Hurricanes acquire Burns in trade with Sharks
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The Carolina Hurricanes acquired veteran defenseman Brent Burns from San Jose on Wednesday, adding a former Norris Trophy winner to a team eager to make a deeper postseason push after two straight second-round exits.
The team also got forward Lane Pederson from the Sharks in exchange for forward Steven Lorentz, goaltender prospect Eetu Makiniemi and a conditional third-round pick for next year.
“Since it's been announced, eight or nine of our current players have already texted me saying, ‘Wow, they can’t believe we got this guy,'" Carolina president and general manager Don Waddell said. “That's always a positive sign.”
The Sharks will retain 34% of the remaining salary and cap hit for the 37-year-old Burns, the Norris winner in 2017 as the league’s top defenseman. That would reduce Burns’ cap hit in Carolina to around $5.3 million for each of his three remaining contract years.
Burns, who waived a no-trade clause for the deal, bolsters Carolina’s blue line after the Hurricanes sent Tony DeAngelo to Philadelphia for three draft picks last week following his one-year stay with the team.
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound Burns is set to join veterans Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei in the Hurricanes’ top defensive pairings while also providing help on the power play, an area where DeAngelo thrived last season.
The Hurricanes have made the playoffs for four straight seasons after a nine-year drought. They have won division titles in each of the past two years, yet haven’t won more than one series since an unexpected run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2019.
The New York Rangers ousted the Hurricanes in late May, ending a postseason that saw Carolina fail to win a road game in two seven-game series.
Burns is an 18-year NHL veteran, spending his first seven seasons in Minnesota and the past 11 seasons with the Sharks. He has appeared in 679 straight games dating to the 2013-14 season, while his 15 career overtime goals are the most by a defenseman in league history.
“You always look (at) age, but everybody ages differently,” Waddell said. “And this is a big man that has played a lot of minutes and been very durable through his career. So we think he’s got at least three more real good years in him as he reaches the age of 40.”
The 6-0, 192-pound Pederson, 24, has one goal and five assists in 44 career NHL games.
The Sharks acquired the 26-year-old Lorentz, who spent the playoffs as a fourth-liner or healthy scratch. He has 10 goals and 11 assists in 112 career games with Carolina dating to 2020.