For the past two years, Justin Faulk has been a huge bright spot on what is mostly a bad defense corps. He made a huge impression on the Hurricanes fanbase last season after making the team out of training camp and won even more people over around late-November when he was permanent called up to the team. It's rare for a defenseman to become a full-time NHL-er before his 20th birthday, so Faulk being able to stick with the Hurricanes for 66 games last year was impressive enough, but this is just scratching the surface.

Not only was Faulk on the big club full-time, he also led all Carolina defensemen in time on ice per game, played on both special teams units and was often matched up against some of the opposition's better forwards. The national eye may have not given him a lot of attention, but Carolina fans knew they had something special in Faulk. After such a fantastic rookie season, the thought on everyone's minds was what will Faulk do next and will he improve or fall victim to the dreaded "sophomore slump?"

To some people, Faulk can do no wrong, but there were some areas he struggled in last season. As with any young defenseman, he was prone to mistakes and was giving up more chances than he was producing. He also had some issues with his two-way game, particularly with defending in transition and it resulted in him being on the ice for a lot of scoring chances against. Faulk impressed in a lot of ways, but there were plenty of things for him to improve on and playing for Team USA in the World Championships after the season and for the Charlotte Checkers during the lockout could help him fine tune his game before the NHL got back into action.

Even with those flaws, Faulk showed a lot of poise in his rookie season and did not look overwhelmed despite being a teenager playing a role that veterans are often assigned to. This along with Faulk's terrific special teams play showed that the Hurricanes had themselves a very good defensemen who was only in the beginning stages of his NHL career. The question was how good could Faulk be in his career and how long would it take for him to get to that level? His performance this year helped answered both of those questions.

If there is such a thing as a "sophomore slump," the Hurricanes didn't see it from Faulk this year because he improved on his rookie season in just about every way imaginable and emerged as a top-pairing defenseman. All before his 21st birthday too.

Well, after a very long wait the big day is finally here and the NHL season is ready to get underway starting at 3 p.m. Saturday. Today was the last day of training camp and teams had until 5 p.m. to finalize their rosters for opening night. We've spent the last week or so going over which players might make the roster and the final 23 are now set in stone.

After the jump, we'll look at which players made the team, go over the lines being used in camp and how the coaching staff could utilize each unit.

Winnipeg Jets Season Preview

Record Last Year: 37-35-10
Goal Differential: -21
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 51.05% (11th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 8.1%
5v5 Sv%:  .912
PP SF/60: 45.6 (21st in NHL)
PK SA/60: 51.4 (11th in NHL)

If you have looked at Bovoda's betting odds for who will win the Southeast, you will see that the team with the worst "chance" at winning the division is the Winnipeg Jets at +700. Those aren't terrible odds by any means but most people have the Jets as the "underdogs" in the Southeast and the least likely to make the playoffs. To me, this is surprising because Winnipeg wasn't that bad of a team last year. They weren't exactly a "good" team either, but compared to the rest of the Southeast, the Jets were pretty much in the thick of things until the latter part of the season. They had only one fewer win than the Southeast champion Florida Panthers, two more points than Carolina and the same amount of points as Tampa Bay. It's just kind of hard to believe that the odds of them winning the division are so much lower than them.

A possible reason why Winnipeg hasn't been receiving much love from the writers and oddsmakers is because Carolina and Tampa Bay both had very active off-seasons while the Jets didn't make much noise that caught the national media's eye. The Jets may have not broke any headlines but GM Kevin Chevyldayoff made a few good signings and it could help Winnipeg surprise a few people this season.

Florida Panthers Season Preview

Record Last Year: 38-26-18
Goal Differential: -24
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 50.35% (13th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 7.2%
5v5 Sv%:  .925
PP SF/60: 48.8 (13th in NHL)
PK SA/60: 54.3 (26th in NHL)

Aside from the Phoenix Coyotes and maybe the Ottawa Senators, no team exceeded their expectations more than the Florida Panthers did last season. Pegged by most to be a bottom-feeder in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers ended up winning the Southeast Division and making the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. They went onto give the New Jersey Devils a hard run for their money in the first round before being eliminated in seven games, ending what was one of the best seasons this franchise has ever had. Despite this, there haven't been many people picking Florida to repeat their title and there are many reasons for that.

