The Carolina Hurricanes had a very busy day. Let's take a quick look at what did they accomplished.
Players cut loose:
Aaron Ward, Scott Walker, Joe Corvo, Andrew Alberts, Stephane Yelle, and Harrison Reed. That gives the Canes salary cap relief of almost 9 million this season and 1.3 million next season. Jim Rutherford said that these moves, along with the Wallin and Cullen earlier trades, will save the team about two million in cash the rest of this year.
Reed was under-performing in the AHL. Ward, Yelle, Corvo, and Walker were all unrestricted free agents at year end and they probably will not be back.
Trading Andrew Alberts was a bit of a surprise, but Jim Rutherford said that the defenseman's salary hit next season of 1.3 million, was too high for what he brought to the table.
Alberts led the team with 178 hits, which is rated at 13th best in the NHL. He also had the best +/- on the team with a +7. Next highest on the team is Tim Gleason with 134 hits.
It's understandable why Carolina was trying to dump salary. The year has been a disappointment and revenue is down. But what assets did the Canes get in return?
Justin Pogge: The goalie has just seven NHL games under his belt, all with Toronto in 2008-09. His record with the Leafs was 1-4-1 with a GAA of 4.35 and his save percentage was .844. In 165 games in the AHL he is 83-63-14 with a GAA of 2.69 and a save percentage of .906.
His acquisition was important because according to Rutherford, Justin Peters and Manny Legace are the only healthy goalies within the franchise at the moment. Is Pogge an important cog for the future? That remains to be seen.
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Brian Pothier: The defenseman has been injury prone and comes with a healthy price tag of 2.5 million. The Capitals were against the salary cap and probably needed to shed this salary to make room for Corvo. He only played 9 games last year and just 38 the year before. He is unrestricted at the end of the year and most likely will not be re-signed.
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Oskar Osala: The big Finnish forward might be the best acquisition of the day for Carolina. His 6'4 frame brings nice size and he scored 23 goals and 14 assists for the powerful Hershey Bears in 2008-09 and has 14 goals and 13 assists in 53 games so far this season.
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Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll: McNicoll appears to be fodder as the undrafted forward has scored five goals and has eight assists in 45 games so far this season in the AHL. Although he did score over 100 points in the QMJHL last year.
The key word here is "undrafted".
Apparently, the Canes gave up on their third round pick in 2006, Harrison Reed as he was thrown in the deal with Yelle.
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The Canes also picked up a second round draft pick in 2011, a third rounder, a fourth, a sixth, and a seventh for 2010. Combine these with the two second rounders obtained for Niclas Wallin and Matt Cullen, and the Canes will be very busy this June.
The team will be making three picks in the second round in the coming draft and has two for next year. Here is a look at the franchises past second round picks and the number of games they played in the NHL.
- 1997 - Brad DeFauw - 9
- 1998 - Kevin Holdridge - 0
- 1999 - Brett Lysak - 2
- 2000 - Ryan Bayda - 179
- 2001 - Mike Zigomanis - 189
- 2002 - Jesse Lane - 0
- 2003 - Danny Richmond - 49
- 2004 - Justin Peters - 3
- 2005 - Nate Hagemo - 0
- 2006 - Jamie McBain - 0
- 2007 - Drayson Bowman -1
- 2008 - Zac Dalpe - 0
You can see that it is pretty much a crap shoot, they could get a decent player but they might not. But with multiple second rounders, at least their chances for success are better. Or perhaps they can combine picks and upgrade?
The biggest name of the trade deadline, Ray Whitney was not traded. I will have another article and a poll up about that, later tonight.
Do you consider the day to be a success?