Forwards Vincent Trocheck, Nino Niederreiter, Max Domi and Derek Stepan along with defensemen Ian Cole and Brendan Smith each can become a UFA on Wednesday.
"I think they're all going to go to the open market and then see what happens," Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said. "Players have that right. They earn that right to go as a UFA and just see how it all goes."
Waddell said the Hurricanes have had some discussions with a few of the pending UFAs, "but they pretty much told me off the bat they're going to take a look."
He called it 50-50 that any of them would return to Carolina if they don't re-sign with the Hurricanes before Wednesday.
"I think the players like playing there, but players earn that right to be a UFA and try to see if they can get paid a lot more money, and maybe the term will be different than what we've talked about," Waddell said. "Some of these players that are 28, 29, 30, this could be their last contract too, so term and money is important to them."
Domi is 27, Niederreiter is 29 and Trocheck turns 29 on Monday. Stepan is 32, and Cole and Smith are 33.
"You're always worried about getting a 29- or 30-year-old player and having to sign him for six or seven years; that doesn't fit into our thinking of how to run the team," Waddell said. "It doesn't mean they're bad players, but at some point you're going to be paying for something that they're not. We've been very careful about that, and we'll continue to keep that in mind as we try to move forward here."
Waddell said the Hurricanes will be active in the free agent market if they lose any or all of the pending UFAs.
"We're going to spend our money one way or another," he said. "We're not a team that's trying to be a budget team. We're a cap team. We'll spend it wisely of course, but we want to be in the mix to help strengthen our team."
The Hurricanes traded defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who was a pending restricted free agent, to the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday for three draft picks.
They were discussing a new contract with DeAngelo and his agent, Pat Brisson, until late Thursday night, but there was a difference of opinion regarding what the value of the contract should be, Waddell said.
DeAngelo had 51 points (10 goals, 41 assists) in 64 games with the Hurricanes this season playing on a one-year, $1 million contract.
"We were trying to talk about an extension and just couldn't get anyplace with it," Waddell said. "We had teams that were interested, so we did our best to maximize the return value."
Waddell said trading DeAngelo could put the Hurricanes in a better position when discussing potential trade options with teams and when free agency opens.
"There's lots of guys that are available," he said. "Some teams are trying to move guys because of money and all that. It might work out pretty well for us."
