Carolina adds experienced blueline depth, securing former first-round pick Juuso Valimaki. Will he bolster their injured defense corps?
It's safe to say that Eric Tulsky seemingly never sleeps.
The Carolina Hurricanes made a late-night trade Monday night, acquiring Finnish defenseman Juuso Valimaki from the Utah Mammoth in exchange for future considerations (i.e. nothing).
The 27-year-old Finnish defenseman was a 2017 first-round selection by the Calgary Flames. Since then, he's played in 271 NHL games, registering 11 goals and 72 points.
He's currently playing in the AHL, where he's spent a bit of time, appearing in 59 games and registered seven goals and 35 points.
The American League is also where he'll start with Carolina as we was also assigned to the Chicago Wolves.
The 6-foot-2 Finn has played in just three AHL games this year, as he's working his way back from ACL surgery.
Valimaki has played alongside Mark Jankowski and Shaye Gostisbehere in the NHL before and has also played alongside Sebastian Aho at the 2014-15 U18s and Hurricanes forward Juha Jaaska on the 2015-16 U18s.
In terms of underlying numbers, Valimaki has had decent results, controlling around a 50% share of scoring chances and expected goals.
His overall defensive impacts have been solid and he can potentially provide some much needed blueline depth for a team dealing with quite a few defensive injuries.
The Finnish blueliner had a very productive year with the Arizona Coyotes just a couple of seasons ago in 2022-23, when he notched four goals and 34 points in 78 games along with having 98 blocks and 53 hits.
While 2023-24 was a down year production wise, he still was doing a lot away from the puck, but last year definitely saw a big drop-off for him.
Valimaki is in the final year of a two-year, $4 million deal and while he's down in the AHL, $850,000 of his contract is buried, meaning he'll carry just a $1.15 million cap hit for the Hurricanes.
It never hurts to have experienced defensive depth and that's seemingly the goal here for Carolina.
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