[TheScorpion]

The 'Canes are building a really defensive-oriented team. They have a really good defensive-minded coach in Bill Peters, a ton of defensive depth in Faulk, Hanifin, Slavin, Murphy, Bean, McKeown, Gauthier, and Fleury, and now have a potentially really good goalie in Darling (and a bounce-back candidate in Lack).

I really like where the Hurricanes are going... they just need to shore up their bottom-six. They've got a lot of good offensive options in Aho, Skinner, Staal, Rask, Lindholm, Teravainen, and Stempniak... but past that, they've got Derek Ryan who had a Versteeg-like year this year (and he's also a UFA on July 1) and really nobody else. I think that if the Hurricanes can go out on July 1st and get some really solid middle-six players and maybe graduate some AHL guys to play on the fourth line, then they can absolutely make the playoffs next season.