Paul Kukla Kukla's Korner
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The Re-Tooled Carolina Hurricanes
from Luke DeCock of the News & Observer,
Now that the dust has settled on two cataclysmic weeks of player movement that turned over a full third of the Carolina Hurricanes’ roster, two conclusions have clearly emerged from the madness.
The Hurricanes still think their core group of young players is good enough to win a Stanley Cup.
They didn’t think the players around them were good enough to win a Stanley Cup.
After three trips through the postseason that saw the Hurricanes win four playoff series before being ultimately derailed by what were unquestionably better teams, combined with the unfortunate but inevitable free-agent departure of Dougie Hamilton, it was time for some retooling.
It’s the hockey equivalent of a 40,000 mile service. Change the oil, rotate the tires, give it new brake pads and rotors, flush the coolant and leave it parked out back.
So while the long-term foundation of the team remains intact — starting with young stars Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Martin Necas — almost all of the complementary pieces on the board have been shuffled.