The Carolina Hurricanes are currently without a general manager, and that seat could continue to remain vacant if owner Tom Dundon doesn't dig a bit deeper into his pockets, according to a new report.

During the "Headlines" segment on Hockey Night In Canada, the panel addressed Carolina's ongoing general manager search, which has included many potential, publicly reported candidates.

According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, information being reported openly about said search has not sat well with the organization, who may now be attempting a bit of a misdirection to try to keep information behind closed doors.

"What Carolina has done is decided to go underground here," Friedman said. "They talked yesterday internally, decided they didn’t like how much of this was public and while they’re saying that their GM search has been suspended, I don’t necessarily believe that’s the case. They will continue to go at this but they want to do it quieter."

Friedman said interview candidates have included a group of current assistant general manager: Mike Futa (Los Angeles Kings), Steve Greeley (Buffalo Sabres), Paul Fenton (Nashville Predators) and Tom Fitzgerald (New Jersey Devils). That information had been previously reported.

But at that point, Nick Kypreos jumped in and said one of the main holdups in making a hire has been the salary offer from Dundon.

"Apparently Carolina is not showing the money," Kypreos said. "I’m told in the ballpark of $400,000 a year, that’s where that job will start, and there’s just no way that they can attract good hockey people, credible people, experienced people, to take that salary.

"Now whether or not it’s a lesser role still remains to be seen but it’s an nonstarter for many of the established that we’ve heard that are out there and that have shown interest."

The 'lesser role' Kypreos referenced is the other concern. When it was announced that former general manager Ron Francis would transition to team president of hockey operations, it was also said that the new general manager would report directly to Dundon. Friedman and others reported Dundon, a close friend of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, could be attempting to structure the Hurricanes franchise in a similar way, giving him the latitude to make player personnel decisions.

"There were some people who felt how much authority would they really have over decision making," Friedman said on Saturday.