For anyone who has not seen my couple most recent Canes blogs, I am about on track but still need a lot of help with my Kickstarter to help launch an independent Carolina Hurricanes web site for coverage, a fan community and my big dream which is to build a digital museum.
I challenge other passionate hockey fans to skip Starbucks on Friday morning and drink coffee at home or tote leftovers to work instead of going out to lunch. That is all it takes to come up with $5 to help a crazy hockey fan chase a dream!
Since I will not likely post another blog here before Friday, I will let the cat out of the bag a bit early here that I added a TREMENDOUS (sarcastic voice) new prize for $5 donations and will be trying to stir up a "$5 Friday" frenzy to move the Kickstarter meter.
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Coming off a 6th straight Canes playoff miss and with a system/prospect pool that rates toward the bottom of the league with most experts, GM Ron Francis has many things to work on. But per a blog that I wrote awhile back, Francis is a bit handicapped by the current financial situation and has little for budget unless he brokers a deal to ship out salary. That very theme is a key contributor to two of what I see as the four pillars of Ron Franics’ summer work.
I think the four biggest things to watch for the Canes this summer are:
1) The draft in general and especially the #5 overall pick. This pick SHOULD yield a top half of the roster player and has a very good chance to yield an NHL star. It seems most likely that Francis will need to decide between the leftover player from Marner, Hanafin and Strome and also consider whether maybe someone (i.e. Provorov) is actually even better. He will also get many a call trying to pry loose the #5 pick, but I think it is unlikely that Francis will trade it. I will write more about this next week, but you can find my most recent draft preview blog HERE.
2) What to do with Eric Staal? A flurry of activity kicked up on that today. Canes Country actually has two articles (two writers) posted. The most recent is HERE. Pierre LeBrun also posted THIS at TSN yesterday.
I wrote a bit about this awhile back. You can read the longer version of my thoughts HERE. The short version is that while I do not think it is absolutely necessary, I think the preference is to resolve the situation this summer, so the team (and Eric Staal) can move forward to the long-term. I would be happy to re-sign Eric Staal, but not at his current contract. I think Francis should push him to take $5.5M/year for 4-5 years for the team, but I doubt happens. My ceiling is somewhere around $6-6.5M/year for 4-5 years which is Spezza-like with a modest discount. If he wants to haggle over another $500k-$1.5M that he could get on the open market, it tells me that he really does not want to stay (or that his agent is at least bluffing this). I do not want that version of Eric Staal, and I would look to trade him at this point.
3) How/who do the Canes add add as a top 4 defenseman? I think this is the single biggest need and maybe the only one that actually has a decent budget for it. I will name names and go into more detail in a longer blog, but I think the markets for free agents and trade are wildly different. With a shortage of high-end free agents and another recently gone (Petry), I think that market will be incredibly expensive relative to the quality you get. But ironically, I think it will be a summer rich with opportunities driven by specific player/team situations including recent play, the salary cap, etc. I have pounded the drum for almost two years that I would consider trading Jeff Skinner to add a similar age, similar quality top 4 defenseman. But I also think there could be good options from a list of veterans likely to be available.
4) The “big news… trade. With another playoff miss and some budget issues, I would be surprised if Ron Francis makes it through the whole summer without one big news trade. Eric Staal is obviously one candidate, but it could easily be Jeff Skinner, Alexander Semin or Cam Ward who now only has a single year left on his contract. The big salaries for all of these players and the number of teams without cap room for them makes these deals complex and hard to get done, but I think the summer is long enough that we see one out of the offices at Edwards Mill Road this summer.
What say you Canes fans? Are you in for $5 on the Kickstarter? Do you think Eric Staal is in a Canes jersey come October? Who do you think will be left, and who do you most hope will be left when the Canes draft at #5? How will the Canes replace Sekera and fill out the blue line, and might this be accomplished with a big trade?
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!