Puck Drops on Hurricanes Free Agent Frenzy
By John Shannon
Greetings Caniacs! July 1st was the official puck drop to craziness in the NHL, as far as player movement and trade scenarios which at the present time is still ongoing throughout most of the 30 teams. I must say it was nice to get my tweets about locking up Jordan Staal for the next 10 years. As President and General Manager of Hurricanes, Jim Rutherford had stated” the acquisition of Jordan Staal has changed the perception of the Carolina Hurricanes”. Once the clock struck 12 noon yesterday Jim Rutherford stood by those words adamantly. Rutherford made several signings within the first 90 minutes of the start of free agency. Joe Corvo agreed to return to the canes for the 9th time , just kidding, it will be Corvo’s third stint with the Canes and the Defensemen will most likely work with Tim Gleason amongst others on the blue line. Along with Corvo, the Canes also re-signed Justin Peters who will begin the season backing up Cam Ward, as he did much of last year since Goaltender Brian Boucher is starting the season out on the disabled list. Also, the Canes re-signed Charlotte Checkers Captain Brett Sutter who last year played in 15 games for the Canes and had 3 assists.
As several free agents started signing with NHL teams, the Canes were consistently being mentioned in the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter sweepstakes. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that Parise’s representative notified the Hurricanes that they were no longer on the list of teams he was considering. Between the Parise news and the news of Hurricanes free agent defensemen Bryan Allen signing a 3 year deal worth approximately $ 10.5 million with Anaheim, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. As far as the Allen signing goes, I am happy for him that he is finally getting to go somewhere that a team wants to invest more than a 1 year contract on the defensemen. With that being said, I understand why we did not counter that offer and we let him sign with Anaheim.
Rick Nash’s name continued to be mentioned on Sunday, as trade rumors were heating up nearly as hot as the Carolina’s weather . Trade talks involving Nash have been going on now for nearly a year and the only one that is suffering by just “talking trade” is the Columbus Bluejackets. Nash is still going to get to do what he loves to do … that is play hockey and he is getting paid by the Bluejackets for it. They had an opportunity to trade him to several teams at the trade deadline, as well as trade him on draft day, yet they still hang the captain out on the line like he is a piece of bait. I am sure at some point he will be traded (hopefully to the Canes) but as the summer winds down and teams start reporting to camp, his value will once again go down. It may not be by much but it will be reduced to some extent.
A few other key notes from the past week are that the young prospects which the Canes drafted looked very promising during the Canes conditioning camp, specifically Erik Karrlson and Phil DiGiuseppe as well as one game Canes veteran Jeremy Welsh. The Hurricanes also are parting ways with Defensemen Derek Joslin, while former Hurricane Alexi Ponikarovsky signed with the Winnipeg Jets.
Things are far from being over for the Hurricanes front office. For now, all we can do is wait. However a watched pot never boils, so I am grabbing my skates and hitting the rink. I want to wish all Caniacs a Happy 4th of July. Take time to Celebrate America’s Birthday.
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