Before the lockout put everything on hold for the last 113 days, the Carolina Hurricanes made a few very interesting moves this off-season and were expected to be one of the more improved teams in the league. It has been quite a long time since all of this went down, so let's take the next few minutes or so to review everything the Hurricanes did and what their roster looks like heading into training camp.

Everything started back in June at the NHL Draft when GM Jim Rutherford made the huge trade to acquire center Jordan Staal from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the 8th overall pick, Brandon Sutter and Brian Dumoulin. Sutter and his defensive prowess will be missed but no one can deny that J. Staal is a major upgrade over him and gives the Hurricanes' top-six a boost from what it was last season. I'm still not sure how the coaching staff will use Staal and how much he will fit in here but I'm pretty excited to see how he does. It's easy to forget that he is only 24 and is beginning to enter the prime years of his career. That should get a lot of people amped up about what he could potentially do. Staal is going to be with the Hurricanes throughout the good and the bad, as Rutherford also signed him to a 10-year contract extension worth $6 mil. per year. A deal like that would not be allowed under the new CBA, so this was a timely signing for the Hurricanes.

The other big move made by Rutherford this summer was his signing of high-scoring winger Alexander Semin to a one-year deal worth $7 mil. The price is a bit high but it's a reasonable low-risk move considering that it is only for one season and Semin can bring a lot ot the table, especially for a team like Carolina who needed a goal-scorer. I think his days of scoring 40+ goals are over, but he can still produce quite a bit of offense and should be able to thrive on a line with one of the Staal brothers. This is one acquisition that I was a big fan of because Semin fills an immediate, short-term need and has the potential to be a great addition to the Hurricanes. There were a few teams who were interested in Semin but backed away because of his "attitude problems," which I feel are way too overstated. If he can get it done on the ice, something that he has been able to do for most of his career, then the Canes shouldn't have many issues with him. 

Rutherford also decided to extend Jeff Skinner for six years at $5.75 mil. per season. Rutherford getting this out of the way before Skinner's contract year was a very wise move on his part, but I thought he would be able to get Skinner to sign at a lower price. Skinner will probably be worth this much in another year or two so it's hard to say that this was a bad signing but it is a missed opportunity to get Skinner locked up for a few years at a lower cost. The contract ends when he turns 26, so the Hurricanes at least have him under team control for most of his prime years.

Most of the other signings Rutherford made this off-season were relatively minor. He signed Joe Corvo to a one-year contract worth $2 mil. which is fine if Corvo stays on the third pairing but problems could arise if he is relied on to do more. This will be Corvo's third go-around with the Canes and I'm not sure if he will be able to handle top-four minutes, tough assignments and PK duty like he did in his last stint. With so many younger players on the Hurricanes defense, adding a veteran to the mix was a good call but Corvo wasn't exactly many fan's ideal candidate. Although, the emergence of Justin Faulk and Jay Harrison could mean that Corvo won't be relied on to play as many minutes as he did in the past.

Also new to the Hurricanes is Tim Wallace, Marc-Andre Gragnani and Dan Ellis, who all signed one-year, two-way contracts in the off-season. Wallace doesn't have much NHL experience but he's an experienced AHL veteran and is having a good year with the Checkers. Gragnani, on the other hand, spent all of last year in the NHL and needs to be exposed to waivers before being sent back down. He has been with the Checkers during the lockout and is currently injured so I'm not sure what they will do with him once he is healthy. Ellis was signed to a tryout contract by the Checkers and will probably compete for the back-up goaltender spot with Brian Boucher and Justin Peters.

The Hurricanes also received some bad news regarding Tuomo Ruutu a few days ago, as it was announced that the rugged winger will be out until at least May due to hip surgery. This opens up another forward spot and place in the top-six and I would expect the battles in training camp for it to be pretty intense, as there are a few guys who could be potential candidates to replace him. With Boychuk and Dalpe having great seasons in Charlotte and Jiri Tlusty lighting up the Czech League, the Canes aren't short of potential candidates.

