With the breaking news, my first blog that posted the "opening night lineup" poll results along with my "odds of making the team" addition gets buried in the archive. You can find that
HERE if you did not already see it.
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After a whirlwind week that saw the Canes lose Joni Pitkanen for the season, the team is now back up to 6 veteran defenseman with the addition of Ron Hainsey who signed for 1 year at $2 million.
The team announcement is
HERE.
In brief, I like the deal. Canes GM Jim Rutherford was quoted as saying that going with the current personnel was an option, but that was pure posturing to not limit his bargaining power even more.
In simple form, Hainsey brings a few important things:
1) Another defenseman who can skate and move the puck. Andrej Sekera brings a good balanced game and some ability to carry the puck, but minus Corvo and McBain and plus Komisarek to go with Gleason and Harrison, the team desperately needed another skater and puck mover.
2) He has played in a top 4 role. This signing will start up the inevitable debate about how good Hainsey is or is not, but he has played in the exact role he is being slotted into. He has logged the minutes. He has handled top 4 responsibilities playing against the other team's top lines.
3) The price is right. With zero trade cost for a free agent signing obviously and only a 1-year commitment at $2 million, the Canes got off as cheap as it possibly could. This might sound strange, but if Hainsey was to the point of signing for $2 million, I think I would have looked at a 3-year deal. Pitkanen was to be a free agent next summer, and if he does return it sounds like it would probably need to be on a risk-adjusted type of contract not the kind of thing where he gets penned into a top 4. No doubt Hainsey is looking at this as a chance to have a great year and then reemerge as a free agent again in what should be a much friendlier market with an increased salary cap. So it is not like Rutherford could have had him for 3 years at $2M per year. But after what had to be a bit of a trying summer, maybe there was a deal to be had for 3 years at $8M total (so $2.66M/year).
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EDITED IN ADDITION: The whole series of events over the past week might have actually freed up more money to bring on another player. Before Pitkanen-gate started, the Canes had $4.9M of salary cap remaining and also at least some inkling that they had a defenseman who might not be ready to start the season. So fast forward to now. Technically the team has only $2.9M of salary cap left, but with the potential to get LTIR relief for Pitkanen, the team can overspend the cap by most of Pitkanen's salary (if it wanted to) and get a credit. The detailed math is complicated, but the simple version is that the Canes could have up to $7.9M to spend per the salary cap. Maybe equally significantly, the team might actually be better off in terms of real cash which matters to the Canes who have to work with an team-set internal real cash budget in addition to the salary cap stuff. Exact details are not available but Pitkanen's contract should be covered under the standard league insurance which means the team should get some real cash reimbursement. I believe it kicks in after 30 games. I am not sure but would guess that the counter started when he was injured last season, so it would kick in fairly early this year. I also am not sure what the reimbursement rate is. But using made up math, might the Canes actually get an extra $1M out of these events. If they get even 75% of Pitkanen's 2013-14 salary reimbursed that collects $3.3M which actually exceeds the cost of signing Ron Hainsey to replace him. And the biggest $ gain might be the fact that Rutherford no longer has to consider holding back real or salary cap $ for the scenario where Pitkanen played but was hampered by the injury. Is it possible that now that the defense is in a much better position at least in terms of health on the blue line and also in terms of $ flexibility that Rutherford could turn his attention to making 1 last aggressive move adding a single veteran forward to the mix? If Ron Hainsey's price is any indication, the start of camp might have just turned it into a very good buyer's market.
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But when you net it out, this is great news. The Canes are back to having something that could work defensively and there is some financial flexibility to draw on if needed.
Kirk Muller can now get on to trying to figure out how to win with this team without waiting for someone else to come through the locker room door to help out.
I attended the first practice session today and will post my observations/comments either late tonight or otherwise tomorrow.
What say you Canes fans? Was Hainsey the player you wanted? How excited are you that we can now move on to figuring out how to make the current set of players into a playoff team? Is there any chance at all that Rutherford makes another move now that the defensive hole is filled, and he still has a bit of cap room left?
Twitter tends to be the message/comment boards for my blogs sometimes these days, so please join in there to @CarolinaMatt.
Go Canes!
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