You’ve got to deal with the criticism (rightly or wrongly) but a player of DeAngelo’s caliber at that price is, in hockey terms, essentially zero risk.
Sure, he’s an awful defender and has his problems, but any other player who puts up those point totals at the NHL level has a price far higher than DeAngelo’s.
As a Bruins fan, I will be watching this closely and wouldn’t doubt it trends positively for the Canes. If anything has a chance at making DeAngelo get his head on straight and reevaluate himself as an adult, it is what has occurred in the last however many months.
And if it doesn’t work out...it doesn’t work out. It’s a 1M AAV cap hit for a single year. I guess I just can’t see the deal really hurting the Hurricanes unless something happens that just isn’t possible to anticipate at all.