**AS OF TIME OF WRITING**
Bik Nizzar: You hear it a thousand times during a season.... Missed opportunity – whether it is on the power-play, a breakaway, in whatever scenario..... In every game a team fails to take advantage of a presented opportunity. The 2011-2012 Hurricanes missed an opportunity when instead of trading away their UFA’s (Bryan Allen, Tuomo Ruutu), stockpiling draft picks and doing the ole’ *wink-wink-nudge-nudge “we’ll re-sign you when you become a free agent.” It made too much sense to do it, and I don’t think guys like Allen and Ruutu are players you should MAKE SURE you have on your team at the expense of your future. Sure they’re decent players and there’s a lot to be said for dressing room atmosphere, but they could have capitalized on a winning hand that was dealt to them, and folded on it. I will say though, they made the right decision in not moving Gleason, a player who is a bit underrated and can do good things for them down the road.
The biggest thing for the ‘Canes is that they already accomplished something remarkable. They convinced SOMEBODY to take that albatross of a contract that was Tomas Kaberle. Seriously, I wanna know what pictures GM Jim Rutherford had of former Habs GM Pierre Gauthier to get him to take on that contract. (Surprise surprise Gauthier no longer employed... have you seen Pierre Gauthier’s Wikipedia page? The Montreal section is really funny... Anytime your tenure as a GM is highlighted by you hiring an unpopular interim head coach – you know you did a good job #not) So cap wise they’re set up ok, depending on how much they want to spend. And I’ll say this – Eric Staal........ is a beast. He was TERRIBLE to begin the year, but then in comes Kirk Muller and Staal was flawless down the stretch. All for naught considering they were so far removed from the playoff picture (which is why not moving those players made even less sense) and it’s not like these team has a bevy of prospects coming up that securing depth and role players was crucial.
Also if they want to win, they need to embrace their Hartford Whalers heritage. Seriously – break out the Green Whale 3-5 times a season.
TJ Molland: I was so surprised they re-signed Ruutu versus moving him. Like you said it was a perfect time to bring in some draft picks before they maybe sign him in the summer. The Canes are in an awkward situation. With 19 players signed for next year (not including some of their prospects that could push for position) there isn't a lot of room for change. The team has made the playoffs once since winning the Stanley Cup and a lot of that has to do with the lack of depth this team has. There is some young talent on this team that can help lift them back to playoff success, but you are asking a lot of young players to all lift their game up a notch or two, all at once (Skinner, Stewart, Sutter [all S's again]). I thought this team would do better but since I have started writing this I have lost faith in their offense. Not that I had much before but oh man that lineup is shallow. Their defense looks better than the numbers it put up though. Am I missing something there? I know Cam Ward's numbers weren't great but the team shouldn't be giving up that many goals should they?
Bik Nizzar: The departure of Paul Maurice and inclusion of Kirk Muller as head coach just shows the contrast in their seasons. PM went 8-13-4 while KM got the team to go 25-20-12. And they were MUCH better post All-Star break, led by Staal’s 34 pts in 31 games and Tim Gleason being +10 in 31 games. Plus their goals against improved from 2.7 Pre All-Star break to 2.4 post. But you’re right – little faith in their offense I have #YodaTalk (am I too lazy to hit delete and re-structure that... yes... yes I am... Do I realize that it’s taken more keystrokes and characters to type out this parenthesis than to amend that sentence.... yes...yes I do) but they do have some vital pieces already in place. A Big #1 Elite Center, a young scoring winger. They sit 8th in the draft, and I know he PROBABLY won’t slip to 8 (and by probably I really mean definitely) but we’ve talked about teams ahead of Carolina really needing defense... so if Filip Forsberg is still there at about 6... I think Carolina needs to... NEEEEEDS TO... trade up to get him. They’re defense is better than it played with Gleason, Pitkanen, Faulk showing some good flashes last year, and Ryan Murphy coming through soon. Forsberg just seems like another good fit for them, and I’m not enamoured with the wing depth in this draft, so maybe even if Forsberg gets to 3-4-5... they should try to move up.
TJ Molland: It should be a no-brainer to part with at least one piece of the D to either move up in the draft or obtain a good second line winger (or legit first line winger for that matter). Brad Boyes jumps out at me on the free agency market. A big able bodied guy who could give some depth at wing, and relieve some of the pressure off of Staal. If they are willing to overspend they could also go after PA Parenteau who is coming off a career high 67 points. Although they have their hands full with so many contracts they have over $24 million in cap space to make a few moves.
It is actually quite remarkable how much better the Canes did under the guidance of Muller over Maurice (who was a bad hire to begin with). It will be interesting to see how they perform under him for a full year (and an offseason to develop a team game plan). I don't think playoffs are totally out of the question but don't expect them to be favourites.
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