Sure, they are great now but what about next year.

I guess to preface this post I will say that today it is important to remember this game I hold so dear is essentially a kids game. In the grand scheme of things it is largely unimportant.

That being said, lets talk hockey. I had planned to type this up Thursday but situations dictated my writing this today. I was thinking about this before my beloved Canes dropped the first three games to the Pens. To stave off the folks who will say this is a defeatist post I believe the canes can take the current series to a game seven. Lets all hope they do.

Today I'm looking at the question of where the canes go from here. What happens next year?

The best site I've found for the info I will be using is at nhlnumbers.com

The Canes will need twelve forwards, six defense men, and two goalies for next year.

Returning forwards:

Staal, Brind'Amoure, Whitney, Cullen, Samsanov, Walker, Eaves, Sutter, and Boychuck

We have a bit of a glut at center with Staal, Brindy, Cullen, Sutter and Boychuck Listed as such. This leaves us a lot of room to work with on the wings. I'm going to assume we sign our restricted FA's so lets add Jokinen and Ruutu into this mix.

So right now we sit with

1st line - Staal, Whitney, Ruutu
2nd line - Cullen, Walker, Samsanov
3rd line - Brindy, Eaves
4th line - Sutter/Boychuck

Can we sign or will we sign Cole or LaRose? Personally I think LaRose can get more money elsewhere. He is probably at his peak and he needs to make all he can while he can. Cole may give us a hometown discount. So I'm going to say we get Cole back and Rosey signs in New York or Washington ;)

So now we probably look more like

1st line - Staal, Cole, Whitney
2nd line - Cullen, Walker, Ruutu
3rd line - Brindy, Eaves, Samsanov
4th - Sutter and some new FA's or younguns

Returning Defense:

Pitkanen, Gleason, Corvo, Kaberla, Wallin, and Conboy.

I think we need to sign just one more body here, preferably Babchuck. That would move Conboy back to the tough guy role and I like that. We will not keep Siedenberg, we will not want to pay him what he can get elsewhere.

Goalies:

Ward and Leighton

We are set here.

What do you think?

Sure, they are great now but what about next year.