On Monday, I went over some of the players from within the Carolina Hurricanes organization who may receive an invite to training camp next week and there are more than a few who are worthy of an invite. As if things weren't going to be crowded enough, GM Jim Rutherford has also stated his intention to add another player to the mix as soon as possible. At this point of the off-season, the free agent pool is full of players who were passed over because they are too old, had a bad season or just don't offer much potential upside. Therefore, it's likely that Rutherford will sign one of these players to a tryout deal or trade for someone else. 

There are always a lot of interesting players signed to tryout deals every year and most of them are guys who make you say, "I didn't know he was still in the league." Not much is expected out of guys who come in on tryout contracts and most of them end up being cut before the season started but there are always some who manage to stick around. Take Petr Sykora for example. He was invited to the New Jersey Devils training camp on a tryout deal, ended up making the team and had a very successful year. The odds of that happening again are slim but bringing in a veteran player on a tryout contract is a low-risk way to bolster your roster.

Is there anyone worth taking from the remaining free agent pool, though? If you remember correctly, Rutherford also said this off-season that he was looking to add "grit" to the third and fourth lines or possibly sign an enforcer to "protect" the younger players like Jeff Skinner. I have my own views on whether or not the Hurricanes "need" to add grit, but if all JR is looking for is a third or fourth liner, then he may be in luck with this free agent pool because there are more than a few out there.

After the jump, we will take a look at what options are out there and whether or not they would be a good fit for Carolina.

Anybody who has been following the Charlotte Checkers during the lockout knows that the team has more than a few guys on the roster who could possibly be in the NHL as soon as the new CBA is ratified. The Checkers currently have five players with at least 10 goals and the same amount with at least 20 points in less than 40 games. The best part of it is that most of these players are guys who are on the cusp of being "NHL ready" and we are going to find out whether or not they have a future with the Carolina Hurricanes in a matter of months. The lockout is obviously going to cause this process to be rushed and the competition between forwards in training camp is going to be a fracas with at least three players gunning for one roster spot.

According to News & Observer reporter Chip Alexander, Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller says that he plans to have 15 forwards and 8 defensemen in training camp and plans for the roster to be relatively small since camp will last only a few days thanks to the lockout. Who might those 23 players be? We know that Eric Staal, Jeff Skinner, Jordan Staal, Alex Semin, Jiri Tlusty, Chad LaRose, Andreas Nodl, Jussi Jokinen, Tim Brent, Patrick Dwyer, Anthony Stewart, Drayson Bowman, Joni Pitkanen, Tim Gleason, Jamie McBain, Joe Corvo, Jay Harrison, Cam Ward and Justin Peters are going to be there since they are on the roster. There's twelve forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders right there. You can probably make that seven defensemen since it was reported by Bob McKenzie that Ryan Murphy will be joining the team. That leaves room for three forwards, one defenseman and any goaltender Muller feels like bringing in.

After the jump, we will go through some of the possible candidates for the remaining four spots and discuss why they may or may not qualify for it.

This was an interesting week for junior hockey, as there were a few teams playing without some of their top players with the World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia. You could consider this a time for some of the "secondary" players on their teams to step up while the stars are out, which it is for some teams like the Niagara Ice Dogs who were missing at least three of their best players this week. Another team missing two of their key players was the Edmonton Oil Kings, who had to spend the last few weeks without defensemen Griffin Reinhart and David Musil due to the WJC. This presented an opportunity for Carolina prospect Keegan Lowe to step up a little bit. Being the captain of the squad, Lowe is already playing a major role on the Oil Kings, but no Reinhart or Musil gave him a chance to play more minutes than usual and he certainly rose to the occasion with two goals in three games, giving him eight total on the season.

A couple of the Hurricanes' prospects also had to spent time away from their junior clubs to particpate in the WJC this past month as Victor Rask and Ryan Murphy both made significant impacts for their home country's teams in both positive and negative fashion. After the jump, we'll take a closer look at what went down in Ufa and across the CHL for Carolina's prospects.

