By now, we’ve all heard the takes on the Victor Rask-Nino Niederreiter trade. Hurricanes GM Don Waddell pulled off a brilliant move by getting a goal-scoring winger for a contract the team would have given away for free.
But how did we get to that point, of being so ready to move on from Rask? Things didn’t start out that way for him in Carolina. Not even close. Let’s take a look at how things started out with Rask, and what went wrong along the way.
“A big part of this team’s present and future”
Coming off a solid rookie season the year before, Rask had a breakout year in 2016-17, with 16 goals and 48 points.