LaRose Is Back In The Fold

I've been away from my computer for the last few days, but I was happy to read in yesterday's News & Observer that the Canes have come to terms on a new 1 year contract with sparkplug forward Chad LaRose.

LaRose was a restricted free agent, who just last week had filed for arbitration. The Canes had originally offered a qualifying offer of $550,000, but the contract signed on Wednesday was for one year at $875,000. There had been some concern amongst Canes fans (myself included) that the team would not be able to resign LaRose under their current budget restrictions. Rumor had it that the LaRose camp was seeking 3rd line money, while the Canes do not project him above a 4th line forward in the upcoming season. Adding to the concern was the fact that with their recent trades and free agent signings, the Canes were already (and still are) well above their projected salary budget of $45 million. But with LaRose now securely back in the fold for at least one more season, the Canes can look to trim that budget a bit, most likely through a trade on defense.

LaRose, 26, is coming off his most productive campaign in 3 NHL level seasons with the Hurricanes. Known primarily as an energy guy and penalty killer for most of his NHL career, a rash of injuries to the Hurricanes forward corps resulted in LaRose playing on the second and third lines for the first time in his career. He responded t the additional ice time by posting NHL and career highs in goals (11) and total points (23)*, even though he himself was limited to 57 games due to an injury of his own (a broken leg) 3/4 of the way through the season. LaRose came back from what many thought could be a season ending injury in just 4 weeks, and was strong down the stretch for the Canes, notching his first NHL career hat-trick (and the game winning goal) on April 2nd against Tampa Bay.

A prolific scorer in juniors (he once notched a 117 point season in just 67 games for Plymouth in 2002-2003) and in the minors, LaRose has never found a prolific or consistent scoring touch on the NHL level, but he has more than made up for it with hard work, character, energy and grit, making him a definite fan favorite and an asset in the Canes' locker room.

Hopefully LaRose's offensive game will continue to develop, although with the glut of forwards on the Carolina roster heading into 2008/2009 it will be difficult to see him cracking the top 3 lines. Most likely the Canes will rely on him for his energy, grit and defensive skills on the 4th line and the penalty kill, barring significant injury in their top 9 forwards. Still, LaRose is a fighter and will surely make anyone ahead of him on the depth chart fight for their minutes on the ice. And having him as insurance in the depth department is a great thing.

Overall a good signing for the Canes, both from an on-ice perspective and from a PR perspective. Having already lost one fan favorite in Erik Cole, some Caniacs would have gotten pretty restless losing LaRose as well.

-m

* Interesting Note: LaRose has notched exactly 12 assists in each of his 3 seasons with the Hurricanes. His goal totals in those 3 seasons have increased from 1 (2005/2006) to 6 (2006/2007) to 12 (2007/2008).

Seidenberg Signs, LaRose Files for Arbitration

With the big splashes via free agency and trades likely done, the Hurricanes announced a little bit of house keeping over the weekend.

Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg has signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract with the Canes for next season. Seidenberg made $850,000 last season for the Canes, and as a RFA was tendered a qualifying offer of $935,000 late last month. With Siedenberg's signing, the Canes now have 8 defensemen under contract at the NHL level for next season (Joni Pikanen, Joe Korvo, Tim Gleason, Frank Kaberle, Niclas Wallin, Josef Malichar, Anton Babchuck and Seidenberg). So we should still be looking for at least one of those players to be moved via trade to dump some salary (the Canes are now around $2.5 to $3 million over their proposed salary cap of $45-46 million). The most likely trade possibilities are Frank Kaberle ($2.2 million) and, yes, Seidenberg. It's quite possible that the Canes signing him to a contract makes him more attractive in a trade, as teams now know exactly what they would be getting in salary (as opposed to trading for and then having to negotiate with an unsigned RFA).


That leaves only Chad LaRose unsigned amongst the Cane's RFAs. As expected, LaRose was one of 15 NHL players to file for arbitration on Friday (Seidenberg did not file, which led to speculation that a deal was near). The Canes qualified LaRose at $550,000, a $50,000 raise over last season. The sticking point in negotiations with LaRose is RUMORED (obviously none of us knows for sure) to be that he is asking for 3rd line money, but the Hurricanes, with their abundance of forwards under contract - and with Brandon Sutter waiting in the wings and likely to get a real shot of making the team at some point next season - still see LaRose as a 4th line player. They've already signed Ryan Bayda and Wade Brookbank as depth guys. GM Jim Rutherford, in commenting on the LaRose negotiations had this to say last week:

"I don't think his (contract) number is out of line with what he's done. His number is out of line with where we're going to use him on our team."

I love Chad LaRose, but I tend to agree with Rutherford on this one. He is not worth 3rd line money to this team. With the exception of a few spurts last season the guy has been chronically unable to put the puck in the net on the NHL level. He brings great grit, energy, hustle and fire to the ice night in and night out, and is solid on the penalty kill - all of which are qualities you want in a fourth line checking forward. But they are not worth $1 million (plus) 3rd line money. I'm sorry. Which is why LaRose is not likely to get anything more than 4th line money in arbitration anyway, as arbitration hearings tend to focus purely on numbers, not intangibles. My (completely uneducated) guess is that he will be slotted somewhere between the $550,000 the Canes have offered and around $700,000 (on the high end). Of course none of us knows the actual numbers that have been bandied about between the Canes and LaRose. We will all just have to wait and see.

The NHL's arbitration hearings are scheduled to take place this year from July 20th - August 4th. Teams and players can continue to negotiate up until a hearing takes place.

Back to the situation on defense. Personally, I hope the Canes keep Seidenberg. He's still a relatively young player (26) who is still coming into his own as a defenseman. When healthy (and that has been a big IF) he has shown signs of being a solid depth guy on the blueline, not a top line D-man, but a solid, physical presence who can skate deceptively well, has a decent shot and shows toughness. Sure, there can be lapses, but I tend to think that these come from rust and not being on the ice consistently. The more he plays, the better he seems to be. His best years are still ahead of him. The same cannot necessarily be said for Kaberle, who seems like he would be the most marketable trade option. I've got nothing against Frankie, but with the current corp of defensemen it just seems like he is the odd man out. Both Corvo and Pitkanen are younger and (perhaps at this point) more skilled as puck moving offensive defensemen. Kaberle, when healthy, still has a lot to offer a team looking for a savvy veteran who can provide offense from the blue line. On the Hurricanes, at this point, he is redundant.

Of course, Nic Wallin would also be on the list of trade possibilities, but we all know that the "Secret Weapon" has that not-so-secret NTC which he has exercised before and one can only assume he would do so again.

Stay tuned...

-m