For starters, they still had a terrible goal differential of -24 and had the same amount or fewer wins than non-playoff clubs such as Tampa Bay, Dallas, Colorado and Buffalo. One of the reasons why they got into the playoffs was due to their 18 points gained from shootout and overtime losses. It should also be mentioned that Florida was involved in 40 one goal games and they gained points in all but five of them. When your place in the standings is decided that much by one-goal gains, it's usually a sign that good fortune played a role in it. 

In addition to Florida's own flaws, the rest of the teams in the Southeast each made their own improvements and appear to be more dangerous than they were a year ago. Florida isn't as bad of a team as some would lead you to believe, but they are going to need a few things to go right if they want to have a chance at repeating.

Washington Capitals Season Preview

Record Last Year: 42-32-8
Goal Differential: -8
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 49.71% (16th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 8.6%
5v5 Sv%:  .920
PP SF/60: 47.5 (18th in NHL)
PK SA/60: 49.4 (14th in NHL)

The Washington Capitals fall from grace last season was fascinating to watch. Many projected this team to win the Southeast Division for the fifth year in a row and be a favorite for the Stanley Cup. They ended up barely making the playoffs and rode a hot goaltender to the conference semi-finals where they lost in seven games to the New York Rangers. A team with as much talent as them was expected to have a much easier path to the playoffs and rely on more than just ridiculous goaltending to make a strong run but sometime last season, the once dominant Capitals team saw their ability to control possession plummet and their scoring dry up along with it. Some blamed the coaching change while others pointed to injuries as the main cause. Others put the blame on the star players simply not getting the job done but whatever the case was, the Caps didn't look like their usual selves last season and still managed to turn in a good season all things considered.

The Caps now find themselves with yet another head coach, a slightly different roster and expectations that were lower than they were in years past. Luckily for them, the Southeast Division is wide open and Washington could regain their title if they stay healthy and rebound from their second-half slump last season.

Tampa Bay Lightning Season Preview

Record Last Year: 38-36-8
Goal Differential: -46
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 48.31% (20th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 9.9%
5v5 Sv%:  .899
PP SF/60: 41.5 (28th in NHL)
PK SA/60: 53.4 (25th in NHL)

With the season set to begin a couple days, it's now a good time to see what the other teams in the NHL have been up to over the last six months and how the Carolina Hurricanes stack up against them. One team that Carolina had some problems with in the past is the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are known as the team that knocked Carolina out of the playoffs on the last game of the 2010-11 season and followed it up by defeating them 5-1 on opening night the next season. These two teams did have some good battles last year, though as they ended up splitting the season series with three wins a piece.

That aside, the Lightning are coming off a very disappointing season after making it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals the previous year. You can see from the stats above that the Bolts were a pretty bad team in just about all areas. They did get some good shooting luck from their top-two lines that helped them win a few more games than they probably "should" have when you consider how poor their goaltending and defensive play was. If the Lightning want to get back to the playoffs, they will need to rely on more than just Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Teddy Purcell striking gold everytime they shoot the puck because that will only get you so far when your goalies are stopping less than 90% of the shots they face at even strength.

Their GM, Steve Yzerman, was smart enough to recognize this over the summer as the Lightning had a pretty underrated off-season and appear to be a better team on paper than they were a year ago.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Carolina Hurricanes made the decision to put both Brett Sutter and Andreas Nodl on waivers, meaning that the Canes are very close to trimming their roster down to the 23 player limit.  Assuming they put Tuomo Ruutu on Long-Term Injured Reserve, the Canes would need to make one more cut to reach the limit and if they don't, then two players need to go. Over the past week, we've discussed who is in camp and what each player would have to do to make the team, but now we have more of a solid idea of what the roster will look like with only a couple more pieces to sort out.

