Jake Guentzel finally opened up about the messy and interesting ending to his time with the Carolina Hurricanes.
In March of 2024, the Hurricanes made a big move by trading for Guentzel from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
While Guentzel was set to become an unrestricted free agent that offseason with no guarantees he would sign a contract extension to stay in Carolina, the Hurricanes were competing for a Stanley Cup, and Guentzel was a player who could possibly help accomplish their goals.
The Hurricanes ultimately lost in the second round to the New York Rangers, and the team was tasked with signing Guentzel to a contract extension.
As time went on, no progress seemingly was being made between the two sides.
With the Hurricanes about to lose the star forward for nothing, they traded his rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning for just a 2025 third-round pick.
This was a colossal failure for Carolina since the team invested a lot to acquire Guentzel.
Now that it’s all set and done, the 30-year-old forward opened up about his time with the Hurricanes and admitted he has no hard feelings toward the organization.
"Yeah, that was just a whirlwind kind of time, you know; first time going to a different team, you're not sure how it's going to go. But I loved my time there; great team, great group of guys, and it was a lot of fun to be out there with those guys. Aho, I think, is an unbelievable player. Jarvy's a great player too, so those guys were just special players to play with," Guentzel said.
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The Carolina <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes" target="_blank">Hurricanes</a> may not be done making moves just yet.
"Yeah, just, there was kind of a lot of back and forth before free agency. Was hoping to get a deal done right after the season, just didn't kind of come to fruition. And as time got closer and it got closer to free agency, I was kind of sitting there, just, you know, I'm already four days away from free agency; let's just wait it out and see what happens. And then Tampa came, traded for my rights, and I think that was a no-brainer for me when that happened,"
This past season with the Lightning, Guentzel recorded 41 goals, 39 assists, and 80 points in 80 games while averaging 20 minutes per game.