Does today’s Carolina deal take them out of Miller sweepstakes?

From what I’ve quickly read tonight, Carolina had a potential huge deal on the table tonight with the Canucks before going with the Avs trade. And that they also had multiple potential deals with the Canucks, one for Petey and one for Miller.

The package that they traded for Rantanen obviously contains the pieces that would’ve been in a Petey trade. Namely Martin Necas. So likely Petey to the Canes is nixed, that I get.

However we were never going to get Necas for Miller. And there imo is still an unmet need on the Canes roster at centre, actually they made their Centre depth worse by trading Drury (although he hasn’t been a massive contributor for them this year).

To me, in pursuit of a Stanley Cup there is still incentive for the Canes to add at Centre. Right now Koetkaniemi is scoring for them, but the obvious move is to trade him and his slightly overpaid contract plus either draft picks + one of there many prospects for a centre upgrade.

Miller is stylistically exactly what the Canes need, more competitiveness and grit in the playoffs and a matchup centre. To me a trade worked around KK for Miller, with hopefully a solid defensive prospect coming back our way makes a lot of sense. You would hope for Nikishin but probably get Morrow.

It’s a bit problematic cap wise, but it can still work if a Martinook or Roslovic is in the trade as well, or if we (for some reason) retain on Miller.