Who will make it past final cuts, though? We'll preview that after the jump and talk about some possible line combinations that we could see to open camp.

On Sunday afternoon, the Carolina Hurricanes opened their training camp for this season, beginning what is sure to be an exciting week for the entire NHL. The Hurricanes camp in particular is going to be very fascinating to watch for a few reasons. Firstly, this is their first camp under head coach Kirk Muller and in addition to that, they have a few new players coming in along with nine call-ups from the Charlotte Checkers. That's a lot of bodies to sort through with only so many roster spots available and the best part about it is that they have less than a week before their first regular season game.

The Hurricanes are going to have a very brief amount of time to something together here, so I can imagine that training camp is going to be rather chaotic and Muller will have his work cut out for him. Everyone seems to believe that this team will be better than next year now that they have some more offensive firepower but there are still a few things that need to be determined before the Hurricanes begin the season, and it goes beyond just finding out who makes the team and who doesn't. 

After the jump, we will look at some questions the Hurricanes will be facing this training camp and discuss some possible solutions to them. With so many players in camp, they certainly have plenty of options.

The general consensus among those who follow the NHL is that while the Hurricanes appear to be a better team than they were last year, they still have some holes on defense. I've discussed this a few times over the prolonged off-season and came to the conclusion that it's probably going to take more than a season for the Canes to have a "great team." We're talking about a team who gave up more shots than any other club in the league last year and currently has only one player who most would consider a solid shutdown defenseman. It's going to take time for things to improve and that's especially true with the Hurricanes having so many defensive prospects in their system. They also lost two of their better defensive players over the summer in Brandon Sutter and Bryan Allen, so this could be another tough transition year for the Canes defense unless a few players outperform their expectations or their forwards make up for their problems on the blue-line. 

Calling this a "transition year" for the Hurricanes defense might sound a little odd because the only moves they made over the off-season was signing Joe Corvo to a one-year deal while losing Bryan Allen to free agency and Jaroslav Spacek to retirement. Corvo should be able to take over Spacek's role as a soft-minute/third pairing defenseman but the loss of Allen changes the look of this defense quite a bit. Along with Tim Gleason, Allen did the bulk of the heavy lifting on the Carolina blue-line, being given the toughest assignments at even strength and on the penalty kill. No one was signed to replace Allen, which poses a problem for the Hurricanes defense. 

A lack of bodies isn't the Hurricanes problem, as they have enough NHL-caliber players. The bigger issue is whether or not they have the right players for their system and if they fill their team's needs. If you're running a team, you would want your defense corps to consist of at least 3-4 players who are capable of playing at least 20 minutes a game and being matched up against other team's top lines. In addition to that, you want a minimum of four players who can be used on the powerplay and penalty kill to fill out both special teams units. Do the Hurricanes have these pieces?

The answer to that question depends on how you feel about the players on the roster right now. Obviously we know that Tim Gleason is capable of playing in the top four and handling tough minutes but everyone after that is an uncertainty. Both Justin Faulk and Jay Harrison played tough minutes last year but that was the first season either of them had playing such minutes, and Faulk is still only 20 years old. Joe Corvo played the toughs for Carolina in 2010-11 but was used as a third-pairing defenseman in Boston last season, Joni Pitkanen can play big minutes but his territorial play against opposing team's first lines has never been the best and Jamie McBain has spent most of his NHL career in more of a sheltered role. Then there is Bobby Sanguinetti and Ryan Murphy who probably aren't going to be playing top-four minutes unless they really impress the coaching staff in training camp.

