Carolina Hurricanes Off-season

Free Agent List…
UFA: Ray Whitney, Brian Pothier, Manny Legace, Tim Conboy
RFA: Alexandre Picard, Brett Carson, Justin Peters

Salary Cap Space…
About $16 million
Summer Shopping List…
1 Defenseman
- Zbynek Michalek or Henrik Tallinder
Possible Trade Bait…
LW Erik Cole
LW Sergei Samsonov

Top 5 Prospects…
1. Zach Boychuk, LW
2. Jamie McBain, D
3. Drayson Bowman, LW
4. Zac Dalpe, C
5. Brian Dumoulin, D

Outlook…
After making it all the way to the conference finals in 2009, the Hurricanes took a step back this season with a horrid start. They slowly got back in the mix, though, when Eric Staal was given the captaincy, and even made things interesting in March… all of this after GM Jim Rutherford traded away expiring contracts at the deadline.

With all of the draft picks accumulated by Rutherford, Carolina will now have a busy draft on the west coast. They’ll be able to re-stock the cupboard with talent, and put together a solid farm system.

This team just might return to the playoffs if they can stay healthy and maybe shore up the blueline. Staal and Cam Ward were out for long periods of time this year when the team went through their swoon. Ray Whitney is a question mark to come back; but if he does, I can see the Hurricanes reach the postseason and make some noise once again.