Daily Faceoff: Frank Seravalli on the Carolina Hurricanes’ top prospect, Alexander Nikishin, could possibly join the Hurricanes after his KHL season, and how they used a performance bonus cushion.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Steven Ellis: “Alexander Nikishin, out of the SKA St. Petersburgh, and he is a Carolina Hurricanes prospect.
Seravalli: “Okay, so have something to add to that actually. I think the Carolina Hurricanes are trying to bring him over at the end of this KHL season.
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And if you noticed, they did something really interesting with their cap. They left a performance bonus cushion with a player that they signed. So they would have a million dollars to spend in performance bonus that they could sign him to a contract before the trade deadline. That’s when he would need to be, well, he’s on their reserve list already because he’s a draft pick, so he could sign after the deadline and still play in the playoffs. So I think they’re already I
preparing for him to try and come over.
Ellis: “I’m excited. I’m excited to see him. He’s going to be the real deal.
Seravalli: “So go, go, look at what Carolina did to start their season. I don’t think anyone noticed that they ended up signing a player right toward the very end of camp, and I’m trying to find his name. That like, literally was like, no one even lik, heard of this guy, and they signed him to a deal that had extra performance bonuses in it, that people were like, stunned. Like, what, where’d this come from?
And it was, I think it was Bryce Montgomery. He got $1 million in performance bonuses. They signed him on October 6, the day before the season started, and no one talked about it. Not mentioned anywhere.
And because they put them on their active roster for the first day of the season, that extra million dollars provides them with performance bonus cushion, because they’re operating in LTIR with Jesper Fast neck surgery, and that’s going to be the money for Nikishin.
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Yaremchuk: “I get it, but that also made my brain hurt a little bit. Interesting,
Seravalli: “Just, just throwing it out there so like taking for what, take for what you will. They’re planning on having him this season and potentially being an NHL impact player for the playoffs.