Brind'Amour to Sit Out Season Finale, Jerome Samson Recalled

The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that long time center, Rod Brind`Amour, suffered a groin injury last night against Montreal and will not make the trip to Boston for Saturday's game.  Albany River Rats leading scorer Jerome Samson has been recalled to take his place.

Tim Conboy was reassigned to Albany earlier today as well.

The team also explained why Drayson Bowman was scratched last night.  Carolina wanted to play seven defensemen because they did not know how long one of their blueliners could go.  Conboy and Borer were brought up as insurance.  Of any of the forwards, they had to scratch Bowman first because he came to the team as an emergency recall.

Some in the media are thinking that Brind'Amour could have played his last game as a Hurricane.  The center was recently nominated for the Masterton, which is voted on by the local media.  He was also selected for the Chiasson Award, which is given to the player who demonstrates the most determination and dedication, as voted on by his teammates.

UPDATE- 4:15 p.m.  Brind'Amour was also nominated by his teammates for the King Clancy Trophy.  This recognition is given to the NHL player who demonstrates leadership qualities on and off the ice as well as who makes a notable contribution to the community.  For more information check out this link.

Brind'Amour has one year left on his contract which pays him $3 million next year and has a cap hit of $3.6 million.  In recent interviews, he has been non-committal about his decision regarding retirement. 

Samson has 37 goals and 78 points in 74 games with Albany.  The 22 year old forward has played in six previous games with the Hurricanes this season and has one assist.

Brind'Amour has played in 1484 career NHL games and has 452 goals along with 732 assists for a total of 1184 points.  This was his 20th season as he broke into the league in 1989-90 with the St. Louis Blues.  The vet has seen his numbers slip in recent years though, and he will finish with a career low 19 points this season.  

After earning 82 points in 78 games during the 2006-07 campaign, the next two seasons he totaled 51 points in each, (although he only played in 59 games in 2007-08 while playing in 80 in 2008-09).  But the 19 points in 80 games this season was by far the worst drop off in his stellar career.

The once proud, defensively sound forward and two time winner of the Selke Trophy also saw his plus/minus slip to (-23) last year and (-29) this year.

Has Rod Brind`Amour played his final game?  This will be a very interesting offseason in more ways than one.