Hurricanes Sign Joel Nystrom To Entry-Level Deal

The Hurricanes have signed defense prospect Joel Nyström to a two-year, entry-level contract, per a team announcement Tuesday night. The 21-year-old Swede will earn a $832.5K base salary and $80K AHL salary for both seasons, with a $92.5K signing bonus each year for a $925K cap hit.

Selected with the sixth-to-last pick in the 2021 draft, the right-shot Nyström has been a promising offensive talent over his three full seasons with Färjestad BK in the Swedish Hockey League. He had his best campaign yet in 2023-24, totaling eight goals and 18 assists for 26 points in 51 games with a +12 rating.

That made him the highest-scoring defender for the SHL’s best regular-season squad, an impressive feat for a player still so early on in his development. He wasn’t deployed in terribly difficult minutes and rarely played more than 20 minutes in a game, but he was still an incredibly important contributor in a second and third-pairing role at even strength while seeing significant power-play usage.

Nyström fell into the Hurricanes’ laps in his draft year. Some public rankings, including Elite Prospects, had him tabbed as a late second-round talent. Early on, the last few picks of the 2021 draft mostly look to be gems. Nyström’s teammate with Färjestad this season, goaltender Carl Lindbom, was selected by the Golden Knights with the 222nd overall pick and is on track to have an NHL future after logging a solid .911 SV% in 26 SHL appearances this season. Utah forward prospect Sam Lipkin and Lightning right wing prospect Niko Huuhtanen were the final two picks after Lindbom and have also both exceeded the normal development curve of a seventh-rounder.

Nyström’s ELC contains a European assignment clause, per CapFriendly, so he’ll likely be loaned back to Färjestad next season instead of suiting up for AHL Chicago. Another strong season in Sweden should put him in consideration for NHL duties as soon as 2025-26. The Karlstad native will be a restricted free agent upon expiry and becomes the 27th player under contract for Carolina next season.