Just like in the summer, there are still a few things with the Canes that are up in the air and we will go over them the next few days as training camp draws near. The lockout has probably ruined a lot people's enthusiasm but it's hard not to be excited right now if you are a Hurricanes fan.

As of approximately 6:49 a.m. on Sunday, January 6, 2013, the NHL and NHLPA have come to terms with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that will last for the next 10 seasons. This is fantastic news since it means that the lockout is finally over and the NHL avoids having to lose another season, but things aren't completely set in stone yet. the NHL owners and members of the Player's Association still need to confirm the deal before everything is final but the fact that they have come to terms on a deal is a very good sign. The two sides also need to set a start date for the season and you can expect it to be no later than January 19th according to TSN.  It also hasn't been determined how many games will be played this season but the details of that should be revealed very shortly.

The new CBA has the salary cap for next year set at $64.3 million with a floor of $44 million, which was higher than the NHL's original request of having it at only $60 mil. Teams will also be allowed two amnesty buyout starting this off-season and there is a good chance we could see a few of those happen after the spending sprees many teams went on the last couple of years. This probably won't affect the Hurricanes too much since they will have $12.3 mil. to spend on 5-6 players and appear to be in decent shape cap-wise for now.

A few other features of this CBA is that free agent can only be signed to a max of seven years and eight years if they re-sign with their current team, so deals like the ones given to Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Ilya Bryzgalov will not happen under this CBA. It should also be noted that the bottom-14 teams in the league will be eligible for the draft lottery and have a chance at landing the first overall pick, which was probably put in place to prevent teams from tanking during a bad season. The Hurricanes were in that boat for a good part of last year before Kirk Muller arrived, so that is familiar territory. Other details on the CBA can be found on TSN's web site and will be updated as they are revealed in the next few hours.

Now that we know there will be a season, it is time to start thinking about what the Hurricanes roster will look like and which players from Charlotte will end up making the final cuts. Teams are expected to begin training camps sometime within the next week ro so and I'm sure the Hurricanes' camp with Muller's staff will be very unpredictable since the Charlotte Checkers have at least three players having great seasons and are on the brink of being ready for NHL competition. Virtually anything can happen in a shortened training camp, so seeing which one of the kids from Charlotte makes the team will be fun to watch.

All in all, it is great that this mess is finally over and NHL fans can now revert their focus back to hockey. It's going to be a pretty wild year.

There is still no news on whether or not there will be an NHL season this year, but if there is, the Hurricanes will have to go most of it without winger Tuomo Ruutu, who recently underwent hip surgery and will be out indefinitely. Craig Custance of ESPN was one of the first to break this story and according to him, Ruutu will not return until at least early May, which means that he will not be playing a game for the Hurricanes this year unless they make the playoffs. Ruutu is always one of the Hurricanes most physical players and battled an upper-body injury for a good chunk of last season, so the news isn't terribly surprising but that doesn't make it any better for the Hurricanes who now have yet another void to fill in their top-six.

With the additions of Alexander Semin and Jordan Staal, the Hurricanes appeared to have one of the stronger forwards corps' in the league but they are now going to have to replace a key member of their top-six in a short amount of time. Ruutu wasn't outstanding last year, but he was one of their better offensive options and will not be easy to replace. Ruutu's absence opens up a spot in the top-six and if you can take anything positive away from this, it's that it will give one of the Hurricanes many younger forwards a shot at the top-six right off the bat. 

With Alex Semin now in the mix, Jiri Tlusty was likely going to be used in a third line spot by default while others such as Zach Boychuk, Zac Dalpe and Drayson Bowman would basically be battling for roster spots. Adding to that, the highest on the depth chart they would get is maybe the third line on a fully healthy team so Ruutu's injury could give one of these players a shot at top-nine minutes and make an impact. All three have been exceptional and I can't imagine that they won't see time with the Canes once the season starts. The bad news is that none of them will likely produce at Ruutu's level, but they aren't horrible options for the time being, especially since Ruutu hasn't been a tough minute player for the last couple of seasons. 

