July 11, 2012 12:58 PM
The Hurricanes have made their first new two-way signing of the summer, bringing in veteran defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani on a one-year contract.
Gragnani, 25, is coming off his first full season at the NHL level, splitting time between the Buffalo Sabres, who selected him in the third round of the 2005 draft, and Vancouver Canucks. Prior to that, he played the bulk of his professional career at the AHL level with the Sabres’ top minor-league affiliates in Rochester and Portland, where he posted 206 points (47g, 159a) in 283 games.
 Faced with the prospect of Bobby Sanguinetti graduating to the NHL next season, Gragnani, in the event that he ends up in Charlotte, would represent the ideal replacement in the form of a puck-moving blueliner the team would have otherwise sorely lacked. With the Hurricanes’ July 1 addition of Joe Corvo and the possibility of top prospect Ryan Murphy making the NHL squad out of training camp, it’s also feasible that both Gragnani and Sanguinetti could end up in Charlotte, which would give the team an offensive threat off the rush that it never had last season.
If nothing else, it’s likely that one of the two will be a Checker, presenting the AHL team with an ideal safety net.
“Marc-Andre was in the NHL all of last season, and will push for a job with us in the fall,” Ron Francis, the Hurricanes' vice president of hockey operations, said in an official release. “He has good size and has shown the ability to produce offensively both in the AHL and the NHL.”
If he doesn’t crack the Hurricanes to start the season, Gragnani (6-foot-2, 201 pounds) should be firmly in the mix for recalls to the NHL level. In 73 career games with Buffalo and Vancouver, the Montreal native has 18 points (3g, 15a), 15 of which came in 58 games last season.
Hurricanes fans may remember Gragnani for his overtime goal in a 2-1 win over Carolina at the RBC Center on April 3, 2011, that came with both teams in a heated head-to-head battle for one of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spots with only three more games remaining in the regular season. |
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