For anyone who stopped by wondering if I fell off the face of the Earth, I did not - not exactly anyway. I had plans to take a short Canes-writing hiatus anyway before shifting into higher gear to fill another long summer. Then that dovetailed with a new job, trying to untangle myself from a bunch of project work in process and also some travel.
For a non-playoff May and early June, the volume of news emanating from PNC Arena has been significant. I did a stream of consciousness writing binge this weekend, so I should have enough half-written blogs to be more consistent even though I am still busy.
As a start, I will catch up with my thoughts on some of the recent news in quick hitter format:
1) On Kirk Muller being let go: I agree with this move. You can read the details HERE, but the short version is that I could not live with the trend of generally pretty good veteran players hitting performance droughts under Muller with seemingly no ability to do anything except hit a depth spiral after that (Jokinen, Gleason, Ruutu and CWard on the way).
2) What do I make of Ron Francis still not hiring a coach? He was clear very early on that he wanted to go through a thorough process. There was no reason to bluff with this like trade deadline and free agent stuff, so I take him at his word. With a couple options out there in the Rangers' and Kings' ranks, you have to figure the end of that series triggers a move within a week. The fact that he has not signed anyone yet could be interpreted to mean that he is not thrilled with the options already on the market, but again, I am not sure that is right. I think it is more the "thorough" thing again. While Francis has ties to Ulf Samuelsson and that seems to be where the smart money is betting these days, I am holding to my original pick of Kevin Dineen even though it seems to be an upset pick right now.
3) What of Jim Rutherford to Pittsburgh? I did not see that one coming. I sort of figured him for taking a year or 2 off and settling into a less day-to-day role with the Canes and then seeing if the desire to be more involved still burned after a sabbatical of sorts. I guess he missed it sooner than I thought. I actually think he is a pretty good fit for the Pens in 1 respect and less so in another. With the top end of that roster filled, the task in Pittsburgh is building out the rest of the roster on a reasonably tight budget. Over the years Rutherford has been a master of finding diamonds in the rough and on the cheap in the offseason. That should be a good skill set in Pittsburgh. But the other part of that job has been shrewdly adding players at the trade deadline somehow without grossly overpaying in most instances. Shero's record was not perfect, but he was pretty good at that. Rutherford has a history of overpaying when he clearly wants something and is not so good at hiding when he wants something.
4) What do I make of the Eric Staal to Toronto rumors? Anything that tries to swap even (so something like Phaneuf+) makes no sense whatsoever. The Canes end up in a bad spot $-wise with Phaneuf signed for a bunch for forever. And IF (not saying there is but IF) there is a Staal move to be made, I think it would be an indication by Ron Francis that he wants to turn the team over to the younger players - think Justin Faulk. I would be surprised to see an even type trade. Rather, I think more likely is a combination of some salary savings combined with a package of players. The Leafs have options for decent replacement centers (Bozak or Kadri), #4ish defensemen (Franson or possibly Gunnarson) and youth on defense. When I net it out, I think it comes down to this? Does Ron Francis think that Eric Staal can captain a Canes team that improves and is playoff-bound? If so, I think Eric Staal most likely stays. If not, then deals like this become possible.
5) What do I think about promoting Ron Francis to GM? At a basic level, I am okay with him in this role. The thing for me is having a strong #2 and also someone with a different viewpoint/not crafted out of the same mold. I think that was an Achilles heel for Rutherford over the vast majority of his time with the Canes. The team never had a true #2. Over the full 20 years, was there a time when a Canes assistant GM was in line for NHL jobs. (Surely someone is going to remind of 1 I missed, but in general that was not the case.) I get the grooming of Francis under Rutherford for this job. If it works long-term, we will forgive the learning years when maybe the team could have benefitted from an outside/dissenting voice. But I think the groupthink was likely a factor in the team's struggles in recent years and also the inconsistency over the entire span. I know only what I read about Vellucci, but the Karmanos/Plymouth Whalers ties reek a bit of more of the same. Hopefully, this superficial view will prove wrong, and he will be the strong #2 and dissenting opinion that the team needs.
What say you Canes fans? How many more days until the rookie camp? Who is your pick for head coach? Are then any NHL-ready power forwards available where the Canes pick in the draft?
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!