Canes May Check Out Andrew Ference

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/01/3003781/canes-still-looking-for-help-after.html

 

The Carolina Hurricanes went to the NHL Entry Draft on Sunday looking for help.

 

They’ll continue to look.

 

Rutherford worked out a deal with Buffalo, sending the Canes’ second-round pick and defenseman Jamie McBain to the Sabres for Sekera.

 

"I think we’ve got a more reliable, top-four defenseman," Rutherford said.

 

In looking at next year’s blue line, the Canes can envision Sekera being paired with Tim Gleason, and Justin Faulk with Joni Pitkanen – provided Pitkanen is fully healed from a broken heel bone. Ryan Murphy, Carolina’s first-round pick in 2011, may now be polished enough to be a full-time NHL player, Jay Harrison is a veteran and Brett Bellemore was given a one-year contract last week and should compete for a roster spot.

 

"This answers our need for right now but we’ll keep looking around," Rutherford said.

 

Free agency begins Friday, pushed back to July 5 this year, and there should be some interesting names on the market. With the NHL salary cap being bumped back to $64.3 million next season, some teams have used compliance buyouts on players or informed others they will not be re-signed and can become unrestricted free agents.

 

Defenseman Andrew Ference, for one, will not be re-signed by the Boston Bruins. There should be others like Ference for the Canes – and other teams – to consider.

 

"If there’s defensemen for the right price in free agency ... I don’t expect it’s going to happen on July 5, but we’ll keep looking around," Rutherford said. "We said we’re going to change our defense around and we started to do that with Sekera, Murphy and Bellemore as three strong possibilities. If somebody else comes along that we think we can upgrade our position, we will."

 

A blue line of...

 

Justin Faulk - Joni Pitkanen

Andrej Sekera - Tim Gleason

Andrew Ference - Jay Harrison

Ryan Murphy

 

Would be huge...

 

The Canes could ease Ryan Murphy into the NHL, instead of throwing him to the wolves like they had to do last year with all the injuries. The Canes could also stash Brett Bellemore in Charlotte and use him as a call-up in case someone got injured.

 

Hopefully J.R. does the right thing and inks Ference to a contract.

[KillerKat]

hell to the yea

[The_Light_Brigade]

As great as this sounds, I bet no one signs wih us. 

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

We have about $5 mil in cap space... so we can sign one quality player or 3 shitty ones.

[The_Light_Brigade]

We've got $5mil to the cap?  Looks like its 3 shitty ones we're going to have to sign.  We might could get away with 2 mediocre ones.  Either way we still have a few holes left to fill.  That is unless we can get some guys to actually make the jump and succede.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

We've got $5mil to the cap? Looks like its 3 shitty ones we're going to have to sign. We might could get away with 2 mediocre ones. Either way we still have a few holes left to fill. That is unless we can get some guys to actually make the jump and succede.

Lol yeah we have no cap space and JR never goes into luxury lol.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

Ference to Edmonton.