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As first reported by TSN's Bob McKenzie on Twitter last night, the Hurricanes have agreed to a one-year, two-way deal with forward Patrick O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan spent the 2009-10 season with the Edmonton Oilers, posting 11 goals and 34 points in 73 games. At the 2009 trade deadline, O'Sullivan was a go-between in a three-way deal that saw the Canes send Justin Williams to Los Angeles and reacquire Erik Cole from Edmonton, so technically this is his second tour of duty with the Canes although the first lasted but a few minutes.
While O'Sullivan was born in Toronto (according to Canes PR whiz Mike Sundheim, his family was on vacation and he came early), he spent the first eight years of his life in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the hometown of his mother and the city where his father played minor-league hockey under then-coach and current Atlanta Thrashers GM Rick Dudley. Winston-Salem is about two hours west of Raleigh, and 30 minutes from the Canes' first North Carolina home in Greensboro (1997-99). That makes O'Sullivan the first-ever player to suit up for the Canes who grew up in North Carolina, although he was here (and moved away) well before the Canes came to the state.
O'Sullivan is a talented, yet inconsistent player whose main claim to fame (or infamy) is the saga of his father, John. A middling forward for the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds, John O'Sullivan was by all accounts an abusive father who lived out his own NHL dream vicariously through his talented son. There are restraining orders, jail sentences, bodyguards, and God knows what else involved in this story. I won't repeat them all here, but this is a signing that comes with a lot of baggage -- moreso than any other signing Jim Rutherford has ever made.
The sad thing is that O'Sullivan will never be able to lead a normal NHL career. Everywhere he goes, he is forced to look over his shoulder. It happened at the 2003 draft in Nashville, where O'Sullivan was projected to go in the first round but slipped to the late second before Minnesota snapped him up. His father was supposed to stay far away from the Gaylord Entertainment Center on that day, but he showed up and NHL security was forced to keep surveillance on him at all times. It will certainly happen in Carolina, at least until he gets comfortable back in his home state. And everywhere he goes, the first question is about his father, no matter what happened that night at the rink. It's a sad piece of baggage that O'Sullivan will carry with him until the day he retires.
As a pure hockey move, this is another of Rutherford's patented reclamation projects, next in line behind Sergei Samsonov, Jussi Jokinen and the like. It's a low-risk signing (again, strictly in the hockey sense) and gives the Canes a little more wiggle room if the youngsters at camp underwhelm and show that they need more time to develop. O'Sullivan never panned out to his high ceiling in his draft year, due in no small part to the family drama that encircled him, but if all goes right he can still chip in 15-20 goals. That would take a significant amount of performance pressure off the likes of Drayson Bowman, Zac Dalpe, Jiri Tlusty and the like.
We're headed to the first on-ice day of training camp tomorrow, so it will be easier to get a handle on exactly what the Canes have on their hands. From first impressions, this could be another bargain-basement signing that ends well for the team.
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