They hold the 11th pick in this year's draft in Columbus on June 22-23. Here is some good insight as to the direction the Canes might look in the first round: http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=367130

Currently under contract for next season:
Stillman (1.75 million)
Staal (4.5 million)
Cole (4.0 million)
Brind'Amour (4.0 million)
Williams (3.5 million)
Ladd (.984 million)
Adams (.6 million)
Letowski (.8 million)
LaRose (.5 million)
Commodore (1.3 million)
Wallin (1.725 million)
Gleason (1.15 million)
Kaberle (2.2 million)
Seidenberg (.85 million)
Hutchinson (.5 million)
Grahame (1.4 million)
TOTAL: $29,759,200

Unrestricted Free Agents:
Ray Whitney
Scott Walker
Josef Vasicek
Anson Carter
David Tanabe
Glen Wesley
Bret Hedican (2.432 million player option)

Restricted Free Agents:
Anton Babchuk
Cam Ward

Bret Hedican seems to be strongly contemplating retirement at this point (mainly due to injury), and Wesley is probably at the very least considering it, although I expect him back. Babchuk is unhappy with the organization and has mentioned returning to Russia to play, so I would not be surprised if the front office tries to move him. Ray Whitney and Scott Walker will be the toughest to get back.

4/10/2007 4:26:35 PM

FIRST...and that is all i will ever contribute to this thread

4/10/2007 4:28:50 PM

who do we draft? What do we look for? Our minor league talent doesnt look too hot right now. Maybe shoot for a bitchin Dman who can contribute in a year or two?

4/10/2007 4:31:24 PM

dear whitney, i love you

[Edited on April 10, 2007 at 4:31 PM. Reason : come back por favor]

4/10/2007 4:31:27 PM

bring back weight, and make sure we keep the wizard

4/10/2007 4:40:17 PM

must....get.....weight....

4/10/2007 4:52:53 PM

Doug Weight is under contract next season with the Blues. He loves St. Louis and he came here only as a rental player so he could have a shot at winning the Cup. Which he did. He will retire in St. Louis.

4/10/2007 4:54:07 PM

don't....care....want....weight....haha...don't any legends want to retire in raleigh? lol

4/10/2007 4:55:08 PM

keep whitney please!

4/10/2007 4:59:15 PM

^^ Ronnie retired here.. Brind'Amour should too

[Edited on April 10, 2007 at 5:03 PM. Reason : damn canadians]

4/10/2007 5:02:30 PM

I was referring to people who wanted to leave current teams, and come to Carolina. But, yes, those are two good examples, thank you.

4/10/2007 5:06:38 PM

I would look to draft a defenseman in the first round. We are already weak on D, and it will be minimum 2-3 years before whoever we draft is ready to play.

4/10/2007 5:14:38 PM

we're a bit weak on d but are pathetic on powerplay

i think we scored more short-handed goals than powerplay goals

[Edited on April 10, 2007 at 6:31 PM. Reason : jank]

4/10/2007 6:30:48 PM

keep whitney, trade babchuck to the Cape Fear Fire Antz for a bag of pucks

4/10/2007 7:48:42 PM

Quote :

"trade babchuck to the Cape Fear Fire Antz for a bag of pucks"

LMAO

i like babchuck though

4/10/2007 8:17:08 PM

HURRICANES SIGN CENTER BOBBY HUGHES
... Minor leaguer
http://hurricanes.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=298758

4/10/2007 8:38:19 PM

Cole and Kaberle look overpriced after this last season. I'd dump Cole only due to money, though finding a taker might be rough. I'd leave Kaberle on to see if he fully bounces back from that shoulder problem.

And signing Whitney is a must.


And btw, I don't feel like doing the math - how much cap room do we have, if any?

4/10/2007 8:44:43 PM

Quote :

"The largest hockey attendance in history was on October 6, 2001, for a game commonly know as the Cold War. Two college hockey rivals, University of Michigan and Michigan State University, opened their season with a game in Michigan State's outdoor football arena, Spartan Stadium. A $500,000 sheet of ice was used, and the temperature was 30° F. The game drew a record breaking 74,554 spectators, smashing the previous number of 55,000 attendence during the Sweden vs. Soviet Union game during the world championship in Moscow."

if that's true, god DAMN

4/10/2007 8:52:31 PM

that would be SO FUCKING AWESOME to go to

Bigger: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/The_Cold_War_UofM_v.s_MSU.jpg



[Edited on April 10, 2007 at 9:40 PM. Reason : ]

i wonder if the TV broadcast of that is anywhere, i want to see that

[Edited on April 10, 2007 at 9:41 PM. Reason : ]

let's play a game at carter-finley

[Edited on April 10, 2007 at 9:46 PM. Reason : ]

4/10/2007 9:38:46 PM

The NHL has tried this before as well

Quote :

"The Heritage Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played on November 22, 2003 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. It was the first outdoor game in the history of the National Hockey League, and was modeled after the success of the "cold war" game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in 2001[1]. The event took place in Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium in front of a crowd of 57,167, the largest number of people to ever watch a live NHL game, despite temperatures of close to -18 °C, -30 °C (-22 °F) with wind chill. It was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Edmonton Oilers joining the NHL in 1979. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television broadcast also set the record for most viewers of a single NHL game with 2.747 million nationwide. This was the first NHL game broadcast in HDTV on CBC."

