The Carolina Hurricanes sent 13 players to the Charlotte Checkers on Saturday, trimming their roster to 31. Nicolas Blanchard, Stefan Chaput, Nick Dodge, Matt Kennedy, Mike McKenzie, Oskar Osala, Chris Terry, Brett Bellemore, Casey Borer, Zack Fitzgerald, Michal Jordan, Kyle Lawson, and Mike Murphy were the players reassigned. They will join the Checkers for the team's first day of training camp on Monday.
That leaves the Hurricanes with 9 defensemen, 3 goalies, and 19 forwards.
Coach Paul Maurice said after practice on Saturday that he still had not determined how many players the club would bring with them to Europe. The CBA requires that the rosters be trimmed to 23 players before opening night, but teams traveling to Europe are allowed extra players, in case of injury.
"The standard roster is 23, but we won't carry 23 here," the coach said. "So we will bring 3 or 4 more guys which will bring us to 24 or 25. I think the deciding factor regarding that is, how is the health of the 20 guys you're going to play? If they are completely healthy, then maybe 24. If we've got somebody that maybe we are worried about, then 25."
That could spell good news for a couple of borderline players, who will have another week or so to earn a spot on the final roster.
The players remaining in camp are:
Defensemen: Jamie McBain, Tim Gleason, Bobby Sanguinetti, Joni Pitkanen, Brett Carson, Anton Babchuk, Jay Harrison, Bryan Rodney, and Joe Corvo.
Goalies: Justin Pogge, Justin Peters, and Cam Ward.
Forwards: Patrick O`Sullivan, Zach Boychuk, Eric Staal, Sergei Samsonov, Tuomo Ruutu, Brandon Sutter, Jon Matsumoto, Jiri Tlusty, Drayson Bowman, Zac Dalpe, Riley Nash, Erik Cole, Tom Kostopoulos, Jared Staal, Jussi Jokinen, Patrick Dwyer, Jeff Skinner, Chad LaRose, and Jerome Samson.
Some members of the team will fly to Atlanta for an exhibition game tonight. The game preview will be up next.