With the NHL lockout finally coming to an end this weekend, the Checkers most recent set of games could be seen as a "final audition" for players hoping to get an invite to the Carolina Hurricanes training camp, which is set to begin very soon. It also helped that their game on Sunday against the Norfolk Admirals was held at the PNC Arena so more fans, coaches and members of the Canes scouting staff could get a first-hand look at some of these players. If Kirk Muller's intention is to only invite a few players from Charlotte to camp then he will have his work cut out for him, as there are many Checkers who are making good cases to earn a roster spot with the Hurricanes once the season starts in a couple weeks.

The "what have you done for me lately?" mindset always thrives in the sports world, so I would expect the Checkers' hottest players to get a look before others and right now, you'll struggle to find a hotter forward than Zac Dalpe. If Dalpe's sights are still set on making the NHL full-time, then he certainly made a great case for himself this weekend with three goals and four points in three games played. He was very impressive in Charlotte's 3-1 win over Norfolk at the PNC Arena on Sunday by scoring a shorthanded goal and forcing a turnover to set up Jerome Samson's goal in the third period. Dalpe also scored a pair of goals on Friday night in the Checkers 4-0 shutout over Lake Erie and could have easily scored another shorthanded goal on Sunday had it not been for a great save by Frederik Andersen. He also tallied six shots on goal in Charlotte's 2-1 loss to Lake Erie on Thursday, giving him 12 total shots on the long weekend. Dalpe started off the year a bit slow after recovering from an injury but he has really been on fire the last month. His point total is still modest (35-11-12-23), but he is still producing more offense than most of the Checkers forwards with a shot rate of 3.31 shots per game. It's hard to look at that and not be impressed with the way he has been playing this year. 

The other candidate for "hottest forward" would be Zach Boychuk, who added another goal and assist to his totals this weekend. His goal came on Thursday night in a loss to Lake Erie, which was also the Checkers lone tally of the game. Boychuk also looked very impressive in the Norfolk game with four shots on goal and he had a few very good chances that either missed the net or were stopped by Andersen. Despite that, I think it's safe to say he made a good impression on the coaching staff and his performance this year should be enough to earn him one more look with the Hurricanes.

Riley Nash also made quite a bit of noise this past week with a goal and two assists. Nash is more known for his defensive skills at the professional level but he showed some of his offensive talent in the 4-0 win over Lake Erie by scoring on a powerful slapshot from the top of the faceoff circle. He also made a great feed to Dalpe from the side of the net to set up a goal and tallied another assist in the third period. Performances like that from Nash are pretty rare but they are nice to see when they come around. Tim Wallace also had a three-point performance this weekend, as did Chris Terry who scored his 10th goal of the season.

All in all, this was a great three-game set for the Checkers despite it beginning on a frustrating note with a 2-1 overtime loss on Thursday night. They won both of their games after that, outscored their opponents 9-2 and outshot them 93-77. Outplaying your opponents always goes a long way into notching victories and that's exactly what the Checkers managed to do in all three of their games. Solid goaltending from the Peters/Ellis tandem also helped a lot. It will be interesting to see what happens to this team after training camp because there are going to be a few players leaving for the Hurricanes. The strong start the Checkers got off to likely puts them in good position to make the playoffs right now but will they keep up this great pace after losing a few key players? We shall see.

Before the lockout put everything on hold for the last 113 days, the Carolina Hurricanes made a few very interesting moves this off-season and were expected to be one of the more improved teams in the league. It has been quite a long time since all of this went down, so let's take the next few minutes or so to review everything the Hurricanes did and what their roster looks like heading into training camp.

Everything started back in June at the NHL Draft when GM Jim Rutherford made the huge trade to acquire center Jordan Staal from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the 8th overall pick, Brandon Sutter and Brian Dumoulin. Sutter and his defensive prowess will be missed but no one can deny that J. Staal is a major upgrade over him and gives the Hurricanes' top-six a boost from what it was last season. I'm still not sure how the coaching staff will use Staal and how much he will fit in here but I'm pretty excited to see how he does. It's easy to forget that he is only 24 and is beginning to enter the prime years of his career. That should get a lot of people amped up about what he could potentially do. Staal is going to be with the Hurricanes throughout the good and the bad, as Rutherford also signed him to a 10-year contract extension worth $6 mil. per year. A deal like that would not be allowed under the new CBA, so this was a timely signing for the Hurricanes.

