The Carolina Hurricanes acquired star defenseman Brent Burns from the San Jose Sharks in a multiplayer deal Wednesday, sources told ESPN.
The Sharks traded Burns and AHL forward Lane Pederson to Carolina for forward Steven Lorentz, AHL goalie Eetu Makiniemi and a conditional 2023 third-round pick. The Sharks retained 33% of Burns’ cap hit.
Burns had to approve the trade to Carolina.
Burns, 37, has three more seasons with an $8 million average annual value (AAV) against the salary cap. The Hurricanes will have a cap hit of $5.36 million for Burns.
But in real dollars, Burns will make $6.5 million ($3.5 million in signing bonus money) next season and then $5 million in each of the following two seasons ($2 million in signing bonus money) for the rest of the deal. That was no doubt appealing for the Hurricanes.
Carolina needed a right-side, puck-moving defenseman after trading Tony DeAngelo to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Hurricanes were linked to free agent defenseman John Klingberg of the Dallas Stars but opted to trade for Burns.
Burns had 54 points in 82 games last season for the Sharks. He’s known as one of the NHL’s most prolific shot-generating players, having led the NHL with 320 shots in the 2016-17 season, the same year he won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman. His ability to get shots through on the power play had been an asset during his 11 years in San Jose.
Burns had 594 points in 798 games with San Jose. Before that, he spent seven seasons with the Minnesota Wild, scoring 183 points in 453 games as both a forward and a defenseman.
Lorentz played two seasons with the Hurricanes, scoring 21 points in 112 games. Makiniemi was a fourth-round draft pick by the Hurricanes in 2017. He played professionally in Finland before joining the Chicago Wolves of the AHL last season.
The trade of Burns opens up valuable cap space for the Sharks, who still have Erik Karlsson ($11.5 million AAV) and Marc-Edouard Vlasic ($7 million AAV) on their salary cap through 2025.