Trade Deadline Has Passed-Where Do The Canes Go From Here?

So now that the trade deadline has come and gone and the Canes made the expected moves to deal away or extend most of the pending UFA's...where do they honestly go from here?

I see a bunch of over-inflated contracts that do not seem to be living up to potential in Semin, Skinner, Jordan and Eric. Alot of money being spent on two goaltenders when really only one can be in the net at a time. A defense that really is a mess after Justin Faulk. Depth in the system overall for prospects would be ranked in the bottom third of the league.

What's the plan moving forward this summer for the Canes?

All of the above?

On Semin I see only 2 options...buy him out OR bring him back. Considering that he has played 'better' over the past couple of weeks, at this point, I suspect that the Canes will bring him back and hope that he can chip in 40-50 points and find some sort of goal scoring touch again.

Ronnie has already stated that he realizes the D needs to be addressed. There are lots of ways to do this, I don't know exactly which one Ronnie will choose. Trades, UFAs, etc. Considering that we will not be a max cap team next year this will be a challenge.

I still think Eric get's extended for something along the lines of 7 years $49 million. Cam I'm not quite sure on. But certainly something will happen with the goalie situation next year. Khudobin is an expensive backup now so he is not easy to move. If they are going to trade Cam that is probably a move that needs to happen before the season starts. Of course, if Cam is not going to waive his NTC then the Canes really are stuck potentially playing it out next season. Cam has for the most part looked like a mid-level #1 NHL goalie this year, so having him next season isn't the worst thing that could happen.

The depth situation is something that hopefully is being fixed with all of these draft pick, but of course we have to make good picks. I could see some trades using these picks as well prior to the draft.

Ronnie has a lot of work to do and its not going to be easy. This is a multi-year project to get out of the mess this franchise is in. Its going to be a very long wait now for us as the rest of this season plays out and the Canes continue to worsen their draft position. Draft lottery is still over a month away, and that will likely be a quick disappointment (will be exciting though to see who wins). Then of course the real long wait until the offseason. Not looking forward to the next 4 months in terms of the Canes as they play out the string and then we wait to see what Ronnie's offseason will look like.

One thing Ronnie did that looks brilliant and that should hopefully be part of our future improvements was the pickup of Nestrasil. 21 games, 4 goals 9 assists (thats a 50 point pace) +7 (on a team filled with some ugly minuses). And he's done a lot of that outside of top scoring lines. This kid is a keeper for sure.

To me the three biggest challenges are:

1) 1st line performance and contracts
2) Goalie situation
3) Organizational depth, scouting, and development

The Canes currently have $22.25M in salary tied up on Staal, Staal, and Semin. The three of them have combined for 25 goals and 69 points for $22.25M in salary this year. Sure, Jordan missed half the year but that output is pretty sad any way you look at it. As the Canes are no where near a spend to the max team, they have to find a way to make some changes here. Line "Under Achieve and Over Pay" is almost matched by Ovechkin in points (65) and is way behind in his goal output at 41.

As already discussed, the Canes can't afford both goalies. Way too much tied up here. They have to pick one and move on and are likely stuck with Cam until his contract expires. Khodobin is likely to get traded this off-season.

On the overall depth issue:

- Nestrasil was a great pickup and hopefully Ronnie can find some more gems like this before next year.
- The Canes need to get lucky with the draft lottery as they really need one of the elite talents available in the top 3.
- The Canes also can' afford to miss on a 1st and 2nd round choices the next couple of years. They have to get NHL players capable of top 4 of D or top 6 at forward.
- I know people hate hearing it, but the only way to speed up the rebuild is to trade a Staal this off-season (preferably Eric). Eric can help restock the cupboards a bit and will get the Canes out of making a bad decision on the upcoming contract extension. Heading into his contract year Eric will be 31 and coming off back to back career worse years of 61 points and likely mid 50s this year. Not a piece the Canes should build around given his decline and the Canes other needs. I don't see a happy ending here as even a "discounted" extension would still put the Canes at $7M per. Do they need another Semin contract?

Rissanen will be staying with big club for the rest of the season...

http://gocheckers.com/articles/1105-checkers-retooling-blue-line-with-trio-staying-in-nhl

Alright. Let's lower the bar a bit for Francis. Maybe the short term goals should be to perform one miracle and otherwise focus on building depth and potential with kids.

So, the miracle list boils down to two options, at least for me.
1. Dump Semin's
2. Find a top pairing defenseman
Pick one and talk PK into funding it

Otherwise just draft well and keep building some size

HeyKurtz said:

Rissanen will be staying with big club for the rest of the season...

http://gocheckers.com/articles/1105-checkers-retooling-blue-line-with-trio-staying-in-nhl

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By design or incompetence?

There is a rule stating that any player not on an AHL roster as of 3 p.m. Monday (the NHL’s trade deadline) is not eligible to return to their AHL club for the remainder of the season. To circumvent that rule, many NHL teams will send those fringe players down on paper before the deadline and then immediately call them back up. This makes those players eligible to return to their AHL teams. The Hurricanes, however, did not go that route with Rissanen, Jordan or Murphy, making them ineligible to come back to the Checkers this season.

