Carolina Hurricanes Embrace Seller's Role

A horrid start out of the gate by this year's edition of the Carolina Hurricanes has shown to be the biggest obstacle in reaching the promised land of this year's Stanley Cup playoffs for the Canes.  But as disheartening and disappointing as the 2009/2010 season has been for the Cane's, one thing is clear...the Hurricanes are one of few NHL teams that can clearly declare themselves sellers leading up to this year's March 3rd trade deadline.  Jim Rutherford has been busy working the phones with playoff bound NHL General Manager's trying to turn his upcoming, veteran unrestricted free agents such as Ray Whitney, Matt Cullen and Joe Corvo among others, into young promising prospects and draft picks that can solidify the future of the franchise.  Rutherford has already pulled the trigger on a much rumored Niclas Wallin trade with San Jose over the weekend to net a second round draft pick in the 2010 draft that the Sharks had previously obtained from Buffalo.  Along with Wallin to San Jose goes the Canes 5th round pick in 2010.  Wallin is the first of several veteran Canes that could see themselves wearing new NHL colors in the next few weeks.  Ray Whitney and Matt Cullen are two highly sought after veteran player's that will help any team headed into the playoff's and both player's have extensive playoff experience and a Cup ring on their resumes.  The Canes will shop the like's of Whitney and Cullen to the highest bidder, and the net return for these player's may be high if multiple team's have interest leading all the way up to the Olympic break and right up to the 3pm NHL trade deadline on March 3rd.  Moving several of the veteran Canes not only cuts salary from this year's bottomline, but acquiring young player's and draft picks bodes well for the future of an organization that has traded away young player's and picks in the past to bolster their run to two Cup Finals and last year's trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.  Rutherford feels that a lottery pick in this summer's draft also may secure a top shelf prospect such as Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin that would quickly stock the cupboard for a quick turnaround for the Canes to add to the already youthful core of top rated players like Eric Staal, Cam Ward and Brandon Sutter among others.  The season to forget in Carolina could turn into a blessing in disguise if the Canes can manage to turn many of their pending UFA's into a bonanza of youth and draft picks that net the Hurricanes the depth they need to compete for year's to come.  Being a clear seller at the deadline shows fans of the Canes organization that they are committed to a younger team next season that will have a drastically different look and feel, and after the dismal season in Raleigh to date, that has to be a good thing moving forward.