What About Whitney?

I'm kind of blown away by talk that the Carolina Hurricanes are setting themselves a budget of $44 million for their payroll in 2011, which is low-balling it significantly.  Now, as I can gather, that works out to be $44 million in payroll, which is quite low, but thankfully for 2011, the Hurricanes have more back-loaded deals for their young players, like Eric Staal, and front-loaded deals for their elders, like Rod Brind'Amour.  According to CapGeek's salary chart for the Hurricanes (I don't do salaries on my chart, just cap hits), they are currently sitting with a payroll of $41.9 million, which is deathly close already.  This number will drastically effect how the Hurricanes are tinkered with in the Summer months, including their free agents.

Enter: Ray Whitney. Whitney is an unrestricted free agent this Summer and at 38-years old, he still seems to have plenty of life left in him to warrant a brand new deal from someone, but that someone isn't going to be the Hurricanes. 

In 2010, Whitney had himself a cap hit of $3.55 million, which may have been front-loaded at the time, but was definitely worth a good chunk of change.  In return, Whitney did post 21 goals and 58 points in 80 games for the Hurricanes, which was about right for the value he possesses against the salary cap.  For 2011, I would be expecting that Whitney will be in the same cap hit neighbourhood for a 1-year deal, less if it was a 2-year deal, when signing with a new club and I imagine there will be some reasonable suitors for his services.

I could honestly see Whitney sign a 2-year deal worth about $2.5 million against the cap for his new team, which is looking for some Cup-winning experience, 15-20 goals a year and some decent skating speed.  If I had to point to a few teams that I think would look at Whitney seriously, they would be Detroit, Ottawa, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Washington.  I wouldn't expect teams that are outside the bubble to really be in on Whitney, nor would I expect Whitney to want to be in on teams that aren't likely to win. 

A Staal in Edmonton?

RUMOUR			2009/2010 NHL Statistics			2010 Cap Hit
To Edmonton	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Years	Per Year
Eric Staal	Forward	25	16	3	7	7	$8.25 million
Undetermined Draft Pick
--------
To Carolina	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Years	Per Year
Andrew Cogliano	Forward	22	25	3	8	1	$1.133 million
Denis Grebeshkov	Defenseman	26	19	3	10	1	$3.15 million

Well, how about this one? This is a doozy of a rumour, which could have been brewing up for some time now. It takes a couple of different ideas and combines them into one really awkward and hard-to-believe notion.

The Oilers have been anything but quiet about trying to get themselves a superstar, including Dany Heatley and Phil Kessel. The Hurricanes could very well be looking for a change in direction altogether after their disastrous start to the year. A trade for both teams seems likely. Is this really what the mill has in mind though?

The Hurricanes would be trading away a franchise player from their roster with a heavy salary cap hit for the next seven seasons after this one. You could argue that this could be more of a salary dump to help buy themselves a new superstar when the free agent marketplace opens in July 2010.

The Oilers would then be moving the two players that they have been reportedly trying to deal for some quality talent and would be willing to take on that excess of salary that Staal has already been signed to.

I can't honestly see this going down though. There just doesn't seem to be enough going to Carolina in this deal. The Oilers are getting a 100-point player (when healthy) and the Hurricanes are getting two impending free agents for next season. There has to be more to it. The Canes could be looking for some more draft picks to help ease their way in the rebuilding phase of their franchise. Maybe then it would make some sense, especially if it was a really high pick.

Still though... moving Eric Staal is mildly far-fetched. Between him and Cam Ward, those are the two players Carolina should be building around.