This injury came at a very bad time because this is the first season of Ruutu's $19 mil. contract and the Hurricanes will be paying $4 mil. for no production if he is out for the entire season. Ruutu has been a fairly durable player throughout his career but he will be 30 next year and considering the physical game he plays, it's possible that his body may suffer more wear and tear down the line. It doesn't help that he'll be playing with a surgically repaired hip, either. As far as Ruutu's future goes, this might worry some fans but for now, the most we can do is wish him the best of luck with his recovery and hope he returns to the ice as soon as possible. 

This is going to be a different update than ones in the past because we are at the part of the year where teams are returning from their holiday break and playing a partial schedule. There are also quite a few teams icing much different lineups due to the World Junior Championships currently going on right now. So, instead of looking at each player individually, I'm going to go over each league and talk about any possible standouts from Carolina's prospect pool since it doesn't make much sense to review each player if they only played one game. We'll also look at how Victor Rask and Ryan Murphy are performing for their respective countries at the WJC in Ufa.

It is almost January and there has still yet to be an NHL game played this year as the owners and players still can not seem to agree on a new CBA. This has many believing that there will be no NHL season at all this year but yesterday brought a small glimmer of hope with the league drawing up a new CBA proposal that would give us a shortened season. Whether or not this proposal gets accepted is another story but we were going to be looking at a shortened year one way or another, so that alone is worth discussing. One of the old adages in sports is that the wins early in the season count as much as the ones later in the year, and this is going to be even more true if there is a season of 48-games. 

In a full, 82-game season, banking wins in the early part of the year is always important because it puts less stress on teams later on if they are gunning for a playoff spot. If the NHL does end up having a shortened season, then each win is going to be more important and a prolonged streak could put a team in or out of a playoff spot. Remember the good stretches that the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs had in the first half of last season? They both ended up missing the playoffs, but there is a good chance that they would make the final cut in a shortened season if they start the year off a strong note again. Every game is going to mean a lot more and it should make things much more exciting but there are some problems that could arise, especially for the Hurricanes.

While it's true that a shortened season will open the door for a lot of different teams to make the playoffs, some teams might be cut out of the chase early if they have a slow start. I'm sure most want to block the final days of Paul Maurice out of their minds, but Carolina endured a very tough stretch of games last November where they went 4-10-1 and were all but eliminated from playoff contention before the All-Star Break after going only 5-7-2 in December. The Canes have never been a team to come storming out of the gate, but they will need to play stronger than they have in October & November of recent years because one bad losing streak could put them on the outside of the playoff picture before the mid-way point. On the other hand, the Canes may start the year off a high note and it could put them in a better position to make the playoffs. That would be nice, but it's worth noting that the Canes are 35-53-14 in October & November over the last four seasons, so hot starts are not what this team is known for.

This should be a completely different Hurricanes team than we've seen compared to years past, so we could be in for a surprise but the amount of new blood coming in might be a disadvantage to the Hurricanes. All teams are going to go through an abbreviated training camp and the Hurricanes new acquisitions such as Jordan Staal and Alexander Semin are going to need to take time to get used to Kirk Muller's system. Then you have the younger players like Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, Jeremy Welsh and Zac Dalpe who will be fighting for roster spots which will put a lot of stress on Muller to make a few quick decisions in a short amount of time. It's also worth mentioning that most of these prospects are in the final years of restricted free agency and the Canes won't have much time to evaluate them as they would in a full-season. This will also be Muller's first full year as a head coach in the NHL and the Hurricanes may not be as fully prepared as other teams who have been running the same system for years. The team seemed to adjust to Muller nicely last season, so I would like to think that this won't be a problem but you never know, especially with two new key players added.

The one comforting thing in all of this is that every other team is probably having similar questions about their team heading into this season, should there be one. The Hurricanes recent history of bad starts is concerning, yes but having a different coach and new players here is enough for me to offset this for now. They are just going to have to do what every other team is doing and make the best of whatever comes of this new CBA agreement. If there is a season, then the Hurricanes are going to have a very brief time to prepare themselves and get ready to come out of the gates firing on all cylinders, because a slow start could doom them early this time around.

