First reaction to the Canes' deadline moves

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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The NHL trade deadline is commonly described as a sort of hockey Christmas, as general managers find themselves wheeling and dealing like old hands at a swap meet and fans of the thirty teams sit on the sidelines Monday-morning quarterbacking their favorite team's deals.  It's rare for the Canes to be a seller at the deadline, but the situation presented itself this season and Jim Rutherford didn't disappoint, trading five players off his roster for a smattering of draft picks and prospects.

Let's start with the biggest deal of the day, which was one that was never completed.  At 3:00 on Wednesday, Ray Whitney remained with the Hurricanes despite all the noise being made that he was the most coveted player on the market after Ilya Kovalchuk was dealt in early February.  Whitney's much-ballyhooed no-trade clause may not have been the reason he wasn't traded on Wednesday; Rutherford admitted that he only received one call from a team interested in Whitney the entire day.  Rather, Rutherford's asking price of a first-round draft pick plus an NHL-ready prospect scared off a bunch of teams and a deal was never struck.

Rutherford finally acknowledged what had been rumored for over a month, that Whitney used his no-trade clause to block a move to a Western Conference team (widely assumed to be Los Angeles) about a month ago, and since that time the Canes did not receive any comparable offers with which to go to Whitney and ask him to waive the clause.  As the day went on, it became more and more obvious that Whitney was not going to move, as the Penguins and Kings, the two teams assumed to be most active in their pursuit of Whitney, both made moves that screamed consolation prize, acquiring Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jeff Halpern respectively.

For a bit, the Washington Capitals were rumored to be hot on Whitney's trail, but as their deals started trickling in around noon it became evident that they wouldn't be able to afford the cap hit for Whitney.  More on the Caps in a bit.

The Monday-morning quarterbacking of the Whitney non-trade has already begun, and we'll chime in with our two cents here at PD sometime Friday.  It's a chicken-or-egg conundrum: is the deal the fault of Whitney's no-trade clause, or is it because the asking price was too high, or is it Rutherford's fault that Whitney had a no-trade clause to begin with? That doesn't have an easy answer.

The first trade that actually took place involving the Hurricanes involved a player who we thought had more than a 50% chance of being moved.  It was assumed when the Boston Bruins traded Derek Morris to Phoenix for next to nothing that they were clearing cap space to acquire a defenseman, and they were -- only it was former Cane Dennis Seidenberg, not Ward, that got the call to Beantown.  Not long after, the Canes shipped Ward to Anaheim for goaltender Justin Pogge and a 4th round pick (ironically, Boston's pick, which will be in either the '10 or '11 draft).  For a guy who's had (admittedly) a horrible season, this is a heck of a return.  Pogge will be a restricted free agent this offseason, and much like Alexandre Picard he will have a chance to prove himself worthy of a new contract in the last month of the season.  With Manny Legace and Justin Peters manning the fort until Cam Ward returns, Pogge will likely remain in the AHL where he's been all season, but there's a chance he could make a cameo appearance in the NHL before the end of the year.

Full credit to Darren Pang, who on TSN announced that the Canes have succeeded this season...in the "goalies named Justin" category.  A well-earned chuckle.

Meanwhile, a bit later Scott Walker was moved to Washington for a 7th round pick in this year's draft, and while this is the type of depth move that gets made all the time on deadline day Walker was quite emotional in meeting the media on his way out of his final practice with the Hurricanes.  Walker's been through a lot here, with his wife's cancer during last year's playoffs, his infamous sucker-punch of future teammate Ward in the second round last year, his overtime game-7 winner, and more.  He'll be missed in the locker room, and it says a lot that a guy that was moved for a final-round draft pick probably garnered the most chatter among Canes fans all day.

Then, after a two-hour wait, things really got interesting.

Right before 3:00, the Canes traded Joe Corvo to Washington for Brian Pothier, prospect Oskar Osala and a 2nd rounder in 2011.  I have a feeling that either Washington was after another defenseman and took Corvo as a fallback, or the Canes had received interest in Corvo from other teams and waited to pull the trigger to see what kind of return they could get.  If Washington was the only suitor, they could have simply packaged Corvo with Walker and not wasted the NHL's time with two separate transactions.  Either way, Pothier is an unrestricted free agent, like Corvo, and I would be mildly surprised if he re-signs with Carolina given his pricetag this season; he could easily command above $3 million on the open market and I would be stunned if the Canes offer him that much.  Osala has played two games in the NHL, spending most of his time with Hershey (AHL) where he won the Calder Cup championship last season.

The Canes' final two moves of the day were simple salary dumps.  Andrew Alberts moved to Vancouver, ironically just as the TSN talking heads were bemoaning the lack of moves made by the Canucks at the deadline (granted, it's not a game-changing deal by any stretch, but the timing couldn't have been better), and Stephane Yelle was packaged with the River Rats' Harrison Reed in a deal to Colorado that netted the Canes a sixth-rounder and prospect Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll, who has put up underwhelming numbers in the AHL after a 100-point season his final year in junior hockey.

So at the end of the day, what do the Canes have to show?  Most importantly, they have approximately a $2 million savings to show owner Peter Karmanos.  Rutherford said that it's always hard to trade guys, especially when they've been so loyal to the organization, but the financial realities combined with the subpar performance on the ice essentially forced his hand.  The Canes are looking at approximately $42 million committed to salaries next year, with the only free agents of significance still remaining unsigned being UFAs Whitney and Pothier, plus a handful of restricted free agents (Tlusty, Carson and Peters being the most notable).  The Canes will have plenty of cap space with which to maneuver in the offseason.

Our first look at the new-look Canes will be Thursday night, when the Ottawa Senators come to town...with former Hurricane Matt Cullen in tow and returning to the RBC Center for the first time since his own trade just before the Olympics.  Some of the names and jersey numbers might look a little different, but it's obvious that today isn't the final chapter in the Canes' extreme makeover, so there's no telling how long those names will be taking up residence in the home locker room at the RBC Center.