The other big move made by Rutherford this summer was his signing of high-scoring winger Alexander Semin to a one-year deal worth $7 mil. The price is a bit high but it's a reasonable low-risk move considering that it is only for one season and Semin can bring a lot ot the table, especially for a team like Carolina who needed a goal-scorer. I think his days of scoring 40+ goals are over, but he can still produce quite a bit of offense and should be able to thrive on a line with one of the Staal brothers. This is one acquisition that I was a big fan of because Semin fills an immediate, short-term need and has the potential to be a great addition to the Hurricanes. There were a few teams who were interested in Semin but backed away because of his "attitude problems," which I feel are way too overstated. If he can get it done on the ice, something that he has been able to do for most of his career, then the Canes shouldn't have many issues with him. 

Rutherford also decided to extend Jeff Skinner for six years at $5.75 mil. per season. Rutherford getting this out of the way before Skinner's contract year was a very wise move on his part, but I thought he would be able to get Skinner to sign at a lower price. Skinner will probably be worth this much in another year or two so it's hard to say that this was a bad signing but it is a missed opportunity to get Skinner locked up for a few years at a lower cost. The contract ends when he turns 26, so the Hurricanes at least have him under team control for most of his prime years.

Most of the other signings Rutherford made this off-season were relatively minor. He signed Joe Corvo to a one-year contract worth $2 mil. which is fine if Corvo stays on the third pairing but problems could arise if he is relied on to do more. This will be Corvo's third go-around with the Canes and I'm not sure if he will be able to handle top-four minutes, tough assignments and PK duty like he did in his last stint. With so many younger players on the Hurricanes defense, adding a veteran to the mix was a good call but Corvo wasn't exactly many fan's ideal candidate. Although, the emergence of Justin Faulk and Jay Harrison could mean that Corvo won't be relied on to play as many minutes as he did in the past.

Also new to the Hurricanes is Tim Wallace, Marc-Andre Gragnani and Dan Ellis, who all signed one-year, two-way contracts in the off-season. Wallace doesn't have much NHL experience but he's an experienced AHL veteran and is having a good year with the Checkers. Gragnani, on the other hand, spent all of last year in the NHL and needs to be exposed to waivers before being sent back down. He has been with the Checkers during the lockout and is currently injured so I'm not sure what they will do with him once he is healthy. Ellis was signed to a tryout contract by the Checkers and will probably compete for the back-up goaltender spot with Brian Boucher and Justin Peters.

The Hurricanes also received some bad news regarding Tuomo Ruutu a few days ago, as it was announced that the rugged winger will be out until at least May due to hip surgery. This opens up another forward spot and place in the top-six and I would expect the battles in training camp for it to be pretty intense, as there are a few guys who could be potential candidates to replace him. With Boychuk and Dalpe having great seasons in Charlotte and Jiri Tlusty lighting up the Czech League, the Canes aren't short of potential candidates.

Just like in the summer, there are still a few things with the Canes that are up in the air and we will go over them the next few days as training camp draws near. The lockout has probably ruined a lot people's enthusiasm but it's hard not to be excited right now if you are a Hurricanes fan.

As of approximately 6:49 a.m. on Sunday, January 6, 2013, the NHL and NHLPA have come to terms with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that will last for the next 10 seasons. This is fantastic news since it means that the lockout is finally over and the NHL avoids having to lose another season, but things aren't completely set in stone yet. the NHL owners and members of the Player's Association still need to confirm the deal before everything is final but the fact that they have come to terms on a deal is a very good sign. The two sides also need to set a start date for the season and you can expect it to be no later than January 19th according to TSN.  It also hasn't been determined how many games will be played this season but the details of that should be revealed very shortly.

