The NHL and the Carolina Hurricanes released the official logo to the 2011 NHL All-Star Game. The announcements of the logo has been the biggest news since the announcement of the all-star game in Raleigh. The logo is underlined with the Hurricanes logo and looks great in my opinion.

The other news was the announcement of a 5,000 ft banner to hang off the RBC Plaza in downtown. The banner will feature former All-Stars Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Hurricanes captain Eric Staal.  The banner should be completed by Saturday for the 5th annual Raleigh Wide Open.   The NHL and Carolina Hurricanes will also be selling the first 2011 All-Star Game gear such as hat and t-shirts.  Hope to see all you Caniac’s at Raleigh Wide Open this weekend.

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Riley Nash 2007 Oilers 1st Round Pick looks to make impact for Hurricanes in 2010-2011

\The Carolina Hurricanes have only made a couple minor signings, as expected, over the last couple of weeks with the chance that some like Riley Nash could show huge return. The Hurricanes also went the way of cheap and two-way contracts to players such as Justin Pogge, Brett Carson, and Bryan Rodney.

The biggest decision the Hurricanes have made in the last couple of weeks was to give Justin Peters and Justin Pogge each two-way deals. With the deals it sees the Hurricanes parting ways with a guy I, and many others, would have liked to see come back, but in the end money wins in this deal as Manny would make considerably more money than Peters and Pogge. With that being said the adversity that is all but certain to happen with a young team in 2010-2011, it would have been nice to have a guy of Manny’s stature to help the young kids.

The news that I have liked the best is that Riley Nash has decided to forgo his senior season at Cornell and join the professional ranks with either Carolina or Charlotte next season. Riley Nash is a 2007 first round pick by the Edmonton Oilers that has played three years of NCAA hockey and averaged more than a point a game for all three seasons. Nash said that he felt he has a realistic shot of making the roster out of training camp with the retirement of Rod Brind’Amour and the deadline deal of Matt Cullen last season. Nash has the potential to be Carolina’s third or fourth line center next season behind Staal, Sutter, and Jokinen. I think Nash would fit in perfectly next year as a fourth line center and with line shifting maybe a third, either way this kid has serious potential over the next couple of seasons.

On the defensive end the Hurricanes resigned two defensemen that were mostly stable last season in Bryan Rodney and Brett Carson. The biggest surprise for me was the lack of qualifying offers from the Hurricanes to Brett Carson and Alexandre Picard. With the lack of offers, I was sure that would be the end of both their stays in Raleigh. Right now it still looks that way for Picard, but Carson took a lesser deal to stay with Hurricanes. Brett Carson was one of the most underrated of Carolina’s defensemen in 2009-2010. Carson showed real growth through out the season and became a pretty steady defenseman for the Hurricanes down the stretch, even scoring 2 goals and assisting on 10 more. Bryan Rodney has always been a traveled player and a power play specialist since joining the Hurricanes organization. Rodney has always hated being associated as the power play specialist and seems to have taken strides to improve his overall defensive play in order to become a more rounded play. Rodney usually is first in line to be called up if there is a defensive injury. This year Rodney would like to pass that role on and get more NHL time as this could be the year he has been waiting for and should be interesting to see if he can make the opening night roster.

The Carolina Hurricanes have had some noticeable things already happen this summer.  The biggest new was when Peter Karmanos Jr. told the world that he was looking for a minority owner to take over 49% of the teams finances.  When giving a statement Karmanos Jr. had this to say, “My partner, Tom Thewes, passed away two years ago, and we have been putting around trying to figure  how to replace the partner,” said Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr. , who currently controls 100 percent of the franchise. “We just went to Allen & Co. to explore the different ways. It’s certainly not to sell the team.”  After a seeing a season where the Hurricanes failed to make the playoffs along with state of the economy made the need for a business partner.  The way that Karmanos Jr. and the organization would like to go is a local minority owner.  With Karmanos Jr. being located in Michigan the franchise would like to have a face to show the fans and to be able to get a local owners point of view on day to day.  The likely hood of the person being from the triangle area is slim, but would be a good fit for the promotion of the organization.

Also the Hurricanes have made a couple of depth and the organizations future by signing Jiri Tlusty, Jay Harrison, Jared Staal, and in all likely hood Anton Babchuk.  The Hurricanes have not denied anything and admit they are going young next season and that why you see these three playing in the NHL next year.  The all the signings so far have been expected, except for putting Jay Harrison on a one-way deal.  With the likely addition of Anton Babchuk that probaly means that Brian Pothier will move elsewhere.

Finally the Hurricanes have released a part of their exhibition schedule that for the upcoming season as they will play one of their exibitions against SKA St. Petersburg at Ledovy Arena in St. Petersburg, Russia.  This should be and interesting game as it will match NHL vs KHL, the two most competitive league in hockey.  The KHL is known as a league where players go in order to make more money or they can not find the right fit in the NHL.  Either way we are only 113 games from the exhibition against SKA St. Petersburg.