So, Wednesday night I come home from work exhausted, and log online to find out that the Canes had managed to work out a contract with Erik Cole, but that the prospects for a new deal with Chad LaRose seemed to be going south fast.
Canes' GM Jim Rutherford had spoken with Chip Alexander over at Canes Now on Wednesday evening and stated bluntly that it was "time to move on"..."It's not going to happen". Evidently the Canes were talking with another free agent about joining the Canes Wednesday night, so Rutherford gave LaRose's agent a courtesy call:
I informed (Patrick Morris, LaRose's agent) that we had another deal we were working on, that I was giving him a courtesy call. He said he would run everything by Chad and call back in an hour. I waited but they never called back. Obviously they have a deal somewhere else. So we're working on signing another free agent. It's time to move on.
Sounded pretty ominous. So I went to bed torn...relieved that we were able to resign Cole at a decent price, but bummed that things seemed to have spun down the drain with LaRose. I wasn't too confident that things could turn around from that point.
All through the day on Thursday I kept one eye on the TSN Free Agent Tracker, curious to see where LaRose's name might pop up, or who this mystery free agent that Rutherford referred to Wednesday evening might be.
Nothing. A slow day all around for the most part as far as new signings, and absolutely nothing from the Hurricanes.
I left around 3:30, and headed off for what turned out to be a real shitty evening at work.
Come home and decide to check in for my hockey fix before heading off to bed. And whadda ya know:
Carolina Signs Chad LaRose For Two Years - Rioting In Street Ensues.
WOO HOO!
Of course, Bubba sums it up as well as I could ever hope to.
So, 3 down, one to go as far as keeping the core intact. Jokinen, Cole and LaRose are staying at home. Now to just wait and see how the details sort out with Ruutu. Heard Jim Rutherford on 99 The Fan this afternoon saying that moving forward, the Canes will just have to wait to hear back from Ruutu as to whether he will accept their qualifying offer, or opt for arbitration. Either way he seemed confident that something would be worked out for next season at the very least. Still to be seen if any kind of long term deal can be reached beyond 2009/2010. If not, Ruutu would become an UFA next summer (and we get to go through all of this again).
Rutherford also mentioned that with Seidenberg (definintely) and Babchuk (most likely) gone, the team would now turn their attention using their projected salary numbers in trying to find a top 4 defenseman in free agency to take their slot(s) in the budget. Will be interesting to see how that turns out.
But I'll worry about that another day.
For tonight (at least) I should sleep well.
BTW, check out LaRose, from Thusday afternoon, moments after resigning, on the radio with Scott Jackson and Mike Maniscalco from 99.9 The Fan.
Dude sounds ecstatic. I cannot imagine a more genuine or enthusiastic ambassador for the Canes and the NHL in general that Chad LaRose.
-m
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