The World Junior Championships are always a special time of the year for hockey fans because it gives everyone a chance to look at some of the brightest young talent from all over the world. It's especially nice for fans of teams with prospects outside of their viewing area who wouldn't get a chance to see these players otherwise. Carolina fans should be very familiar with this tournament as many of their former prospects like Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, Brandon Sutter, Justin Faulk and Michal Jordan have all participated in the World Juniors in recent years. The tournament being broadcasted on such a large platform is great for a fanbase like Carolina, who obviously do not get to watch many of their prospects first-hand if they live within the market. Of course, you have to keep in mind that how these players perform in a small sample size isn't indicative of their overall talent and will sometimes lead to certain players having a higher or lower stock value than they did before (see Matt Halischuk), but the WJC is still a great time and a good way for fans to see some of their team's brightest prospects. Plus, who doesn't love a good sports tournament to enhance their national pride? (USA! USA! USA!)

There are not as many Carolina prospects participating in the WJCs as there were in 2008 or 2009 but a couple of their higher end prospects will be playing for clubs who are favorites to win the Gold Medal in Ryan Murphy (Canada) and Victor Rask (Sweden). Murphy was an invite to Team Canada last year but ended up being cut during camp and Rask played on the U-18 Swedish team while being on the U-20 roster but not playing in a game. So, this is the first time that either player will have a shot at winning a gold medal and both are going to be playing critical roles on their respective teams from the sound of things. Unfortunately, these are the only two Carolina prospects who are participating in the tournament but there are plenty of other names worth keeping an eye on, including some who we may see in the Southeast Division very soon.

After the jump, you will find a country-by-country breakdown of each team participating in the tournament and why each one of them is important to watch from Carolina's standpoint, because there is more to this tournament than just your team and home nation's prospects. It's about discovering some of the best young talent from all over the world.

The last time we had an update on the Charlotte Checkers, they were at the tail end of a rough five-game losing streak and going through a bit of a goal-scoring drought. Since that point, the tides have turned quite a bit as the Checkers have won five of their last six games and four in a row. Almost every team goes for a couple roller coaster rides over the course of a season but it seems like the Checkers have had more of an addict for extremes this year than their peers, as they picked up four impressive victories over the past week. The Checkers made a habit out of blowing out their opponents early in the year, but it was their defense that stood strong this week, allowing now more than 23 shots on goal in all four of their games.

They got things started off on a strong note last Tuesday when they defeated the Milwaukee Admirals, a team that has given them a lot of trouble as of late. Charlotte actually fell behind early in this game but rebounded nicely by grossly outplaying the Admirals in the second period, outshooting them 11-2 and getting two goals from Zac Dalpe and Tim Wallace. Justin Faulk added on another in the third period to salt it away for the Checkers, as they took home a much needed win. Faulk was very impressive as he not only scored his third goal of the season but he also tallied six shots on goal. Dalpe also created a lot of offense with five of his own and the Checkers turned in a terrific defensive effort by allowing only 21 shots and not allowing an even strength goal against.

Charlotte then went onto face Houston in a two-game series and their first win did not come easy. They started off strong by outshooting the Aeros in the first period and getting the opening goal from Nicolas Blanchard. They were then outplayed for most of the second period and allowed Houston to take the lead towards the end of the period with a goal from David McIntyre. Marco Scandella would then give Houston the lead in the third period with his first goal of the season. Charlotte had a strong comeback attempt for most of the third period and their hard work eventually payed off with Justin Faulk scoring the game-tying goal with less than 15 seconds left. Charlotte would then finish off Houston in the shootout to get the two points. Faulk chipped in another six shots on goal in this game in addition to his goal and Charlotte dominated Houston on the shot-board with a 35-22 advantage.

