Hurricanes Breathe New Life

In Hurricane country, the team is going into camp with the same old faces... for the most part. Carolina will be looking to rebound from their disappointing season a year ago and they'll start the season with a little less expectation, since they are not the defending champions heading into Fall.

Eric Staal should be the catalyst of whether or not the Hurricanes make the playoffs. Staal fell down to 70 points last season, a clear 30 points from the season previous, which took away a good chunk of the necessary offense to win. The 15 goals that he didn't score last season was probably the difference in quite a few games. When Staal scored a goal last season, the Hurricanes were 16-6-1. With that sort of record, Cam Ward could have had between 5 and 10 more wins if Staal had a the same pace as the season before.

A question mark going into camp is whether or not the Hurricanes are going to make space for young Brandon Sutter. Sutter, who was a huge part of Canada's success during the SuperSeries, earned the number 14 going into camp, which usually means good things when you receive a number like that. Sutter was instrumental defensively for the Canadian team and added some offense when asked. The 2007 1st round pick will get a good look in camp before possibly being sent back to Red Deer for another year in the WHL.

On defense, Frank Kaberle will need a fresh year, injury-free, to re-join the Top 200 in pool scoring, like he was two seasons ago. Kaberle should be good for up to 40 points in a season, but only playing 27 games last year, took it's toll on his point totals. He's a name you may want to move up the priority list come draft day.

In goal, Cam Ward will get his second full season under his belt this year and should improve on his 30 wins this season. A full-season's worth of confidence should go well coming into this season.

Ray Whitney	Rod Brind'Amour	Justin Williams
Cory Stillman	Eric Staal	Erik Cole
Andrew Ladd	Matt Cullen	Scott Walker
Chad Larose	Jeff Hamilton	Craig Adams

Mike Commodore	Glen Wesley
Niclas Wallin	Bret Hedican
Frank Kaberle	Dennis Seidenberg

Cam Ward

John Grahame

At this point in time, the current 20-man roster above is only worth about $42.5 million against the cap. There isn't any worries, financially, for the team going into the year.

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NHL, Hockey, Hockey Pool, Carolina Hurricanes, Cam Ward, Eric Staal