{"id":424874,"date":"2026-01-24T04:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/424874\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T04:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:13:14","slug":"hurricanes-open-to-moving-alexander-nikishin-for-star-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/424874\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes Open To Moving Alexander Nikishin For Star \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Hurricanes have made a habit out of making big moves for impact veterans at the Trade Deadline. It appears they\u2019re gearing up to repeat that trend this season. The Hurricanes would even be open to moving star rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin<\/a> if it meant landing a high-end addition, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period on Thursday\u2019s episode of Sportsnet Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pagnotta added that Carolina would need a star, or even superstar, return and contract control to be swayed enough to give up Nikishin. That likely cuts down the change of the rookie moving by quite a bit \u2013 but there\u2019s no doubt that teams will line up for the Russian defender. Nikishin has recorded six goals, 20 points, and a plus-12 through 50 NHL games this season. Those stats rank second, third, and first respectively among rookie defenders.<\/p>\n

Nikishin also leads rookie defenders in hits (92) and ranks second in blocks (61). He has proven an ability to fit wherever Carolina needs him, even while working through cold feet to start the year. This comes after Nikishin posted a true breakout season in Russia\u2019s KHL last year. He blew out the record for most points by a U22 defenseman in KHL history, finishing the year with 11 goals and 55 points in 65 games \u2013 20 points more than second place. Nikishin emerged as the top defender for Russia\u2019s biggest club \u2013 SKA St. Petersburg \u2013 and finished the year with a four-game stint in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Carolina wields clear, top-end value by dangling Nikishin to potential buyers regardless of where they are in the standings. He could be a strong fill-in for the injured Lian Bichsel<\/a> with the Dallas Stars, potentially enough to land scoring winger Jason Robertson<\/a>. Or Nikishin could be seen as a final piece for a struggling club like the St. Louis Blues, who have faced trade rumors around\u00a0top center Robert Thomas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is hard to say who Carolina could be in on as the Deadline rolls around. The Hurricanes will have an estimated $35.48MM in deadline cap space, per PuckPedia<\/a>. They also have two first-round picks, and one second-round pick, over the next two drafts. That flexibility, along with Nikishin, could help Carolina match just about any offer when trade season really heats up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carolina Hurricanes have made a habit out of making big moves for impact veterans at the Trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5107],"tags":[28,194,29,5176,5,195,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-424874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-alexander-nikishin","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","11":"tag-carolinahurricanes","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-hurricanes","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115948133138934114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}