Canes Retool Defense, Sign Calvin De Haan

[MillionDollarCam]

And the offseason just got a little more interesting.

With the signing of De Haan, it is all but guaranteed that Faulk is on his way out.

The current makeup of the defense as is follows:

Slavin - Hamilton

De Haan - Pesce

Fleury - Van Riemsdyk

While De Haan does not have the offensive game that Hanifin does, De Haan is a shutdown defenseman that led all Islander defenseman in +/- last year. Additionally, Hamilton is head and shoulders above Faulk. There is no doubt that this defense has a chance to be the best group in the NHL.

[rhyslloyd]

I hope the improved defense in front of him will allow Darling to get back to the form we were hoping for when we signed him.  It certainly can't hurt.  

[lightsout]

Well we had a fine defense last year. The only problems we had on that front with any consistency were Faulk related. The other 5 generally played well in front of Darling. Back checking was there decent enough as well. I think we did one real bad thing last year, and that was bad turnovers by everybody. Hanifin was careless in our own end with breakouts at times, forwards were careless sometimes on zone entry, we just kept putting ourselves in positions to fail. 

If the entire team can tighten up, we're going to get into the playoffs. But Darling is a backup, not a starter. So we're banking on Mrazek to prove his worth or we need to bring up Nedeljkovic.