Prospective Look at Carolina

The Hurricanes left a season of inconsistency a little bit early, since they lost their division title and only shot into the playoffs to the Capitals this Spring. Saying that, they do have quite a bit to look forward to this summer as they have plenty of spots to fill with new faces and they have some room to work with.

With the likes of Eric Staal, Ray Whitney, Erik Cole, Rod Brind'Amour, Joe Corvo and Cam Ward already sitting in the stables, waiting for next season, GM Jim Rutherford has a great core of players to build around and the team shouldn't be out of the playoffs for too much longer. Granted, if the team can't make the playoffs next season with this core of players, there may have to be somewhat of a shake-up in the front office. But that will be left for speculation a year from now.

This season, the team will look forward to adding Brandon Sutter to their line-up, as he's signed on for the next three seasons with his new entry-level deal, but he's really got to make the team before he gets added to the list. He'll certainly be one to watch for the next few seasons.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Eric Staal	Joe Corvo	Cam Ward
Ray Whitney	Frank Kaberle
Erik Cole	Niclas Wallin
Rod Brind'Amour
Matt Cullen
Sergei Samsonov
Scott Walker
Justin Williams
Jeff Hamilton

As for this roster of 13 players set to return next season, they are worth a grand total of $37.1 million. There is seemingly a plethora of scoring in this line-up, if they all can remain healthy. The only player on that list to play all 82 games was Staal. Everyone else had a hard time staying healthy and staying in the line-up, therefore, their point totals were way down and scoring was a problem on a consistent basis.

Their initial needs for the upcoming season will be grit. They have plenty of power forwards who can mix it up with anyone, but they should really get themselves some good energy/banging players for the third and fourth line to give some sort of idea of dominance. On the blueline, they could use a bit more of a veteran presence. Some more experience should make Cam Ward feel a little bit safer and make some easier saves.

The Carolina Hurricanes will enter the Draft this summer with the 14th pick, the last pre-playoffs pick, as they had the best record among those teams who didn't make the big dance. With the depth of this draft, they could easily pick someone who can fit in to that blueline role, which seems more likely than looking for that grinding forward.