Carolina Hurricanes sign Jalen Chatfield to three-year contract

The Carolina Hurricanes have a very busy offseason ahead of them and it sounds like they’ve begun to knock things off their to-do list.

According to Frank Seravalli, the Hurricanes and defenseman Jalen Chatfield have agreed to terms on a three-year contract.

The new extension pays Chatfield $3 million per season and takes him off the incoming open market. Chatfield, 28, is an undrafted right-handed blueliner who has been a great depth addition to the Hurricanes defense core. The Michigan native appeared in 72 regular season games in 2023-24, recording eight goals and 22 points, both were career highs. He’d go on to appear in 11 Stanley Cup Playoff games and while he didn’t record a point, he averaged over 20 minutes a game and was a staple on the Hurricanes’ penalty kill.

Carolina GM Eric Tulsky has a tall task in front of him when it comes to the team’s free agents, including more specifically on their blue line with the likes of Brett Pesce, Anthony DeAngelo and Brady Skjei all set to hit the open market on July 1. So far there hasn’t been many reports on any of their futures with the Hurricanes.

Chatfield heads into next season with the Hurricanes with a chance to increase his workload and impact on the team. Since originally signing in Carolina back in 2021, Chatfield has consistently improved and posted better numbers each season.

With Chatfield now locked up long-term, Tulsky projects to have $23.8 million in cap space to work with this summer and along with the defensemen mentioned, has pending free-agent forward Seth Jarvis to extend as well as make decisions on the team’s interest level in contract offers to pending unrestricted free-agents Jake Guentzel and Teuvo Teravainen.