Inside the NHL’s Hottest Free Agency Secrets: What the Draft Combine Whispers Reveal

The Hurricanes are obviously going to be in the Marner sweepstakes, as adding a superstar is their top need and they were pushing hard for him at the deadline. But they’ll also have a hole for a top-four defenseman, given Dmitry Orlov isn’t expected back and Brent Burns is a 40-year-old unrestricted free agent.

So even though they’ll be chasing scoring talent, they have multiple needs and could take a big run at someone such as Aaron Ekblad — the top free-agent defenseman — if he makes it to market. Or they could pursue a trade to upgrade their back end, which was exposed against the Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals.

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