A couple weeks ago, I would have said that the Canes trade deadline direction would have been reasonably predictable. Nothing huge was going to happen - that happened last summer with the Jordan Staal and Alexander Semin additions. With Ruutu on the way back, the possibilities at forward were many even if nothing past the 1st line was clicking yet. And despite being a bit offense-leaning, the defense had been good enough to win.

So my short list was the addition of a depth defenseman and possibly a depth/PK-capable with size forward.

Fast forward a couple weeks and the Canes finally ended a 7-game losing streak, are on the outside looking in on the playoff chase and tried unsuccessfully to trade 1 forward for nothing when the team put Jussi Jokinen on waivers. Injuries to Ward, Ellis and Faulk have created temporary holes. Poor play and lack of secondary scoring have suggested that there may be longer term holes.

There are any number of directions this thing could go:

1) Following on the Jokinen move, does Rutherford make drastic changes looking toward the future. He made another long-term commitment to the core with the Semin signing, but you could make a case that big things still need to be done on defense.

2) Look past short-term struggles partly caused by injuries and stay the course to tweaking the current roster to push for the 2013 playoffs.

3) Become short-term sellers. With the Jordan Staal trade this summer and a few of the top prospects flopping this year, the system could use an injection of more higher-end talent. Could the Canes go the route of picking up a few minor futures without wrecking any playoff hopes?

My wild guess is #2. To be honest, the Jokinen thing surprised me. It seemed un-Rutherford-like to make an aggressive decision to part with an asset for nothing based on 30 games of hockey. But at his core and following history, Rutherford has been much more of a calculated slow-moving team builder than a give it a try then burn it if it doesn't work kind of GM.

My guess for the trade deadline is that Rutherford makes a late move for the best rental defenseman he can get for a 3rd round pick or lower. I originally had Jordan Leopold at the top of my list who just went for a 2nd and a conditional 5th. That would suggest that when lunchtime deadline day rolls around and it becomes a buyers market that there would a serviceable 3rd pairing defenseman available for a 3rd or even lower pick. My #2 was Ladislav Smid from Edmonton. Word is that Edmonton may just re-sign and keep him, so that could push even further down the list. Smid is interesting in that he fits the bill as a 3rd pairing guy with legitimate NHL experience, adds size and has the upside option that he could prove to be a fairly young, inexpensive re-signing next summer to buy a couple years until we can restock the farm system. At some point, Bobby Sanguinetti and Brett Bellemore and their familiarity with the system become nearly as good or even as good at what you are going to be able to add for cheap at which point you just punt.

I think it will also be interesting to see what happens with Jussi Jokinen. There really isn't all that much available in terms of top 6 kind of forwards unless something happens with a big name non-rental (i.e. Bobby Ryan, Martin, St. Louis, etc.) which would surprise me. At the point where people have a list of Iginla, RFA star like St. Louis, etc. as their shopping list, Jokinen is uninteresting. But at the point where Iginla and a couple other rentals are off the table and the RFAs are officially never on the table, Jokinen for pretty cheap could become the best available option. If he can find any kind of spark, I vote for just keeping him, but Rutherford has clearly shown that doing otherwise is something he would consider.

If I get a few minutes, I will post a random list of names mostly centered around the unexciting addition of a depth defenseman.

More importantly, big game in Montreal tonight followed by another at home tomorrow. The losing streak is officially over, but the Canes need to string something together if they are going to make a playoff push.

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Go Canes!

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