Hurricanes Look to Blow Back

Change has not been a major trend with teams in the East so far in these team updates and the Hurricanes are no exception. The Canes have only added Tom Kostopoulos and Andrew Alberts to their playoff-ending roster or so it seems. There they are adding a little bit more defensive responsibility, which was possibly the main cause for their collapse against the Penguins in the Conference Finals in the Spring. The team certainly brought enough offense to the table, but they could not contain the offense of the Penguins. So far, I would have to call it a step forward for the Hurricanes, but it doesn't really affect the team fantasy-wise, except for Cam Ward possibly picking up another win or two.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Ray Whitney	Joe Corvo	Cam Ward
Eric Staal	Joni Pitkanen	Mike Leighton
Rod Brind'Amour	Andrew Alberts
Sergei Samsonov	Tim Gleason
Matt Cullen	Frank Kaberle
Erik Cole
Chad Larose
Jussi Jokinen
Tom Kostopoulos
Scott Walker
Patrick Eaves
Brandon Sutter

The Hurricanes have done well to keep themselves flexible underneath the salary cap, having 19 players signed (see above) for a cap hit of $49 million, which leaves them with plenty of space to be players around training camp and/or the trade deadline to help improve their chances in the playoffs.

Tuomo Ruutu and Anton Babchuk remain on the RFA list this summer and both should fit nicely into the Hurricanes' cap system, with room to spare down the stretch.