Carolina Hurricanes Cap Space: Examining the Canes salary in the offseason

The Carolina Hurricanes made it all the way to the Eastern Conference finals last year but have already made significant adds to their roster.

The Hurricanes were one of the few teams in the NHL to have plenty of cap space heading into the offseason and after the first two days of free agency, they put it to good use.

Currently, Carolina has roughly $2.8 million in cap space but most of its heavy lifting is over. Although some fans think it overpaid for players, GM Don Waddell made it clear, cap space doesn't roll over so it may as well use it.

"If we get him (Dmitry Orlov) here and everything goes well, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to extend him at that point. You can't take your cap space with you," Waddell provided as the rationale. "We came up with the idea of going at him with a good number that we thought he could accept, for a shorter term. It fits what we need. He was excited about it, so it made sense to do it."

Carolina Hurricanes busy in free agency

To kick off free agency, the Carolina Hurricanes signed defenseman Dmitry Orlov to a two-year deal worth $7.75 million per year. They also signed forward Michael Bunting from the Toronto Maple Leafs to a three-year, $13.5 million dollar deal.

Both Orlov and Bunting figure to play massive roles for the Hurricanes and Orlov knows this team is a legit Cup contender.

"I've played against this team so many times. I know how good they are and it's hard to play against them," Orlov said. "They are obviously a great team. At this time, the best decision in my life was to test free agency and I needed to make a good decision for me.

"I want to play on a good team and I think I made the right decision. I'm happy to be with Carolina right now... I want to be on a good team that has a big goal of getting to the end. It's important."

As well as adding Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting, Carolina re-signed both Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta to bring back the goalie duo.

Currently, the Carolina Hurricanes only have defenseman Dylan Coghlan unsigned who is an RFA. With them still having over $2 million, that will be enough cap space to sign him and still keep enough money to add a player at the trade deadline if needed.