Science teaches us that unless you adapt, you will die.

Carolina brought home the cup in season two. It was a time of great hope here in Raleigh. We’re in season six now and hope seems in short supply. The year after we won the cup, we made the playoffs by one point. Something had to change and rebuilding on the fly is never fun.

I set out to make our team stand out. We don’t have superstars on our third line here in Carolina so we are going with what we can afford. To that end, I tried to construct a team with a truly awesome D. After some regular season success with our top 4 on D, we didn’t do much in the post season. FA wasn’t kind to us, but after getting in a really solid goal scorer I thought things would be different.

They were different alright, but not in a good way and that’s not acceptable. Today we traded our Captain and our second best D, along with a goalie who’s played very well for us lately. In return we got an elite second line center, a top center with some upside and what I feel is going to be the missing piece in all this; the best right handed D in the NHL.

We’ve been after suter for a while now. It’s been my dream to return the weber and suter pairing that was so dominate on a terrible Nashville team. That alone should help our fortunes in trying to make this club a contender again.

What I hope is going to push us deeper into the playoffs is a mix of veteran knowledge and skill and the best defense that’s ever been assembled in this league.