4/10/2007 9:49:01 PM

former whales should lower ticket prices. then old farts like me would at least go to games...

but not buy any concessions or support the home team in any way. but i would be there

that's the #1 thing they can do this offseason

4/10/2007 9:50:58 PM

Ticket prices went up 45% and they still sold out 19 dates and averaged 17,631...so, that'd be a bad idea.

4/10/2007 10:59:13 PM

vinyl i have to agree with maximus here.... this isnt state basketball/football where the prices can remain high and people still come to the games.... this is hockey and we arent in the playoffs... prices need to go down probably 15% or so to get people to come to the games

4/10/2007 11:39:46 PM

lower ticket prices to $0.01. then bums from off the street would be able to see what a borderline playoff team looks like.

it's not fair to discriminate.

4/10/2007 11:40:12 PM

^^bingo. hell i wouldn't even pay those prices this past season. only time i went to games was either college night or when a friend gave me tix.

4/10/2007 11:47:11 PM

That 45% increase only moved us from 31st/31 in average ticket price to 23rd/31 for this season. We have no reason to lower ticket prices... they just need to play better.

Oh, and Carolina has never had a better year in attendance than they had this year, even with the significantly higher prices and dismal results. They averaged 93% attendance... pretty damn good.

[Edited on April 10, 2007 at 11:58 PM. Reason : .]

4/10/2007 11:55:21 PM

I think if they leave prices the same, that'll be fine.

[Edited on April 11, 2007 at 1:19 AM. Reason : .]

4/11/2007 1:19:24 AM

I would like to see prices a little bit lower, but hey, the $10.29 section seats arent really all that bad. Plus, my dads company has a club level luxury suite, which I get to go to quite often

hell, thats where I got to watch game 7 of the finals from!

4/11/2007 3:05:40 AM

Need to keep Whitney and Walker and maybe Carter if we can get him to gel better with our system. Dump Tanabe.

4/11/2007 3:15:03 AM

Tanabe is cheap and played a very solid game after the all star break, if it didn't cost Babchuk a slot, I'd say keep Tanabe

4/11/2007 8:49:34 AM

Philly has about $20 million in cap space this offseason.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Cole traded, or Whitney signed, by the Flyers.

4/11/2007 12:43:39 PM

I'd be VERY surprised to see the wizard go to philly.

4/11/2007 3:29:22 PM

Unless Philly throws six million at him (which is ridiculous), I can't see Whitney playing anywhere but here or Edmonton.

4/11/2007 4:40:16 PM

show on discovery right now about goalies, filmed at reczone, apparently one of the way down the totem pole goalies with the hurricanes, maybe practice squad or something?

cam ward on now

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 12:41 AM. Reason : cam]

4/12/2007 12:37:00 AM

jesus. that guy on the show is a huge vagina

4/12/2007 12:42:15 AM

does anyone have a FA list they could link to in here.... im too lazy to look for such things

4/12/2007 1:44:48 AM

^^^ Jorge is my goalie coach. He's not in the Canes org, they just didn't check their facts right. He's played with the Fire Antz, Greenville Grrrowl, etc.

4/12/2007 1:45:39 AM

http://www.geocities.com/floridapanthers2000/free2007.html


dont know how accurate this is, just turned it up with a google search

4/12/2007 11:58:16 AM

haha, i just noticed this pic of vasicek, he looks like terry schiavo


anyway, whitney and walker want to come back:
http://hurricanes.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=298943

Quote :

"“Clearly the priority now, and I’ll start working on it this week, is Ray Whitney and Scott Walker,” said Rutherford. “I’ve had the exit meetings with them, they want to stay, and we’re going to do the best we can to keep them here.”"

4/12/2007 9:47:56 PM

playoffs? playoffs? talking about playoooffs?

4/12/2007 11:24:49 PM

^^shit, half the time he plays like her.

4/12/2007 11:42:56 PM

Whitney got a 3yr/10.5 mil deal!!
http://hurricanes.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=299018

4/13/2007 6:32:29 PM

^ hoorah

4/13/2007 6:43:53 PM

hellz yea

4/13/2007 6:54:40 PM

yessss, now i dont have to worry about him leaving anymore

im totally getting a wizzard jersey now

4/13/2007 7:06:54 PM

scott gomez, and tom preissing would be lovely additions to the canes roster

4/13/2007 9:20:43 PM

i wouldn't mind gomez for some extra grit (depending on the walker situation) and to tutor ladd in the ways of a garbage-goal scorer

4/14/2007 2:23:14 AM

OK...so we re-signed Whitney, and pretty sure Wesley will either come back for another year here or retire. I'd like to see them re-sign Walker ASAP, and I won't shed any tears if Tanabe leaves. I think Carter is a good player, but considering he never really got integrated into the team here, we're not losing anything if he goes. I'd personally like to see them re-sign Vasicek.

4/14/2007 11:50:31 PM

when do we get to call big joe a bust and ship him out for good?

mofo plays like he's 6 inches shorter than he is

4/15/2007 4:44:56 PM

yeah, really, big joe needs to go

4/16/2007 8:35:07 AM