What's the Future Canes Defense Going to Look Like?

by FoxtrotSierra on Dec 22, 2011 7:27 PM EST

This season the Cane's defensive corp has left something to be desired. The team is at the bottom of the league statistically in goals given up, goals in the 3rd period, and any other measuring stick you want to apply. In a discussion with my buddy, Curt , (better known to me as "The Wizard of Windsor") posed the following question to me. What will be the makeup of our defensemen corp next season?

In our discussion we identified and discussed our current roster of defensemen as follows:

Gleason: Thought he would be traded on or before the trading deadline this year.

Pitkanen: Thought he more than likely would still be on the roster next season, but could be traded on or before the trading deadline this year.

Harrison: Probably would still be with the Canes next year in last year of two-year contract. Reasoning was something along the lines he was inexpensive, was reasonably good, and gave us some size. His downside was some lack of mobility although we did think he was average in this area.

Spacek: Would more than likely not be with the team due to his age and very high salary. If he would resign for substantially less than the 3 million plus he now gets, we thought he might be valuable to retain to be used in spots where his experience and talents would be valuable.

McBain: He would not be traded and would be on next year's team.

Faulk: Definitely retained and probably in the team's top defense pairing.

Joslin: Probably retained as he is young, has size and has performed reasonably well

Allen: Probably will be traded on or before the trading deadline this year. Seems to have lost some mobility. He has provided some physical presence which will be missed if not replaced.

The potential newcomers under Cane's control are Doumelin, Murphy, and Sanguinetty (excuse the spellings). All of these newcomers seem to us to be more offensive defensemen than defensive defensemen with the possible exception of Doumelin. Sure would like some input from the rest of you Caniacs on how the team should proceed shaping the defense corps for next season. Seems to us that we are going to need to go after a proven defensive type player, who is moblile and who can also bring some physical presence. What are your thoughts?

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Defense in Near Future

1. Pitkanen

2. Faulk

3. Murphy

4. McBain

5. Dumoulin

6. Harrison

7. Joslin

8. Allen (if re-signed after being traded at trade deadline)

Call Ups

9. Sanguinetti

10. Levy

11. Biega

12. Kreuger

13. Jordan

14. Bellemore

In this analysis, Gleason and Allen will be traded. If other teams have followed Harrison’s development, they might well be willing to give enough of a return to get Harrison; but it would take some fairly extensive scouting of the Hurricanes to know how much Harrison has improved. I included Allen as #8 because in looking at the players coming up, it seems likely to me that both Gleason and Allen will be traded.

by abramsdoug on Dec 22, 2011 10:31 PM EST reply actions

I could see this lineup/trades, nicely done.

LET'S GO CANES -- THE SEASON AIN'T OVER YET!!!

by Capt. Stinky on Dec 23, 2011 7:13 AM EST up reply actions

If that is our defense going into next season, we might as well prepare for another top 3 pick. Domoulin will not be ready for full-time NHL action next season. Murphy, while offensively gifted, will get pushed around by NHL competition. This defense would have no one that is going to clear the crease.

That is just scary to think that this could actually be our defense.

"We've got to risk implosion. We may explode into the biggest fireball this part of the galaxy has seen, but we've got to take that one in a million chance."
-- Captain Kirk in Star Trek 'The Naked Time'

by PackPride17 on Dec 23, 2011 8:49 AM EST up reply actions

This season the Cane's defensive corp has left something to be desired.

Easily the understatement of the year.

by surgalt on Dec 23, 2011 10:08 AM EST reply actions

Going forward JR is now in a much better position to “buy” a top 4 defenseman since he no longer has the Kabs contract for the next two years. Spacek continues to be a possibility and is showing more than we ever got from Kabs. He is at $3.8MM ? or so now but a one year contract next year might come in much less than that number. I really like his current mentor type role and can see this as a valuable addition with these young D-men above.

We are now seeing what our D looks like without Pitkanen………we need his skill set and cannot replace that at his current contract nor are any of the names above really able to substitute….. I think he is a keeper.

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
Sun Tzu circa 4th Century BC

by hurricanefever on Dec 23, 2011 10:57 AM EST reply actions