Well, if you are a Hurricanes fan, you probably feel the same way I do about the work of Jim Rutherford (JR) and his staff, thus far...So far, so good! But you are probably also wondering what JR has up his sleeve to add some much-needed offence to the front lines.
Historically, JR has tended to focus on getting his own free agents under contract and and otherwise would lay very low in the early days of free agency. He wanted to wait for the price to come down before jumping in. This year that was his plan, again. In fact, he was very clear that he had no plans to sign other players or make any trades until late in the summer or around training camp time, once the Canes had determined the positions they would need to fill.
And, initially, it looked like JR was going to stick to the script. His first order of business was to sign RFA Jussi Jokinen to a multi-year deal. Jussi was a revelation in the play-offs and a versatile player that the Canes wanted to return. JR then turned his attention to his UFAs. Dennis Seidenberg seemingly decided to move on and with prospects Rodney, Carson, and McBain in the wings, no problem. But what about Erik Cole and Chad Larose? Much to his chagrin, he was unable to get either signed before July 1st and so both decided to test the free agent waters. However, undaunted, JR stood his ground and was able to get both signed to long-term deals at close to the budget he had allocated for them. A good start!
Meanwhile, he continued his efforts to get remaining RFAs Tuomo Ruutu and Anton Babchuk under contract. This has not been as easy as first anticipated. JR tendered qualifying offers to both, but neither player accepted the offer. Ruutu finally accepted a three-year deal avoiding arbitration just prior to the August 1 deadline. That was a great signing. Ruutu is a critical member of the team and is just coming into his own. He is a future building block for the franchise and wasn't going anywhere.
And, it gets better. JR surprised all of his by signing big winger Tom Kotsopoulos to a multi-year deal. He was one of the top hitters on the Canadians, is an outstanding penalty killer, and plays with emotion, a real fan favorite. He brings it every night! He gives the Canes much-needed size on the wing and will chip in with some offense on occasion, too. A major improvement over Ryan Bayda, in my mind.
And in a surprise move that caught most of us off-guard, he traded underachieving forward, Patrick Eaves, to the Bruins for former Cane, Aaron Ward. I have mixed emotions about this deal. Sure, Ward was a key piece in the Canes run to the cup a few years back and he was strong alongside Zdeno Chara on the Bruins D last year, but he is in the waning years of his career. I would have much preferred if the Canes had re-signed Dennis Seidenberg to a long term contract.. Dennis was outstanding alongside Joni Pitkanen in the play-offs last year and was just coming into his own. I suspect JR's plan is to give the youngsters a shot at filling one of the D-spots and was looking for a short term fix in Ward.
He has also managed to finally shed the Canes of Frantisek Kaberle, buying out his contract, and improve the Canes bench strength, flying under the radar to sign former gritty Coyote winger Steven Goertzen, 6"2" and 215 lbs, and huge 6'4" defenseman, former Leaf, Jay Harrison, to the mix. Either can come up to the big club in a pinch. I guess JR wasn't kidding about making the Canes bigger, eh?
OK, so what about Babchuk? He is still sitting in limbo. Anton started to live up to some of the promise last year, after being drafted in the first round by the Hawks in 2005. His offensive game really took shape in the second half and with sixteen goals on the season, he was among the league leaders for defensemen in that category. Sure, he is still rough around the edges but I thought he made great strides last year, particularly when he was partnered with Joni Pitkanen. But JR didn't seem to pay much notice to that. He has elected not to negotiate with the player and has not budged from his initial qualifying offer of $1.0 million, the same amount that Anton earned last year. To me, this just doesn't make sense. Clearly, Anton is worth more. So, why not pay him.
This is not the first time that JR and Anton have locked horns. But. I'm sure it will be the last. JR is clearly done with Anton and is working on packaging Anton in a deal for either a capable low-cost forward or high round draft pick. Gee, I wonder what would happen if Anton had a change of heart and came back and accepted the qualifying offer. That would make things very interesting. Personally, I would love to see Anton teamed with Andrew Alberts on the third pairing. That would give us another balanced pair, with excellent size. Apparently, according to JR, this will be resolved soon. I vote we keep Anton.
So, what's next?
I still think the Canes should look at Manny Molhotra. The longer he remains unsigned, the more likely he would fit into our budget. He would be an awesome fourth line center and would allow us to leave Brandon Sutter on the farm for another year of much-needed seasoning. Any of Blair Betts, Dominic Moore, or Andy Hilbert could also fill that 4th line center spot nicely. The Canes has also been rumored to be interested in Rob Neidermeyer, a strong defensive center/winger, who remains unsigned. He brings size and experience and scored fourteen goals last year, a good-offensive showing for him. What about Maxim Afinogenov. Now rumored to be heading to the KHL, he could be a steal if he finds his game, again. And, how about Nicholai Zherdev. Apparently, no one is rushing to sign him, now that he is a UFA. He is the type of player who would probably flourish with the Hurricanes. A Ruutu, Staal, Zherdev combo would be amazing. Finally, Christian Backman, a longtime favorite of JR, is still available and would be an interesting addition to the defensive corps. He brings size and offence to the mix.
Notwithstanding that, I still think the first order of business is to deal with Babchuk. That means packaging Anton for the best possible return. There have been lots of rumors of potentially interested parties. Vancouver and the Rangers were specifically cited in a Babchuk interview recently, as interested teams. It would be great if the Canes could add a forward to the mix and secure a potential top six side-kick for Staal. It would be even better if they could shed some additional salary along the way, such as Walker or even Samsonov, but that is very unlikely.
JR has lots of options. Here are some possibles:
Babchuk for a 2nd or 3rd round draft pick (most likely)
Babchuk for Mayorov (interesting prospect) or Chimera (Columbus) (They're looking for an offensive D-man)
So, not including a Babchuk trade or free agent signing, this is what the Canes line-up will look like come training camp.
Ruutu - Staal - Cole, Whitney - Cullen - Larose, Samsonov - Brind 'Amour - Walker
Goertzen - Jokinen - Kotsopoulos
Gleason - Corvo, Pitkanen - Ward, Alberts - Wallin
Ward - Leighton
And you still have Ryan, Carson, Rodney, McBain, Sutter, Bowman, and Boychuk, battling for spots.
It's a solid line-up, for sure, but not strong enough to battle for the big prize. The offensive contributions from Babchuk, Seidenberg and Kaberle on the D-corps, will be sorely missed. Hopefully, JR still has a move or two up his sleeve.
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