The 29-year-old winger spent two months with the Canes.
Well, it seems that the good vibes are no more.
The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that they have traded forward Jake Guentzel to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a third round pick in 2025.
After Guentzel was acquired by Carolina at last season's trade deadline, he seemed to be the perfect complement on the Canes' top line and produced at a crazy clip.
He had immediate chemistry with Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis and played perfectly within Rod Brind'Amour's system.
As an upcoming UFA, both sides seemed confident that a deal would get done and for a while things seemed to be progressing well.
But it was reported last night that Guentzel and the Canes were not going to be able to come together.
The sniper originally asked for an eight year, $64 million deal and while Carolina was hesitant to match at first, they eventually agreed, just way too late however.
By the point the Hurricanes agreed, Guentzel had seemingly already made up his mind to move on.
Tampa Bay was a team that cleared a ton of cap space during the draft trading both defenseman Mikhail Sergachev as well as forward Tanner Jeannot.
So with tons of cap space it seems they are poised to offer Guentzel a much bigger deal, one where no state income tax can take any of it.
It was good while it lasted, but now Carolina will have to pivot in a major way to figure out how to replace Guentzel in the lineup.
All in all, it seems like a big misplay by the Canes front office.