After reviewing this a little, it can be determined that the Canes have plenty of guys with experience playing in the top-four but they haven't exactly performed at a level that would put them in that class on a contending team. That being said, a healthy season from Pitkanen and progressions from the likes of Faulk and McBain could definitely change things for the better. Faulk's terrific performance with the Charlotte Checkers during the lockout could be an indication of great things to come for him, but we will have to see how his NHL development goes once the season resumes. McBain, on the other hand, is a borderline top-four guy right now who hasn't shown the ability to play against tough competition aside from a couple of occasions. McBain's performance in the NHL has been good for a third-pairing defenseman and he is capable of playing 20+ minutes a game thanks to his time with Pitkanen but those two were one of the worst Carolina defense pairings last year in terms of creating and preventing scoring chances. A new defense partner could be in order for McBain to determine if he is suitable for a top-four role full-time. Until then, Harrison showed last year that he is good enough to hold the fort down but I am personally not sold on him being a long-term solution just yet.

With the team having only one assured shutdown defenseman, it's very likely that we could see the defense pairings used much differently than what fans were used to seeing last year. Since there is no Gleason/Allen pairing who will automatically get the tough assignments every night, things are going to be much more spread out than they were last year. This means that the defense pairings could end up being shifted around a few times before the coaching staff settles on a few that they like. It could be even more with training camp being even shorter than usual. Predictions don't really mean much right now, but if I were running the Hurricanes defense, this is how I would roll the defense corps to start the year.

First Pairing:

Tim Gleason - Joni Pitkanen

Assignments: Opposing team's top lines, 20+ minutes a game, <50% offensive zone starts

The success of this pairing is all going to depend on whether or not Pitkanen can stay healthy and if his play doesn't drop off too dramatically from where it was last year. This is a bit of an interesting pairing because Gleason isn't going to be with a pure defensive defenseman like he was for most of last year and I think that might actually work out well. Pitkanen provides a good compliment to Gleason and can really help him when it comes to leading breakouts and getting the puck moving in the right direction. The one flaw with the Gleason/Allen pairing last year was Allen's struggles with advancing the puck out of the defensive zone, leading to these two getting pinned in their own end more times than not. Having a more offensive-minded partner will help out Gleason, who is more mobile than some give him credit for. The one question mark that comes with this pairing is whether or not Pitkanen can handle playing against tough competition. He plays enough minutes every night to be on the first pairing but everyone knows Pitkanen has trouble when it comes to coverage in the defensive zone. Gleason may be able to help him out here moreso than McBain, so I think this pairing is worth a shot.

Second Pairing

Justin Faulk - Jay Harrison

Assignments: Second and third lines, at least 20 minutes per game, 50% offensive zone starts

Faulk will probably be elevated to the first pairing sometime this year, but starting him with Harrison again isn't a bad idea. These two were the Hurricanes best defense pairing last year at creating and preventing scoring chances and showed some great chemistry when playing together. They also compliment each other well with Harrison's more responsible game covering up some of Faulk's aggressive plays. Faulk's defensive game is also very impressive considering his age, so it wouldn't surprise me if he is bumped up with Gleason in due time but starting him with Harrison should be fine for now. The two of them know how to work together and the Hurricanes might be better off not messing with a good thing.

Third Pairing

Jamie McBain - Joe Corvo/Bobby Sanguinetti

Assignments: Depth lines, 12-15 minutes a game, >50% offensive zone starts

I'm a little higher on McBain than most people and I think he can play in the top-four if needed, but starting him off on the third pairing is probably the right move for now because he has been able to succeed there in the past. He will likely get a shot in the top-four sometime later in the year, though. Pairing him with a skilled offensive-defenseman like Corvo in a sheltered role could turn out to be a very good plan after how well McBain played with Jaroslav Spacek last year. The other two pairings are going to eat up most of the tough minutes, so this allows the Canes to have a sheltered third unit and it also helps that the Canes have two players who can thrive in this playing situation. I know GM Jim Rutherford signed Corvo to play with Gleason as he did in the past, but I have my doubts about him being able to play in a tough-minute role. A third-pairing defenseman (and a solid one at that) is what he was in Boston and it's probably what he is at this point in his career. Bobby Sanguinetti will probably make the team as a seventh defenseman and play in a similar role.

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.