Welcome to the 2014 Olympic break, two weeks with no NHL hockey and with that probably very limited NHL news. The Carolina Hurricanes entered the break in a very familiar position, currently outside the playoff picture. They find themselves 5 points behind the Philadelphia Flyers with 2 games in-hand for the Metropolitan's 3rd seed and 3 points behind the Detroit Red Wings with 1 game in-hand for the Eastern Conference's 8th seed. I believe the consensus is this team is still a few pieces short of being a true playoff contender. Even though the NHL trade deadline is still 3 weeks away, teams will only have about a week to make any moves once the Olympic break and the trade freeze is lifted. So I thought this would be a perfect time to have a little fun and have a Canes Country Trade Proposal Contest.
This contest allows the readers the opportunity to play armchair General Manager and propose trades they feel will improve the team now or down the road. No player is out of bounds, but try to be as realistic as possible. What I mean is proposing Sidney Crosby for Eric Staal & a 2014 1st round pick just doesn't have any chance of happening. You can propose as many trades as you want and feel free to leave feedback on other fans' ideas (but be respectful). If you can post some of your thought process behind the trade proposal, it would be even better. On Sunday, I will go through the proposals and pick out the 5 or 6 I feel are most plausible. Then next Tuesday, I will post another article with a blurb about each trade proposal and a poll to allow everyone to vote for their favorite one. The poll will close on Saturday, February 22nd and I will announce the winner on Sunday.
We might even have 2 different winners, because the Canes Country staff will also pick their favorite. The winner or winners will have their choice of a small prize. We have some Canes Country T-Shirts, a Cam Ward Puck, some other Hurricane Pucks, a 2008 Eric Staal Bobblehead, a 2014 Jeff Skinner Bobblehead or a 2014 Alex Semin Bobblehead; winner's choice. So have fun guys and gals and let's see who comes up with the best proposal to improve our Canes.