The Carolina Hurricanes have continued their offseason shopping by adding another centre to their forward mix. Vincent Trocheck left the organization and that left them with Jordan Staal and Jesperi Kotkaniemi as their middle-6 pivots. It could work but they clearly felt they needed some insurance. They got that insurance in the form of Paul Stastny:

Let's get right to what it means for him and his new teammates:

What Carolina Gets

In a weird twist of fate, I wrote about Stastny this morning for my Ramblings. For a breakdown on what Stastny can bring to the 'Canes, and what kind of fantasy value he could have, go check that out. There is no sense in repeating myself on the same day.

For Carolina specifically, this gives them options. As mentioned, they had Staal/Kotkaniemi written in the 2C/3C role for the upcoming season. Though Staal is still a good defensive centre, he turns 34 years old in a few weeks. Not that he's expected to hit a huge decline but at this age, when declines come, they can come quickly. His brother scored 42 goals at age 33 and was out of the NHL three years later. The younger Staal should still be fine but there is still concern, nonetheless.

As for Kotkaniemi, he still hasn't taken a big step forward like the team and their fans would have hoped. He was signed to a long-term deal in the hopes he'd be the 2C behind Sebastian Aho for a while. While he did have good production for his ice time, he also led Carolina forwards in both secondary assist rate and shooting percentage at 5-on-5. Those will regress and when they do, it's a matter of generating more offence to make up the difference. Whether he can do it or not is very much an open question and with Carolina in their Cup window, they don't want to leave more to chance than they have to.

Stastny is a good face-off guy who is responsible defensively and can produce at a decent clip. At the outset, if he stays at centre, he looks like the fourth-line centre behind Aho, Staal, and Kotkaniemi. That means much less ice time and little fantasy value. However, if Kotkaniemi doesn't progress in his development, Stastny could leap over the young centre on the depth chart and become a tandem 2C/3C in tandem with Staal. It may never happen, but it gives them options, and teams like flexibility if (when) things don't go to plan.

This is a signing that will help in real life more than fantasy. Without injury or underperformance by both guys ahead of him, Stastny is not likely to have much value in our game. It does hurt the potential upside of the other middle-men because if they don't perform, their replacement was just signed. The fourth-line wingers also got a good centre to play with, which could help someone like Jordan Martinook who can be useful for peripherals in multi-cat leagues.

Who This Helps

Jordan Martinook

Carolina Goaltending

Who This Hurts

Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Jordan Staal

Paul Stastny