Maxime Lajoie

Carolina’s final restricted free agent defenseman is finally under contract. Maxime Lajoie signed a deal with the organization carrying a league minimum $750 thousand cap hit but that isn’t the interesting part here. Carolina will now have a second buyout window open for them in 3 days to buy out a player carrying a cap hit of more than $4 million. We’ll get back to this but for now, let’s talk about Lajoie.

Lajoie, a restricted free agent who helped the Chicago Wolves win the 2022 Calder Cup, signed a one-year, two-way deal.

If you thought this was going to be a quiet summer for the Carolina Hurricanes and General Manager Don Waddell, I’m so sorry. With two Hurricanes filing for arbitration, we know that the Canes’ front office will be working on this until August at the latest, but now we know what days the two players will get in front of the arbitrator if it gets that far.

Heading into this summer, the Carolina Hurricanes had a lot of questions about who would represent the club on its blueline. Today, the National Hockey League Players Association announced that 24 players have officially filed for arbitration, one of which has already been settled. Among that list were two Hurricanes restricted free agent defensemen. Maxime Lajoie and Ethan Bear.