Hurricanes at the Olympic Trade Deadline

Today, the Hurricanes traded Matt Cullen to the Ottawa Senators for Alexandre Picard and a 2nd round draft pick. Unfortunately, these are the type of moves that GM Jim Rutherford has to make given his circumstances. The 'Canes horrific start to the season has made it nearly impossible to envision a playoff run. Even worse, the team has been up against the salary cap all year long. The math is simple:

Underachieving team + Small market + Aging roster + Recession = Fire sale

So what does this trade mean? Fan favorites like Cullen (and in the future, Ray Whitney) will be shipped to contenders for picks and/or prospects. So far, the Hurricanes have three 2nd round picks in the 2010 draft (they acquired Buffalo's pick from San Jose for Niclas Wallin last week). Picard is a restricted free agent after this season. Basically, the rest of this season is a tryout for him to see if the 'Canes are interested in keeping him around for the long term.

The roster has its core young talent like Eric Staal, Cam Ward, Brandon Sutter, etc. The old guard is on its way out. The mission statement is to have a younger, faster, cheaper team in 2010-2011. It will remain to be seen how far the youth movement goes throughout the rest of this season and into the offseason. Will other veterans be traded? Will unrestricted free agents like the recently departed Cullen and the soon to be traded Whitney return in the offseason? Will the 'Canes get a top 3 draft pick? Only time will tell.