Pool Outlook for Carolina

The Carolina Hurricanes fell victim to a pretty tough season, filled with injuries and one of the worst losing streaks that we've seen in the modern era. The Canes really had to claw back to get into the 11th spot in the Eastern Conference, from being mired down around last place in the East for quite a while. It wasn't to say that the Hurricanes were ever that bad of a team, they were just susceptible to the ill consequences that had befallen them. Comparing the team that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009 and the team that finished in 11th, there isn't a great deal of difference, except for some injuries and that stroke of bad luck.

It was a return to the top of the heap in Carolina for Eric Staal, who finished the season with the most pool points among himself and his teammates. Staal didn't quite have the same goal-scoring kind of year he's been gaining a reputation for, but he did score a point-per-game pace, which is very reasonable. Staal finished the season with 70 points (29 goals & 41 assists) in 70 games, ranking him 38th among all players in the pool. That would have actually seeded him in the 3rd round of this past year's draft, which might be a little low for him. If he can stay healthy, there is no reason why he couldn't score 50.

Overall, the numbers from the forwards were not too bad and fairly competitive through the league, but it wasn't enough to pick up more wins. The Hurricanes had more goals for than four of the teams that made it into the playoffs, so you can understand what that said about their goaltending and defense. Jussi Jokinen and Ray Whitney followed Staal in forwards scoring in 2010, picking up 65 and 58 points, respectively. Neither number was great, but it wasn't too bad either. Overall, the Hurricanes did have four 20-goal scorers this season, including the three already mentioned and Brandon Sutter, in his first full season with Carolina. Right there, that's four solid pool picks for next season to consider, especially if you're looking for something a little sleepy. Tuomo Ruutu was scoring a better click than Sutter was this season, but his season was cut short by injury, or else he would have been a much better pick this year.

The Hurricanes defense really got picked apart at the trade deadline this season, but what that does is open the door for some new, fresh faces in their line-up to try and compete with. Joni Pitkanen was the best veteran to stay with the team, he picked up 46 points in 71 games for the Hurricanes, most of which accumulated in the second half of the season. Pitkanen is about the only reasonable defenseman that should be considered for a pool team next year, but there are some gambles on the team in Brian Pothier (traded to Carolina at the deadline), Alexandre Picard (just before the deadline) and Jamie McBain (a late season call-up). McBain played in 14 games at the end of the year and managed to pick up 10 points, giving him the best scoring rate among all the remaining defenders on the team.

Two major injuries cost the Hurricanes franchise goalie, Cam Ward, 31 games this season (13 for a lacerated leg and 18 for an upper-body injury). There are very few teams that can recover from a hole in their line-up like that. Ward still managed to end up as the best Hurricanes goalie, point-wise, finishing the season with 18 wins and 3 assists for 39 points in 47 appearances. By no means are those great numbers, but there were a lot of times where the help in front of him was not adequate... not to say that he didn't have "those bad games" though, because he did. I think it's fair to say that he'll bounce back, but unless you're going straight after a proven goalie, try and get him on the sly by waiting an extra round to see if you can make him into a bargain.

2011 Season Outlook
With Staal, Jokinen, Pitkanen and Ward, you should be able to surmise that the Hurricanes should be able to bounce back in 2011, providing that these key players remain healthy. The Hurricanes have been good with adding good depth players and their youth system is working out to their advantage, so I would be expecting some really good things from them.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Eric Staal	Joni Pitkanen	Cam Ward
Jussi Jokinen	Tim Gleason
Brandon Sutter
Tuomo Ruutu
Sergei Samsonov
Chad Larose
Tom Kostopoulos
Rod Brind'Amour
Erik Cole

The Hurricanes did well to trim some of their UFAs from their line-up this season, but they were not going to make this table anyways, unless they put pen to paper between the trade deadline and this post. They currently have 12 players ready to roll for the 2011 season, signed and ready above, for an approximate cap hit of $39.7 million, which is in the bottom-half of the league at the time of this post. That's plenty of flexible space to fill 11 spots, which is much better shape than they were at this time last year.

The Hurricanes have some interesting decisions to make surrounding their free agent crop, with a few interesting names going to unrestricted free agency. Veteran forward Ray Whitney and journeyman goalie Manny Legace are two of the more important names on the list of free agents. Newly-acquired Brian Pothier is set to become a UFA in July, as is Jay Harrison and Tim Conboy, also on the blueline. I think the word is that Legace does want to return to the Hurricanes for another season, while Whitney is probably going to start consideration towards retirement, but at age 38, he still should have another year or two left.

As for restricted free agents, the Hurricanes are in pretty good shape with only Alexandre Picard, Brett Carson, Justin Peters and Jiri Tlusty on the books as likely players needed to be re-signed for the 2011 season. I can't see there being any hiccups with those deals getting done before too long, unless there is something waiting in the weeds.

With all the injuries to the Hurricanes in the early part of the season and the dumping of players at the trade deadline, the team has been able to filter in a lot of it's youth already to give them a taste of what the big show is really like. We did get to see Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman and Jamie McBain (the three noted last season) and I think the Hurricanes want to see more of them in 2011. Those three also lead the way in the Hockey News' Future Watch, to no one's surprise and I think we will indeed see more of them early on next season. Justin Peters is another one to watch out for, especially if the team decides not to re-sign Manny Legace to a deal, which should automatically give Peters the back-up job in Carolina. Peters would not be seeing a great deal of starts, but he'd get his back-up share for sure.

As for the Entry Draft this Summer, the Hurricanes are picking 7th and I would be wagering that they are looking for a big defenseman, hopefully of the franchise-type quality. The Hurricanes should be desperate for one of those these days, especially with their goaltending in good hands and plenty of young forwards coming up the ranks.

What I said at this time last year: "Overall, the Hurricanes are a great team to pull players from for fantasy drafts, especially for how deep they go. There should be a good number of them on your list, from top players to good depth players, all of which should be players that at least keep your team going at a reasonable pace. Having players that can perform on a consistent average pace, at least you can count on them for those points that you expect in the middle rounds. Look for Ward and Staal to be up near the top again and don't be too surprised to see a bit of a rebound year for Erik Cole. "

Well, who could have predicted the injury bug's destruction of that predicition, eh? Not me... that's for sure. The Hurricanes were a fairly popular team in my Draft this year and for good reason; they had more than enough potential to put up a lot of points in the Southeast Division. Sadly, that didn't exactly pan out and the Hurricanes season was more or less a big bust.

I don't think the outlook really changes for Carolina going into 2011, especially since they have the same core of good players, plus they are going to be adding some more scoring punch with some of their younger players. The big question is how patient the coaching staff will be with players like Boychuk and Bowman, because they are never to hasty when bringing in young players. If the youth can prevail next season, the Hurricanes should be deep enough to make a good run at the Southeast Division again and Cam Ward should be one hell of a points producer for the pools next year.