Hurricanes’ trade speak loudly: They think they can do better in net than Ned.

The confusing part about Alex Nedeljkovic’s sudden departure isn’t that the Carolina Hurricanes ended up trading him — an uncertain arbitration was always hanging out there like a dark cloud on the horizon — but that he ended up signing a new contract elsewhere that seems like it would have made a bunch of sense here.

There’s an abruptness to this that makes it all the more jarring. Fans were just getting to know Nedeljkovic, still celebrating his season ... and now he’s wearing a different red-and-white uniform.

It’s never easy to see a fan favorite traded, especially when it’s a homegrown goalie who finally seemed to figure things out and ended up an unlikely Calder Trophy finalist at age 25. But that cuts both ways, and Nedeljkovic’s track record and untimely playoff gaffes clearly pushed hard on the other side of the ledger.

Unable to agree on a new contract with Nedeljkovic, and unwilling to risk paying out a lottery ticket in arbitration — the Hurricanes were burned two summers ago by another goalie with a short resume when Anton Forsberg was awarded a one-way contract, a waste of $775,000 on a minor-league goalie — the Hurricanes traded Nedeljkovic to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday for a third-round pick and the rights to unrestricted free agent goalie Jonathan Bernier.

That part actually makes sense. If you think Nedeljkovic’s year was at least partially a fluke, as the Hurricanes clearly do, their actions speaking louder than any words here, then you essentially got something for next to nothing. After all, the Hurricanes were willing to lose Nedeljkovic for absolutely nothing when they put him on waivers in January. There’s some history here that weighs heavy on both sides, and perhaps not as much loyalty in either direction as there might otherwise be. Perhaps.

But to see Nedeljkovic turn around and sign with the Red Wings for two years at $3 million per year, that’s a contract that even under these extenuating circumstances seems like it would have made a lot of sense here, a gamble worth taking on Nedeljkovic’s future even given his past.

That part is harder to process.

Still, it’s not a case of being cheap, as the Hurricanes are often portrayed. It’s entirely a value judgment. It’s not that the Hurricanes aren’t going to spend the money. They’re going to spend millions on goalies either way. They just would rather spend it on two goalies who aren’t Nedeljkovic, which again feels a bit jarring after watching him blossom this season.

Only time will tell on that, whether the Hurricanes sold high on a flash in the pan or let a potential No. 1 or No. 1A goalie walk. Not everything in hockey — or in sports — is immediately right or wrong. This is going to have to play out over a period of years, and if there are better options out there, we’ll see in the upcoming days and weeks if the Hurricanes can land them.

This trade was not made in a vacuum; it can only be viewed through the longer lens of the entire goaltending situation as a whole.

Which also happens to be the single most crucial decision the Hurricanes will make this summer, dwarfing even the Dougie Hamilton situation in importance. The Hurricanes have a week to negotiate with Bernier if he’s truly of interest to them. Petr Mrazek is still out there, and he and the Hurricanes have danced with other partners before only to end up back together.

Whether it’s two new faces or one in net, the Hurricanes’ perpetual search for answers in goal continues. Ned was an option. Now he’s not.