The new CBA has the salary cap for next year set at $64.3 million with a floor of $44 million, which was higher than the NHL's original request of having it at only $60 mil. Teams will also be allowed two amnesty buyout starting this off-season and there is a good chance we could see a few of those happen after the spending sprees many teams went on the last couple of years. This probably won't affect the Hurricanes too much since they will have $12.3 mil. to spend on 5-6 players and appear to be in decent shape cap-wise for now.

A few other features of this CBA is that free agent can only be signed to a max of seven years and eight years if they re-sign with their current team, so deals like the ones given to Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Ilya Bryzgalov will not happen under this CBA. It should also be noted that the bottom-14 teams in the league will be eligible for the draft lottery and have a chance at landing the first overall pick, which was probably put in place to prevent teams from tanking during a bad season. The Hurricanes were in that boat for a good part of last year before Kirk Muller arrived, so that is familiar territory. Other details on the CBA can be found on TSN's web site and will be updated as they are revealed in the next few hours.

Now that we know there will be a season, it is time to start thinking about what the Hurricanes roster will look like and which players from Charlotte will end up making the final cuts. Teams are expected to begin training camps sometime within the next week ro so and I'm sure the Hurricanes' camp with Muller's staff will be very unpredictable since the Charlotte Checkers have at least three players having great seasons and are on the brink of being ready for NHL competition. Virtually anything can happen in a shortened training camp, so seeing which one of the kids from Charlotte makes the team will be fun to watch.

All in all, it is great that this mess is finally over and NHL fans can now revert their focus back to hockey. It's going to be a pretty wild year.

Yet another month has gone by without an NHL season but there are still many players on the Hurricanes roster and prospect pool who are currently playing in other leagues. The last time I wrote an update on this, Jiri Tlusty and his point-per-game scoring rate in the Czech League was leading the way. He has been given the luxury of playing on a line with Tomas Plekanec and Jaromir Jagr, so he is definitely benefiting from strong linemates but his scoring line is still impressive. He could potentially see a return to top-six minutes in Carolina once the lockout ends with Tuomo Ruutu being injury and opening up a wing spot on the top two lines. Tlusty's success overseas is a tad surprising for those who thought his breakout season was a fluke and we look forward to what he can do once he and the Hurricanes return.

Who else on the Hurricanes roster and prospect pool is performing well during the lockout, though? Find out after the jump.

There is still no news on whether or not there will be an NHL season this year, but if there is, the Hurricanes will have to go most of it without winger Tuomo Ruutu, who recently underwent hip surgery and will be out indefinitely. Craig Custance of ESPN was one of the first to break this story and according to him, Ruutu will not return until at least early May, which means that he will not be playing a game for the Hurricanes this year unless they make the playoffs. Ruutu is always one of the Hurricanes most physical players and battled an upper-body injury for a good chunk of last season, so the news isn't terribly surprising but that doesn't make it any better for the Hurricanes who now have yet another void to fill in their top-six.

With the additions of Alexander Semin and Jordan Staal, the Hurricanes appeared to have one of the stronger forwards corps' in the league but they are now going to have to replace a key member of their top-six in a short amount of time. Ruutu wasn't outstanding last year, but he was one of their better offensive options and will not be easy to replace. Ruutu's absence opens up a spot in the top-six and if you can take anything positive away from this, it's that it will give one of the Hurricanes many younger forwards a shot at the top-six right off the bat. 

With Alex Semin now in the mix, Jiri Tlusty was likely going to be used in a third line spot by default while others such as Zach Boychuk, Zac Dalpe and Drayson Bowman would basically be battling for roster spots. Adding to that, the highest on the depth chart they would get is maybe the third line on a fully healthy team so Ruutu's injury could give one of these players a shot at top-nine minutes and make an impact. All three have been exceptional and I can't imagine that they won't see time with the Canes once the season starts. The bad news is that none of them will likely produce at Ruutu's level, but they aren't horrible options for the time being, especially since Ruutu hasn't been a tough minute player for the last couple of seasons. 

