Our Sources Tell Us: Could Justin Faulk Be In Play in a Deal with the Avalanche?

Adrian Dater of Bleacher Report, a longtime Colorado Avalanche beat writer who still has solid connections at Pepsi Center, tweeted tonight that the Hurricanes are apparently dangling Justin Faulk’s name in potential trade negotiations with the Avs.

Faulk, who scored a goal this afternoon in the Canes’ 5-2 loss to the Stars, is in the third year of a six-year, $29 million deal ($4.83 million per year cap hit) that pays him $5.5 million in salary this season and next, increasing to $6 million per for the final two years of the deal.

Canes pro scout Joe Nieuwendyk has been a regular at Avalanche games for the past three weeks, and it has been widely reported that the Hurricanes have been sniffing around both Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog. Name-dropping Faulk seems to indicate that the Canes are at least seriously considering the possibility of acquiring one of the Avs’ big two chips.

You make the call: given the return that the Canes would likely receive, should Justin Faulk be in play?