Younger generations of talented college basketball players might view the WNBA as an unachievable goal, making them turn the other way. The team expansion could take years, and could impact the league’s future. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has acknowledged this issue and claims that growing the league with more teams is the best solution. ![]() Perez now plays for Fuerza Regia in Monterrey, Mexico and is still planning on eventually playing in Europe. The rosters can’t afford to take on many rookie contracts for their rosters, and it shouldn’t be this way. ![]() The journey of Raina Perez is a perfect example of how challenging it is to play in the WNBA. As she began training for the professional leagues in Europe, she was asked to come back to the Storm to play two games as a replacement player. Perez played one preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks, and was cut short before the regular season began. However, Seattle Storm’s coach Noelle Quinn sought to sign Perez as a free agent. After a tremendous season and guiding her team to this year’s NCAA Final Four, Perez entered the WNBA draft. Raina Perez was a standout player at North Carolina State. ![]() In fact, most teams only play with 11 due to salary cap restrictions. However, this still is not enough to expand the teams in the WNBA, let alone pay more than 12 players on each team. the WNBA fanbase continues to grow, recording the highest viewership since 2008. The budget in the WNBA is a massive contributor to the league’s expansion problem. These limitations on roster availability makes it almost impossible for college basketball stars to make it to the pros. The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) currently houses 12 teams containing 12 roster spots each. NHL rules allow for teams to negotiate extensions in the final year of a contract.Women’s basketball is one of the most challenging sports for college recruiting, allowing only 3.9% of female athletes to play at the collegiate level. In addition, young forwards Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas are a year from becoming restricted free agents, allowing Carolina to match any offer sheet signed with another team. Top performers like center Sebastian Aho, forward Teuvo Teravainen, and defensemen Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei are entering their final years before becoming unrestricted free agents. The coming year is important to Carolina’s ability to maintain its core. Others include forwards Paul Stastny, Derek Stepan and Mackenzie MacEachern and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. He is a good fit in Brind’Amour’s system but his six-goal postseason could prove attractive to potential suitors. The team signed Kochetkov to an extension last fall for an average-annual value of $2 million through 2026-27, setting him up for a larger role depending on Carolina’s other moves there.įorward Jesper Fast is the other key name among Carolina’s unrestricted free agents. Goaltenders Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta are unrestricted free agents after sharing most of the regular-season load.Ĭarolina has brought along 2019 second-round draft pick Pyotr Kochetkov, who started 23 games this year and a 2022 playoff game. He’ll turn 35 before next season and said last week he wants to return. Jordan Staal has captained the Hurricanes for the past four seasons but wrapped up a 10-year, $60 million extension and is an unrestricted free agent. “I don’t know, this one’s going to stick around for a while.” ![]() “I feel like every couple of hours I’m trying to figure out how that happened or what we could’ve done differently,” forward Jordan Martinook said Friday. It’s why coach Rod Brind’Amour said he looks at it as “one bad week” in a memorable season that included a sellout for Carolina’s first Stadium Series outdoor game in February. So we’ll make sure we talk to all the teams and see what’s potentially out there.” “We’re in the same spot this year where we do have cap space to work with and there’s a lot of teams that are in cap jail. “I still think the trade route is something we’re going to explore very heavily before free agency,” Waddell said. But the Hurricanes are projected to have about $24 million in cap space, according to CapFriendly, and have been active in the trade market before as they were with last summer’s acquisition of top-pairing defenseman Brent Burns. The most obvious remains bolstering their goal-scoring punch. “We’ve talked a lot about it - we really like our team,” team president and general manager Don Waddell said Wednesday, adding: “We don’t have a lot of holes, but we have some areas we’d like to address if possible.” Was the season-ending sweep due to key injuries catching up to them? Or is this an indication of still-pressing needs to fill before being able to win a Stanley Cup? (AP) - The Carolina Hurricanes must balance two offseason questions following a return to the Eastern Conference Final.
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