The next game of this series was a much less stressful affair for the Checkers as they continued to control the pace of play en route to a 3-0 shutout. Justin Shugg opened the scoring in the contest with his first goal of the season and Jeremy Welsh added another on the powerplay in the second period. Tim Wallace also got his second goal of the week, scoring the empty netter to put things away in the third period. Zach Boychuk also had an impressive performance with two assists, one of which came on Wallace's empty netter. He had five total on the week. This was one of Charlotte's best defensive performances on the year as they made a statement in front of the home crowd and made things easy for goaltender Dan Ellis by allowing only 23 shots on goal.

After this came one of the few games Charlotte had to play on the road this month and they made the most of it by defeating the San Antonio Rampage 2-1 on the back of goals by Drayson Bowman and Marc-Andre Gragnani. Gragnani's goal was his first of the season and one of the only two powerplay goals the Checkers scored on the week. Gragnani has recently missed sometime with injury and there is no doubt that the Checkers are glad to have him back, as he has been a force offensively whenever he has been in the lineup. His production isn't at the same level as Justin Faulk's but his 10 powerplay assists is second in the AHL behind Justin Schultz of the Oklahoma City Barons, which is impressive when you consider all the time he missed.

The season is still young but it has already been quite a wild ride for the Checkers as they've seen a lot of ups and downs. Fortunately, there were more ups this week with the team winning all four of their games, getting production from their top names (Boychuk, Faulk, Gragnani) in addition to some secondary players (Welsh, Wallace, Shugg) and they can look back at all of these games and know that they played some of their strongest games of the year. This long home-stand didn't go exactly the way most people had hoped, but the Checkers were able to salvage it with some strong performances towards the end and have another set of games against Peoria coming up before they return on the road to face Houston, San Antonio and Lake Erie.

Up until this point, it has been a very quiet season for the Hurricanes NCAA prospect pool, which is understandable when you consider that most of the players under team control are underclassmen. At the same time, it was expected that players like Danny Biega of Harvard and Phil Di Giuseppe of Michigan would emerge as more impactful players than they have been thus far. Biega's three points in nine games aren't bad, but they are a bit disappointing when you consider that he had 35 in 34 games last season and I'm sure most people expected Di Giuseppe to have more than one goal at this point of the season.

It is what it is, though and the most we can do is just wait and see how the rest of their seasons go. Di Giuseppe and the Wolverines have been going through a very rough patch over the last month or so. They went 2-6-2 in November and hadn't went nearly a month without winning a game before this weekend when they took on the #7 Western Michigan Broncos in a two-game series. The good news for Michigan is that they snapped a three-game winless streak on Saturday night by shutting out the Broncos 2-0 on the back of a 31-save performance by Adam Janecyk.

The night before, however, did not go so well for the team as they took a 4-1 loss but the Wolverines lone goal in the contest came from Di Giuseppe. It was the kind of goal most would expect from someone going through a slump, as he snagged a loose puck in front of the net and fired home a quick snap shot to net his first goal since opening weekend. Finally getting that second goal will hopefully take some weight off his shoulders if anything. There is plenty of hockey to be played this season, so he and the Wolverines have time to rebound after a rough start.

The Wolverines have struggled as of late, but their start to the year isn't nearly as frustrating as the one the Wisconsin Badgers had gotten off to. At the beginning of December, this team had recorded only one win on the entire year and scored more than two goals in only one game, which ended up being a 5-4 loss in OT to Colorado College. Things have been turning around for them since then, however. The Badgers started out the month by picking up a huge upset over Denver University, tying both of their games against Michigan Tech and sweeping Alabama-Huntsville this past weekend.

Scoring has been a problem for this Badgers team all year but that wasn't the cast against UAH, as the Badgers outscored them 9-1 and even got a goal from Carolina's fifth round pick Brendan Woods. Woods got his first goal of the season last weekend against Michigan Tech and added another this weekend, so you could say that he is on a bit of a "hot streak," despite having only four points on the season. He is still pretty young and should improve as the year goes on, which appears to be the case as of late.

