{"id":758095,"date":"2026-06-24T22:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758095\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:57:10","slug":"hurricanes-including-alexander-nikishin-in-trade-talks-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758095\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes Including Alexander Nikishin In Trade Talks \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even after winning the Stanley Cup, the Carolina Hurricanes aren\u2019t being complacent. According to TSN\u2019s Darren Dreger<\/a>, the Hurricanes have included rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin<\/a> in trade negotiations.<\/p>\n

Despite finishing his rookie season during the 2025-26 campaign, in which he earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team, Nikishin is scheduled to become a restricted free agent without arbitration rights in a few days. Essentially, as Dreger noted, the Hurricanes are weighing what they could fetch for Nikishin on the trade market compared to what a long-term extension may look like.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time that Nikishin has been thrown out as a speculative trade candidate. Before playing in North America, Carolina had offered Nikishin, among other assets, to the Calgary Flames for Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> ahead of the 2022-23 season. Obviously, the Flames pivoted, sending Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

Since then, while primarily playing for the KHL\u2019s SKA St. Petersburg, Nikishin became the Hurricanes\u2019 most promising prospect. He debuted with the club last spring, registering one assist in four games throughout the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n

This season, his first in the NHL, Nikishin played as expected, scoring 11 goals and 33 points in 81 games with a +18 rating, averaging 18:11 of ice time per game. Additionally, the 6\u20193\u2033 left-handed blue liner wasn\u2019t afraid to engage with the game physically, finishing with 94 blocked shots and 132 hits.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, all of his metrics were solid, though that is the case for many players who play in Rod Brind\u2019Amour<\/a>\u2018s system. Nikishin finished with a 58.3% CorsiFor and a 90.7% on-ice SV% at even strength. Still, it\u2019s important to point out that Carolina sheltered him quite a bit, beginning 65.0% of his shifts in the offensive zone.<\/p>\n

Regardless, defensemen of Nikishin\u2019s archetype are rare, which is why it\u2019s unsurprising that so many teams have already contacted the Hurricanes regarding his availability. As the reigning Stanley Cup champions, Carolina has few holes in their roster to fill.<\/p>\n

If they do end up trading Nikishin this offseason, he will likely be the headliner for a package to acquire an All-Star-level talent. Although it\u2019s all speculation at this point, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see the Hurricanes include Nikishin in trade negotiations for Dylan Larkin<\/a> from the Detroit Red Wings or Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> from the Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even after winning the Stanley Cup, the Carolina Hurricanes aren\u2019t being complacent. According to TSN\u2019s Darren Dreger, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[227035,64,63,3615,575,85],"class_list":["post-758095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alexander-nikishin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}