This injury came at a very bad time because this is the first season of Ruutu's $19 mil. contract and the Hurricanes will be paying $4 mil. for no production if he is out for the entire season. Ruutu has been a fairly durable player throughout his career but he will be 30 next year and considering the physical game he plays, it's possible that his body may suffer more wear and tear down the line. It doesn't help that he'll be playing with a surgically repaired hip, either. As far as Ruutu's future goes, this might worry some fans but for now, the most we can do is wish him the best of luck with his recovery and hope he returns to the ice as soon as possible. 

This is going to be a different update than ones in the past because we are at the part of the year where teams are returning from their holiday break and playing a partial schedule. There are also quite a few teams icing much different lineups due to the World Junior Championships currently going on right now. So, instead of looking at each player individually, I'm going to go over each league and talk about any possible standouts from Carolina's prospect pool since it doesn't make much sense to review each player if they only played one game. We'll also look at how Victor Rask and Ryan Murphy are performing for their respective countries at the WJC in Ufa.

It is almost January and there has still yet to be an NHL game played this year as the owners and players still can not seem to agree on a new CBA. This has many believing that there will be no NHL season at all this year but yesterday brought a small glimmer of hope with the league drawing up a new CBA proposal that would give us a shortened season. Whether or not this proposal gets accepted is another story but we were going to be looking at a shortened year one way or another, so that alone is worth discussing. One of the old adages in sports is that the wins early in the season count as much as the ones later in the year, and this is going to be even more true if there is a season of 48-games. 

In a full, 82-game season, banking wins in the early part of the year is always important because it puts less stress on teams later on if they are gunning for a playoff spot. If the NHL does end up having a shortened season, then each win is going to be more important and a prolonged streak could put a team in or out of a playoff spot. Remember the good stretches that the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs had in the first half of last season? They both ended up missing the playoffs, but there is a good chance that they would make the final cut in a shortened season if they start the year off a strong note again. Every game is going to mean a lot more and it should make things much more exciting but there are some problems that could arise, especially for the Hurricanes.

While it's true that a shortened season will open the door for a lot of different teams to make the playoffs, some teams might be cut out of the chase early if they have a slow start. I'm sure most want to block the final days of Paul Maurice out of their minds, but Carolina endured a very tough stretch of games last November where they went 4-10-1 and were all but eliminated from playoff contention before the All-Star Break after going only 5-7-2 in December. The Canes have never been a team to come storming out of the gate, but they will need to play stronger than they have in October & November of recent years because one bad losing streak could put them on the outside of the playoff picture before the mid-way point. On the other hand, the Canes may start the year off a high note and it could put them in a better position to make the playoffs. That would be nice, but it's worth noting that the Canes are 35-53-14 in October & November over the last four seasons, so hot starts are not what this team is known for.

This should be a completely different Hurricanes team than we've seen compared to years past, so we could be in for a surprise but the amount of new blood coming in might be a disadvantage to the Hurricanes. All teams are going to go through an abbreviated training camp and the Hurricanes new acquisitions such as Jordan Staal and Alexander Semin are going to need to take time to get used to Kirk Muller's system. Then you have the younger players like Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, Jeremy Welsh and Zac Dalpe who will be fighting for roster spots which will put a lot of stress on Muller to make a few quick decisions in a short amount of time. It's also worth mentioning that most of these prospects are in the final years of restricted free agency and the Canes won't have much time to evaluate them as they would in a full-season. This will also be Muller's first full year as a head coach in the NHL and the Hurricanes may not be as fully prepared as other teams who have been running the same system for years. The team seemed to adjust to Muller nicely last season, so I would like to think that this won't be a problem but you never know, especially with two new key players added.

The one comforting thing in all of this is that every other team is probably having similar questions about their team heading into this season, should there be one. The Hurricanes recent history of bad starts is concerning, yes but having a different coach and new players here is enough for me to offset this for now. They are just going to have to do what every other team is doing and make the best of whatever comes of this new CBA agreement. If there is a season, then the Hurricanes are going to have a very brief time to prepare themselves and get ready to come out of the gates firing on all cylinders, because a slow start could doom them early this time around.