pittsburgh Penguins counterpart the morning the deal went down that the Hurricanes realized that not only could they meet the Penguins’ asking price, they would be stupid not to do it.

They had the picks. They had the prospects. They had a chance to pick up an elite player, even if only for a few months. In fact, if this kind of deal had presented itself in previous years, Dundon said the Hurricanes would have done it then.

But this was easier, because the Hurricanes’ stockpiling of picks, prospects and cap space put them in a position to strike at the trade deadline in a big way, adding not only Guentzel but Evgeny Kuznetsov, a massive gamble that has paid off in the early returns. And they did it without giving up their top defensive prospects or any of their top forward prospects, as good as they think Ville Koivunen has the potential to be.

“We had some extra assets,” Dundon said. “The other thing is, this player is not the same as other rental players. A lot of time there’s rental players and they’re not any better than what we’ve got, or not materially better. If you’re going to take a guy out of your lineup you know and trust, it better be a big difference.”

It has been a big difference. Guentzel has 12 points in eight games for the Hurricanes going into Tuesday night’s game at his former team, assisting on Sebastian Aho’s game-winning power-play goal in Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. While brought in primarily to score goals, Guentzel only has two so far, but nobody’s complaining because of how well he’s meshed with his new teammates.

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That wasn’t unexpected. Less expected was how well Kuznetsov has fit in, with five of his 22 points on the season coming in only 10 games with the Hurricanes. He was a different kind of acquisition, a player who was in the player-assistance program in February and was struggling mightily on a team that, until recently, wasn’t anywhere close to the playoff hunt.

The Hurricanes were willing to roll the dice on him for several reasons: his skill level, the Washington Capitals’ willingness to retain half of his $8 million salary, his postseason pedigree, the sense a new environment would help him rediscover his game.

But Justin Williams’ imprimatur didn’t hurt, either.

“It’s a unique situation, a player like that,” Dundon said. “It’s a huge risk, given the situation. If ‘Willy’ hadn’t played with him and knew him and we didn’t have the culture we have, we might not have taken it. Look, obviously he didn’t get into that situation by accident. He’s got to be responsible for it. But we looked at it and thought maybe a change of scenery, being in our situation, would help. There are no guarantees, but there’s obviously a lot of talent there.”

The Hurricanes are 8-1-1 since the deadline going into Tuesday’s game, and while there’s no question Frederik Andersen’s return has helped as well, the Hurricanes look thoroughly energized by the new additions.

That’s not a coincidence. They wanted this. They got it. They have responded.

“The guys were on me about doing something,” Dundon said. “I’m not saying every year they don’t want to do something, but this was different. We knew we would do something. We didn’t come out with a plan to get this guy or that guy, but we’re always right there in position if we get it to where we can make it work.”

With both Pittsburgh and Washington, the Hurricanes were able to get to a point where it made sense. They’re reaping the rewards now. Only time will tell just what the true payoff will be.

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