Carolina Hurricanes sign Teuvo Teravainen to two-year deal

The Carolina Hurricanes have signed Teuvo Teravainen to a two-year bridge deal. 

Quietly, the Carolina Hurricanes have added a lot of talent to their team. They’ve come up with some creative ways to do so. One of them was by taking on a bad contract in Bryan Bickell. For taking on his contract, the Chicago Blackhawks sent the Hurricanes young forward Teuvo Teravainen. Carolina has announced they have signed him to a two-year deal with an average annual value of $2.86 million.

“Teuvo is a highly-skilled player and an important part of what we are building here,” general manager Ron Francis said, via NHL.com. “He’s still a very young player and we look forward to seeing him take the next step in a Hurricanes uniform.”

Last season, Teravainen played in over 80 games for the first time in his young career. He set career highs with 15 goals, 27 assists and 42 points while averaging 16:14 of ice time per game. Teravainen finished with the fifth best Relative CorsiAgainst per 60 minutes at even strength among forwards with at least 750 minutes. He had immediate chemistry with fellow Finnish forward Sebastian Aho, as the two spent over 500 minutes together at even strength.

Teravianen has proven to be a quality defensive forward, but now his offense is starting to develop. With the Blackhawks, his defense was his selling point, as he was a bit of a Swiss Army knife for them. Teravainen saw minutes with a lot of different forwards in Chicago. With Carolina, he has been primarily with Aho. So far, consistent line mates has proven to be good for Teravainen.

Next: NHL Mock Expansion Draft

Carolina went short on term with him, which might wind up costing them in the long run. But they can always extend him if Teravainen has the breakout season he appears to be very close to having.