Remembering The Biggest Trade Deadlines in Hurricanes History: The Dark Days Begin
By Ben Huffman
2010
The 2009-10 season was a lost cause early. By the start of 2010, the team was well out of the race, and by February, they started to move pieces. The first two dominos to fall were Niclas Wallin and Matt Cullen, who were traded to San Jose and Ottawa, respectively. On deadline day, they were extremely active.
The Hurricanes made five trades on March 3, trading Joe Corvo and Scott Walker to Washington in separate deals, Aaron Ward to Anaheim, Andrew Alberts to Vancouver, and Stephane Yelle and Harrison Reed to Colorado. In all, the team acquired four players and five picks. Unfortunately, none of them panned out. To add insult to injury, one of the pieces they acquired in the Corvo trade was a 2nd Round pick in 2011, which ended up being 57th overall. The Canes traded it to the Rangers for Bobby Sanguinetti. The Rangers later traded it to Calgary, who selected Tyler Wotherspoon. With the 58th pick, the Lightning selected Nikita Kucherov. There's no guarantee that the Canes would've selected Kucherov if they'd kept their pick, but it makes you think about what could've been.