Hurricanes Reassign Noel Fransen

Defense prospect Noel Fransen is headed to AHL Chicago to begin his North American career, the Hurricanes announced. The 2024 third-round pick had impressed in camp to date but, after playing his first two post-draft seasons in his native Sweden, will now head to the minors for an adjustment period. The Canes also formalized the reassignments of Skyler Brind’Amour, Aleksi Heimosalmi, Juha Jaaska, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, and Justin Robidas, all of whom cleared waivers earlier today. That brings their training camp roster to 26, even with Seth Jarvis ticketed for injured reserve and Alexander Nikishin still unsigned, so they have three more cuts to make over the next two days.

Fransen had suited up twice for Carolina in preseason, recording an assist and a -2 rating. All of the Canes’ depth D-men had gotten a longer leash in training camp with Nikishin’s job on the “bottom” pairing with Shayne Gostisbehere currently up for grabs, and Fransen was no exception. The 20-year-old lefty fits Nikishin’s mold as a smooth-skating, offensive-minded threat – Carolina’s preference for depth defenders – but is still too raw a talent for anyone to truthfully expect him to make an NHL impact.

There’s likely a bottom-pairing threat in Fransen down the line, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic wrote earlier this year when he tabbed him as Carolina’s #10 prospect. Still, he hadn’t yet locked down a full-time role in Sweden’s top league and has instead spent a lot of his professional career in the second-tier Allsvenskan, where he posted a 6-8–14 scoring line in 38 games with BIK Karlskoga last year. Farjestad BK still had his SHL rights, but seeing as they okayed his reassignment to Chicago today, they likely weren’t planning on utilizing him much this year, either.

With Fransen out of the mix, the Canes’ options for Nikishin’s spot on opening night if he’s still not signed are youngster Charles-Alexis Legault as well as veterans Mike Reilly and Juuso Valimaki. Reilly has been the best of the bunch in exhibition with a +2 rating and an assist in two outings. The 33-year-old likely has the inside track after serving as Carolina’s #7 last year, posting a 1-8–9 scoring line and a +11 rating in 42 outings, but Legault got an early-season look last year too amid an injury crunch and could be of interest again for head coach Rod Brind’Amour. Legault’s waiver-exempt status means he’s the easiest to ferry down to the AHL from a roster management standpoint, though.