Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce is an upcoming free agent as his six-year, $24,150,000 contract has reached its end without an extension signed.

Pesce, 29, has been an integral part of Carolina's core over his nine-year career but he and the team are now at a crossroad on what to do with the veteran blueliner.

The Canes held their first round of exit interviews on Saturday following the conclusion of their 2023-24 season which ended after losing in six games to the New York Rangers in the second round of the playoffs.

Here's what Pesce had to say:

On his contract situation: Obviously I'm hopeful we can work something out here. Everyone knows I love it here. I love the guys, I love the core and I still think we can get it done. Just hopeful.

On what the organization has meant to him: Everything. I came in as a young, 20-year-old kid and I'm 29 now. I really grew up here. It's a special place. It's kind of everything you could ask for as a professional athlete and whatnot. Just watching this place grow has been really cool.

On how difficult it was being sidelined with an injury: It's kind of hard to put into words, to be honest. I lost a lot of sleeps and whatnot. It's another reason why I'm hopeful I get to come back and try again with these guys because unfortunately I didn't get to compete with them this year.

On his injury: I fractured my fibula at the bottom towards the ankle. I was trying to get back. I was close. Obviously wasn't feeling the best, but the fact that I even got to skate in practice with the guys was awesome. I was hoping we would grind out the rest of this round and I would have been back for the next series.

On what happened: I blocked a shot in the first and I think that's when it happened. I must have just made it worse when I twisted it. So yeah, that was that.

On if he needed surgery: No, no surgery.

On if he would consider a team-friendly deal: Of course. At the end of the day, if you take all this money, sometimes it makes the team worse. It kind of just depends on what you value. I've been through both ends where our team wasn't very good to now and it's much easier to go to the rink every day and do what you love.

On if that's a shared mentality: I can't speak for the league because I've only been here, but I think on our team, yeah. It's fun to win and be in a winning culture like this. Obviously we haven't gotten over that hump, but you can't put a price on coming to the rink everyday and winning and being happy.

On what it'll take for the team to get over the hump: I don't know, that's a good question. Obviously not just myself, but everyone's gotta be healthy I think. Even going back to last year, we had [Andrei Svechnikov] hurt, [Teuvo Teravainen] was hurt for a bit. This year, me and [Jesper Fast] were hurt. The year before those, [Frederik Andersen] was hurt. It's crazy. We haven't been fully healthy one playoff run. No excuses. Rangers were great, played great, but I also think you need a few bounces. They got some good bounces this series, for sure. Sometimes that's the way it is.

On Brady Skjei also being an upcoming UFA: We don't want our story to end. It's been a privilege playing with that guy. He's one of my best friends off the ice. I feel like that's pretty rare to get to do that. Be so close off the ice and play as much as you do on the ice. We're both, I can speak for him too, we both want to be back. It's pretty obvious. Hopefully we can get something done.

On Rod Brind'Amour: He's definitely more than just a coach to me. Started out as an assistant and just kind of watching him grow and we obviously kind of grew together with me and [Jaccob Slavin] and [Sebastian Aho] and [Teravainen], guys that have been here for forever, and obviously [Jordan Staal]. It's pretty cool just to see the evolution of what he did for us and what he did for this organization and you could even say the city. It's crazy how things have changed. Even walking downtown, everyone kind of recognizes you now and there's just kind of a good energy around this group. It's all cause of him. He started it all. I can't say enough about him.

On Tony DeAngelo: Couldn't have been happier for that guy. It's crazy what you see in the media, but it's whatever. He's one of the best guys I know. Everyone loves him in the room. It's crazy. He's always goofing and in the center of attention in a good way, the best way possible. Everyone loves him and I couldn't be happier for him the way he played. I know how good of a player he is, to be honest. That was probably the least surprising thing, how well he played when I went down. Hopefully he gets another opportunity which I'm sure he will because he's just so good.

On if he and Skjei communicate with each other through both of their negotiation processes: We're actually super open about it. During the year, I think talks between both of us kind of went a little stale which I don't know if that's the way he wanted it, but I wanted to kind of just focus on playing and whatnot. I'm hoping it will pick up now, but we're very open about it. We're so close that I'm not going to hide anything from him.