Hurricanes sign veteran forward Paul Stastny to 1-year deal
RALEIGH, N.C. — Adding offense has been at the center of the Carolina Hurricanes’ offseason.
After acquiring a pure goal scorer and losing him to injury for potentially half the season, they added one of his close friends who knows how to put the puck in the net in different ways.
Carolina signed veteran forward Paul Stastny to a $1.5 million, one-year deal Tuesday, a move that shores up the championship contender’s forward depth following winger Max Pacioretty’s Achilles tendon injury. Pacioretty is expected to miss six months, and while Stastny is far from a mirror image in terms of his style of play, the 36-year-old helps solve a major need that haunted the Hurricanes in the playoffs.
“We’re different players, I think, on the ice, off the ice,” Stastny, who’s coming off a 21-goal renaissance, said about Pacioretty, who has scored 30-plus in a season six times. “I always find a way to get the puck to the net, kind of time the puck. If you look at all my goals in my career, I’m sure the majority are from within 3, 4 feet of the net. You’ve got to go to the hard areas to get goals.”