Fantasy Take: Hurricanes Land Burns

Alexander MacLean

2022-07-13

The Hurricanes let Dougie Hamilton walk because they didn't want to pay him until he was 37, and they traded Tony DeAngelo because they don't want to pay him $5 million, so of course they go out and acquire a 37-year-old Brent Burns who will now cost them a little over $5 million per year against the cap.

Sharks-Hurricanes trade:

Brent Burns and Lane Pederson for Steven Lorentz, goalie prospect Eetu Makiniemi and a conditional 2023 3rd-round pick. Sharks are retaining 33 percent of Burns contract. @TSNHockey @TheAthletic
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) July 13, 2022

What the Hurricanes Get:

The Canes acquire a defenceman who can run a power play, loves to shoot the puck, and will be an awesome personality to boot. Even at 37, Burns can put up points, and shoots the puck like the monster that he models his facial hair after.

He has been down at 2.5 shots per game the last two years, after averaging over 3.0 per game the last seven seasons. Expect that number to tick back up over three this year, as Carolina is also a team that has the puck a lot, and likes to funnel everything towards the net. Burns' numbers dipped mainly as a result of the team around him dropping off, and in turn, Burns was suddenly asked to shoulder a lot more defensive zone draws (60% of his starts each of the last two years). Expect that to flip this year with a focus on getting him out on the ice for nearly 60% of the offensive draws, in addition to running a potent power play unit.

With Burns replacing TDA, there isn't a huge ripple through the roster. Over in San Jose though, the team will now have an open spot on the top power play unit, and be able to focus all of the offensive and power play minutes on Erik Karlsson. Fantasy-wise, this should be a win on both sides.

Players this helps:

Brent Burns

📢 advertisement:

Erik Karlsson

Players this hurts:

N/A

Ian Sharp 2022-07-13 at 14:11Log in to Reply

Not really loving you take here. First off you don’t even mention how this drastically helps Ryan Merkley.
Getting Burns at that price while losing nothing was deft. SJ just needed to start the rebuild.
- Alexander MacLean 2022-07-13 at 14:33Log in to Reply
  
  Agree Carolina did a great job with getting an asset here basically for free. The length of the contract is risky, but we’re really just looking at the immediate fantasy impact, so I didn’t want to get into it too much on who “won” the deal.
  
  Merkley is a good name to bring up, though I’m not sure Burns being gone changes a whole lot for him. He’s trying to break into the the NHL as a regular, where right now it’s “sheltered defenceman on the top PP or bust” and Karlsson is still blocking his way on that. He needs to become more reliable on both ends of the puck, and that either happens or it doesn’t regardless of where Burns is.
  - Ian Sharp 2022-07-13 at 14:43Log in to Reply
    
    Appreciate your explanation. My take is that it opens a decent amount of PP time for RM and with EK’s injury history he is getting close to becoming very fantasy worthy.
    - Alexander MacLean 2022-07-13 at 15:06Log in to Reply
      
      Definitely fair. I agree it increases the likelihood of him getting his shot there, but I think the odds are slim that it greatly affects his outlook this year.

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