The biggest trade deadline news in Hurricaneland this week (as reported by Chip Alexander at The News & Observer earlier today) is that Tuomo Ruutu is officially on the shelf for about 3 weeks with an upper body injury. For Ruutu, the recent leaning has been to skip the trade deadline deal thing altogether and just re-sign him. If that happens, the 3-week injury setback is a tiny hiccup. But if this does not get worked out in the next couple weeks, it could make it difficult to get full value for him.

The other two players likely to see new uniforms in March are Bryan Allen and Jaro Spacek. Both should have some value in the rental market.

--Jaro Spacek is a proven veteran, a good locker room addition and has decent big game resume including playoffs and international stuff. At this stage of his career he slots more as a 3rd pairing/depth guy but a nice solid one.

--Bryan Allen brings size, grit, nastiness and a willingness to lay down in front of pucks on PK or otherwise. Due to too many years in Florida, he is light on playoff experience, but still makes for good veteran depth this time of year.

Neither of these is the kind of player you put together a big package for or flip a 1st round pick at by any means, but whether they garner something like a 2nd round pick or a decent young prospect versus a meager 4th or 5th rounder is partly a function of how many bidders there are versus how many sellers of similar players. This could work to the Canes benefit. There are really only a handful of for certain sellers right now. Heck even at 15th in the East, the Canes are only 9 points back. Unless a bunch of teams tank badly in the next 2 weeks, there will be a lot of teams that are more or less out of it (and their GMs know it), but they are close enough that the GM can't sell out his fan base by throwing in the towel early.

When you start from the bottom and work up, you don't find a ton of other options for blueliners. In the West, Edm just re-signed Andy Sutton whose skillset and style is similar to Allen's. Clu just put Lebda on IR with a broken thumb and Ana doesn't have much in the way of UFA defensemen. In the East, Buf does not have any UFA defensemen, but the fate of Wpg, NYI and Mon over the next few weeks could have a lot to say about the depth of the rental defenseman pool. Mon has Campoli and Gill who are free agents this summer, Wpg Oduya and NYI Eaton, Jurcina and Staios.

My wild guess says that the Ruutu situation disappoints all the teams looking to add a gritty top 6-capable forward when he re-signs with the Canes and that Allen and Spacek yield a combination of a 3rd round pick and a mid-tier prospect in total.

What say you? Could a bidding war earn a 2nd rounder? Am I wrong on Ruutu?

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Go Canes!

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