While the Maple Leafs were making headlines by acquiring disgruntled forward Kirill Marchenko from the Blue Jackets, hockey insider Elliotte Friedman reported on his 32 Thoughts podcast that the Rangers and Hurricanes had a deal in place for Alexander Nikishin earlier this offseason. However, the Rangers were unable to agree on a contract with the unsigned restricted free agent.

It wasn’t exactly a revelation. During the summer, the Rangers were heavily attached to rumors for Nikishin. A talented left-handed puck moving defenseman who had 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points with a plus-18 rating in his first season with the Hurricanes, the 24-year-old Russian reportedly asked for too much money. Based off one year, neither the Hurricanes nor the Rangers were willing to give into his contract demands that were said to be as high as $9 million per year.

A former Hurricanes 2020 third round pick, Nikishin came over from the Kontinental Hockey League where he starred for St. Petersburg SKA and had success with Carolina. However, his ask was absurd despite helping the Canes win the Stanley Cup. Instead of being signed for a fair deal, he remains unsigned entering the 2026-27 season.

The Hurricanes are set to kick off the 84-game schedule by raising their championship banner against the Panthers at 5 PM tomorrow. They’ll do so without Nikishin, who doesn’t look like he’ll be joining them anytime soon. The defending champs will begin the season with Jaccob Slavin and K’Andre Miller leading the way on the blue line, followed by Sean Walker, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jalen Chatfield, and rookie Charles-Alexis Legault.

With Seth Jarvis ($7.42 million AAV) starting the year on injured reserve, the Hurricanes have $8.42 6 million in cap space. Once he returns, it’ll be considerably lower. There isn’t any room to overpay Nikishin. Expect something it to get resolved sometime before the Dec. 1 deadline.

Regarding the Rangers, they made the right decision to walk away from Nikishin. We don’t even know what Chris Drury was planning to give up. The cost was too rich for them and would’ve come at the expense of 2026 first round pick Alberts Smits, who’ll make his NHL debut on Tuesday night against the Bruins at 8 PM on ESPN.

Drury was able to revamp the blue line by adding Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi via trades that only subtracted Vincent Trocheck from last year’s roster. We’ll see how the new look defense fares starting tomorrow on the same night the Yankees and Red Sox get together for Game 1 of the American League Wild Card.