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By design or incompetence?

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Yeah, that is a strange one JFG. I actually think in Rissanen's case that is a very fair question. Why would they call him up yesterday and make it impossible for him to return to the AHL this year? If he plays a couple of NHL games and looks horribly outclassed they can't send him back to Charlotte now. What is the logic behind that?

I am glad that Rissanen is going to get a chance to show what he can do. Certainly having Liles or Bellemore or Hillen out of the lineup is not that big of a loss.

I'm going to assume that during the remaining portion of the season-long training camp that they're going to try to sort out just who they have that is potential NHL material and what's missing before Francis goes to work this off-season trying to plug the holes.

They did say when Rissanen was called up that he would be up with the big club for the remainder of the season, so it's intentional.

Elsker said:

I'm going to assume that during the remaining portion of the season-long training camp that they're going to try to sort out just who they have that is potential NHL material and what's missing before Francis goes to work this off-season trying to plug the holes.

They did say when Rissanen was called up that he would be up with the big club for the remainder of the season, so it's intentional.

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Yeah. I was going to point that out. Ronnie not only said that Risannen would be here the rest of year, he had previously said that they had some guys in Charlotte that they wouldn't mind getting extending looks at the NHL level between now and the end of the season. So, maybe look for a few others to get a chance. He said at some point yesterday that they want the first year pros to stay where they are, so discount McGinn from the possibility. But maybe Danny Biega gets a look at some point as well.

Well that is one way to do it. Make it so the guy CAN'T go back down the rest of the year. Seems a bit extreme though.

Really there is very little down there in the minors worth looking at. Biega is about all that is left down there. Lowe just got hurt. The forwards I wouldn't bother with, unless you are going to start to pull Semin from the lineup again.

Like parent club. Do we even have enough defenders, minus call-ups? To me that is good. Anybody else notice yesterday morning's standings, you'd think all the bottom teams in both the east and west officially threw in the towel and are officially bottoming out for those top picks... every team except the Canes, who until yesterday where the only one at that snap shot (morning standings yesterday) to have a winning streak (was 3).

cmaleski2 said:

.... The forwards I wouldn't bother with, unless you are going to start to pull Semin from the lineup again.

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I really hope scratching Semin is not a plan the remainder of the year. That only makes sense if he is a locker room distraction or malcontent, and I haven't seen report or rumors to that point. Semin needs to play so they can figure out what to do with him next year. As he now appears fully healthy, can he produce at least to a 40-60 point pace that to make the economics of a buyout pointless? Or is Semin just no longer capable of producing at least .5 points per game the rest of the way and at that point the organization has to buy him out? He needs to be on the ice and in a top 6 role to make that evaluation. Not sure what sitting him in the press box gets this organization in either the short or long term unless Canes are in full tank mode and are trying to shame him back to KHL next year. I would probably be ok with that approach but Francis has shown no indication of being that kind of GM to date so play him.

I see no reason for Semin to even think of the khl.
As for the team next year? All I can think of is watch the auditions till the end of the season and then see who passed and failed.

Fourth Period reported that RF was shopping Semin and was willing to eat up to half his salary if the return was fair. So that would be spending $10.5M to get something in return, as opposed to spending $14M on a buyout to get nothing (except addition by subtraction). Next summer, the buyout price would be $9.3M, which is less than what he was willing to spend right now. So maybe RF shops him again in the offseason, and if nothing comes of it holds on to him for one more year and then cuts him loose.

A devilish part of me would want Semin to end up in Toronto or Montreal just to have their media have a field day with him.

SlapShots said:

A devilish part of me would want Semin to end up in Toronto or Montreal just to have their media have a field day with him.

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Semin for Dion Phaneuf straight up!!!

CanadaCanes said:

Semin for Dion Phaneuf straight up!!!

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E Staal would veto that under his "No Movement By Anyone Without My Approval" clause. Can't have Staal and Phaneuf in the same locker room. You'd have to go E Staal and Semin for Kessel and Phaneuf. Wouldn't that be the talk of the town!

I'm fully expecting Semin to put up a 50-60 point pace over the remaining games and end up not getting bought out while Ronnie considers trade options or keeping him for at least one more season. I'm not sure what the right play is here with him anymore, but I definitely want them to play him for all of the remaining games to see if there is anything there that can be salvaged.

cmaleski2 said:

I'm fully expecting Semin to put up a 50-60 point pace over the remaining games and end up not getting bought out while Ronnie considers trade options or keeping him for at least one more season. I'm not sure what the right play is here with him anymore, but I definitely want them to play him for all of the remaining games to see if there is anything there that can be salvaged.

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I have kept expecting him to at least wake up a little bit at some useless point of the season, but thus far ... zip. I suspect it is a lost cause at this point.