Canes get Recchi
Gotta take a (non-smoking) smoke break for this one.
The Hurricanes just picked up Mark Recchi from Pittsburgh for LW Niklas Nordgren, minor leaguer Krys Kolanos and a performance-dependent draft pick. This is huge. Carolina is completely loaded for bear in the 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs now — I’m still not sure how to react to seeing my team act like Toronto or the Yankees in acquiring everyone in sight around the deadline.
One thing this deal screams to me, though, is that the Canes have no expectation of getting Erik Cole back. Josef Vasicek will be back within the next three weeks, yielding some major line reshuffling. Adding Joe back in, assuming that Peter Laviolette continues to dress seven defensemen, and barring another injury, the forward lines could look like:
| Cory Stillman (A) | Eric Staal | Mark Recchi |
| Justin Williams | Rod Brind’Amour (C) | Doug Weight |
| Josef Vasicek | Matt Cullen | Ray Whitney |
| Craig Adams | Kevyn Adams (A) | (seventh D) |
There’s no room for Cole. I’ve already demoted all the rookies (some of whom are very much in the Canes’ future plans, like 2004 first-rounder Andrew Ladd). Craig Adams is the most marginal player forward on the roster, but the (unrelated) Adams Family has been an outstanding checking forward pair no matter who double-shifts on their wing.
If the Canes don’t make a deep playoff run this year, it won’t be for lack of trying. Kudos to Jim Rutherford and Peter Karmanos for making the push.
9 March 2006 / 0 Comments / Tags: hockey