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Brenden Morrow and Ron Hainsey - Rumors Swirl Around Hurricanes

It's another day and another player is mentioned that the Hurricanes could be interested in, but they still need to move that mystery contract.

By Bob Wage
Ron Hainsey and Brenden Morrow battle each other in action last season.
Ron Hainsey and Brenden Morrow battle each other in action last season.
Vincent Pugliese

Last week our new writer, Jonathan Stout contacted Jaromir Jagr's agent, Petr Svoboda, and confirmed that the Hurricanes were on Jagr's short list of teams that the winger was interested in. The Hurricanes were quick to respond though that Jagr was not the free agent Jim Rutherford was referring to when he spoke of a top free agent wanting to come to Raleigh, earlier in the week.

Early this week, Chip Alexander, the team's beat writer for the News and Observer, sent out a "tweet" that there was "scuttlebutt" that the team was interested in Ron Hainsey. John Forslund confirmed that the team was indeed interested in adding a free agent defenseman during an interview on Sirius Radio a couple of days later.

In today's paper, Luke DeCock wrote an article about how Brenden Morrow would make sense for the Hurricanes this season. In the article DeCock says that Morrow's agent confirmed that the Canes had been in contact earlier in the summer.

While a valid case was made that Morrow would make sense for Carolina in many ways, including team grit, a similar case could be made for Jagr, who could certainly help one of the worst powerplays in the NHL last season. Jagr was scoring about a point a game before the playoffs and still contributed 12 assists in the postseason.

How many games did the Canes lose last season because they failed to capitalize with the man advantage?

Morrow had two goals and two assists in 14 postseason games last season. After scoring 11 points in 25 games for Dallas, he did chip in 14 points in 15 games for the Pens.

Both players earned a bit over $4 million last season, but with most teams facing cap issues, both will probably be needing to take a cut this season. Just how much of a cut is in question.

So who is the mystery free agent that Jim Rutherford was speaking about, who is patiently waiting in the wings while the Hurricanes try to move a contract? We may never find out, because this contract is apparently a tough one to move.