Unfortunately, the rest of Carolina's NCAA prospects didn't make that much noise over the last weekend. Danny Biega had five shots in Harvard's 5-0 loss to Massachusetts-Lowell last Monday but failed to get on the scoresheet otherwise. Mark Alt's Minnesota Golden Gophers have a couple of weeks off until the Mariucci Classic after Christmas and Collin Olson hasn't started or played a game for the Buckeyes in awhile as senior Brady Hjelle has the starting job there locked down.

Most of these players won't have another game until late-December so now is a good time to measure their progress before they get to the second half of the season. As of now, there isn't much to report on with Carolina's NCAA prospect pool aside from a couple players having strong finishes to the first half. Hopefully they can build on that once the break is over.

In need of an offensive spark, the Charlotte Checkers decided to give their ECHL affiliate in Florida a holler yesterday to call up left winger Justin Shugg. This will be Shugg's second stint with the Checkers, as he got to play 33 games with the team last year before injuries set him back and he had to finish the year in the ECHL. Shugg was the Hurricanes fourth round pick in the 2010 NHL draft and is a very creative offensive player who may help the Checkers get out of their recent scoring slump. There were many who thought Shugg would be in the AHL full-time this year because of how well he performed in the ECHL the previous season but there wasn't any room for him on the roster which is partially due to the NHL Lockout.

The general thought was that Shugg should be able to dominate in the ECHL given his talent and he has done that so far if you go by his scoring line of 11 goals and 22 points in 19 games. This is basically him building off how he ended last season, as he should be expected to excel at that level. He was a terrific goal-scorer at juniors and was also pretty effective offensively when he was healthy with Charlotte last year. Whether or not he will produce at a higher level or have a future in the NHL remains to be seen, but it looks like he is going to get another shot with the Checkers starting with tonight's game against the Milwaukee Admirals.

The question is how will Charlotte's head coach, Jeff Daniels, use Shugg because the Checkers have plenty of wingers at their disposal right now. Boychuk, Bowman, Terry and even Sutter have been producing this year so it's hard to imagine that Shugg will take any of their spots in the lineup. However, with the Checkers losing six of their last seven games and scoring two or fewer goals in all of those losses, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Daniels change things up and give Shugg some more minutes. Shugg has been one of the Everblades top scorers this year, so the Checkers aren't going to take him away from them just so he can be plugged in on the fourth line, or at least I hope that they do not plan to do that.

It was announced a few minutes ago on Twitter by Paul Branecky that Jerome Samson will be a healthy scratch tonight to make room for Shugg, so it sounds like he is going to get some decent minutes, whether it be in the top-six or on the third line. After playing so well with the Everblades, it's hard to say that Shugg didn't earn this call-up so let's hope he can make the most of whatever ice time he gets tonight. I doubt his presence alone will break the Checkers out of their slump but inserting another goal-scorer in the lineup is never a bad thing.

The expectations for Hurricanes 2010 third round pick Austin Levi were somewhat high heading into this season. He started the year in camp with the Charlotte Checkers but ended up being one of the final cuts and is now playing his fifth year with the Plymouth Whalers. Seeing how this is his Overage year and he has gotten better with every season, there was little reason to think that he wouldn't perform well after returning to juniors. Unfortunately, the season hasn't gone as planned for Levi as he has struggled to make an impact for most of the year and even found himself out of the lineup for a few games recently. I'm not 100% sure if this was due to performance or a possible injury that I haven't heard of, but I think most would agree that Levi has been somewhat underwhelming thus far.

It is still a very long season, so Levi has plenty of time to make up for his slow start to the year and he began to right the ship on Sunday against the Oshawa Genearls. Levi made his return to the Whalers lineup that night and recorded two assists, one of which came on the powerplay. The Whalers ended up losing that game 4-3 so I'm sure Levi isn't happy about that but he can at least look at his performance and be happy that he made the most of his return to the lineup. You can't really judge his performance based on goals and points alone but that is the easiest way to get noticed for those who are unable to watch the games, so that is one way to make yourself standpoint. Hopefully Levi can continue to do that on more than just the scoresheet for the rest of the year.

There were quite a few players in the Hurricanes CHL prospect pool who posted big numbers this past weekend and we will take a closer look at them after the jump.