Carolina Hurricanes
Hurricanes Acquire Valimaki From the Mammoth in Late Night Trade
A Mammoth and Hurricanes trade has brought Juuso Välimäki to Carolina. Discover the details of this important acquisition.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Utah Mammoth have completed a late-night trade. The Hurricanes acquired defenseman Juuso Välimäki from the Mammoth in exchange for future considerations and assigned him to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. The deal was confirmed officially by the Hurricanes on Monday night.
This became an option for Carolina when Valimaki recently cleared waivers while being cleared for game action. He has struggled to stay healthy, missing the entire 2019-20 campaign. The defenseman missed the start of this season while still recovering from an ACL injury he sustained last March. Välimäki wasn’t expected to remain in Utah after struggling to hold a bottom-pair role last season.
Despite earlier top-four success with Arizona, offseason additions pushed him down the depth chart, making his $2 million cap hit hard to justify. He’ll be a UFA next summer.
Why Did the Hurricanes Trade for Valimaki?
For now, Valimaki is a healthy defenseman, which currently matters for the Hurricanes. The team is running out of options at both the NHL and AHL levels. Jaccob Slavin still considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
The 27-year-old blueliner has three points in three AHL games this season and brings significant NHL experience, with 271 career games played across Calgary, Arizona, and Utah.
A former first-round pick in 2017, Välimäki has also produced at the AHL, Liiga, and WHL levels and has represented Finland internationally multiple times, including at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
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