Are the Canes going to do anything before the trade deadline?

Right now, Corey Lavelette, North State Journal and The Athletic at Corey Lave on Twitter. I'm going to start this with a big-picture question, Corey. I appreciate your time, you know that. Is this Hurricanes team, as constituted, good enough to win a Stanley Cup? Yes. Okay.

I think that's an acceptable answer. The most relevant and successful team in the triangle. College basketball and stuff and everything.

It's really amazing to think of where things have gone from way back when. We are Hurricanes country, there is no question about that. If you had your druthers, where would you like to see the Hurricanes, maybe not necessarily improve, but maybe shore up? I mean, I think I'd like to see at least one more forward. Maybe somebody who can play on the power play.

I don't know that it has to be a superstar. There were plenty of frustrated people yesterday when Timo Meyer went to New Jersey, and I can understand that sentiment because he was kind of the hot pick of the day as far as guys who were available. But what I think people need to remember is Sebastian Aho scores more goals than Timo Meyer. Maybe he has it this year, but every year prior to this year, he scores more goals. It's not like the Hurricanes don't have guys who score goals. So I would say if you can get a supplemental guy, whether that's somebody like James Van Rindeck, who I think character wise would fit in the locker room really well, and also fix that mold of, you know, a guy who's probably hungry to get a cup. Something like that could make sense, I think, especially if he's willing to play on the fourth line.

And then, you know, probably a depth of sentiment. I don't think they're comfortable necessarily with Dylan Togwin as their fallback. Someone who can fill that role, whether it's an upgrade or even just a number seven that they're a little more comfortable with. Yeah, maybe you can get both of those from the Philadelphia Flyers, and that's where James Van Rindeck is. I know Justin Braun was a flyer last year, then the end of the season with the Rangers. Back to the Flyers this year, maybe he'll try another team in the Metropolitan Division.

There are a myriad of options there, and we all know this, on Friday we'll probably see 25 transactions for players for fourth round picks or fifth round picks that will probably never see the lineup, but are just added as depth. Do you think that this team, because there are two ways of looking at it. Yeah, I agree that this team is good enough to win a Stanley Cup, but does this team deserve help to win a Stanley Cup? Because when I talk to former players, they say that one of the things that really is a shot in the arm and an energy boost is when the organization gets them like a present.

Here, here's another guy that can help win a Stanley Cup. Does this team deserve that? Yeah, you know I actually asked a bunch of players about this over the last week or so, and whether or not they're just saying the right thing or not. They all pretty much said if we add something that makes the team better, that's great. If we don't, you know, this team is like a family and we believe in everybody who's in here, so I think any time somebody walks through that door that you think can help you win more games, that probably gives you a big boost. I don't think that the team is necessarily going to make a move, maybe like they did with the Vincent Trochek trade a couple years ago, and send somebody out of this, you know, out in the field. Because I think they like what they have, and there really isn't a ton of depth right now as far as there isn't a 13 forward. They already talked about the seventh defenseman. If you add another player, it's not like you need to push someone out for roster reasons or for cap reasons. They've got all the cap space in the world. So yeah, I think anybody would be happy to add something that you think is going to help you win, and this team has a tendency to add people that they know, whether it's the team knows them or players in the room know them, and they like to have as much information as possible before they do that. I think Corey Lavellette from North State Journal and The Athletic is joining us here, and you can follow him on Twitter, at Corey Lavellette, and read his stuff, whether it's North State Journal or The Athletic.

He's got great insight. You and I have talked before about the recent piece you wrote about this team's history. My feeling is that this team's history is that they refuse to play the game that the other teams play. We all can agree that Tampa must think Tanner Genaux is a different player than they acquired to give up five draft picks, and they gave up their second, third, and fourth in this draft. Plus, even though it is lottery or top 10 protected in 2025, the first round pick, I mean, I can't even believe what they gave up for Tanner Genaux. But he would be a perfect person for Carolina to add to their team, not at that price. But the Hurricanes won't play that game, so anybody the Hurricanes would like to add, they're going to lose out to other teams because they won't pay what the going rate is. Well, I think there's two ways to look at that, too, which is if you look at what they did last year, you know, I mean, Matt Domi is not a home run addition, but they inquired about Matt Domi or earlier in the process, and the price was too high.

And they said, Well, you know, if that's what you want, you know, we're not interested. And with all these teams making these moves and, you know, shoring up, you know, their roster by giving up all their assets and their space. There's going to be stuff way laying out there. Like there's already concern from Columbus that that gabrikov suddenly isn't going to get what they thought they were going to get because, you know, teams are, you know, Orloff went to Boston, right? All of a sudden there, you know, they may be scrambling to get something.

So there's there's two ways to look at that. And I know I know everybody wants to see a team go all in and, you know, they think that's a commitment to winning is going all in. But to me, next year is the year that really, you know, you don't want to damage your chances for next year just so you can have a better puncher's chances this year, I think. And I think, you know, with the way that things are lined up right now with their with their contracts and everything like that, that next year is the year that if if we get to this point and we're like, okay, here's, you know, a team that's a contender and they need to do something to get over the top. That's when you do this kind of stuff that Boston and and Tampa are doing where those I mean, those are aging teams. I mean, there are teams at the end of their windows. The hurricanes aren't at the end of their window. So I think that they're careful. And like you said, they don't operate the way other teams do because they don't want to, you know, Boston's always going to have fans in the building.

The hurricanes might not always have fans in the building. We learned that with a 10 year playoff drought. Right. So I think they're cognizant of that. But I also don't think that means they're settling to be, you know, very good instead of trying to be great.

I just think that they're they're cognizant of, you know, there's more chance there's more swings at this than one. And what you get at the deadline doesn't necessarily mean, you know, you're going to get over the top. What happened to Florida, which is right, you know, but, you know, but the interesting thing is that Colorado won. But what did Colorado do with the deadline?

They had right. They added really good pieces at the deadline. So you don't have to like I'm not necessarily one who said the hurricanes had to get Timo Meyer. That that has never been I think there are plenty of things that Carolina can do that will not be as costly. And those players are still out there.

An Adam Henrique. You mentioned James Van James Van Reems like there are players out there that Carolina can get to make them better. My my feeling is that this team will not pay those prices.

And if they stay that way, then Carolina won't do it. We can debate all day long whether Max Domi is somebody that should have been targeted anyway. Domi did have his game. He had he had his game in Game seven against Boston. But for the most part, Max Domi was just there. He took a spot. I mean, Derek Step on for the same price was the same player.

Then as Max Domi was, I know it's sometimes your window, you don't realize what your window is. This is the second the second best record in the NHL and so many teams around them. And I don't even necessarily include Tampa in this, but so many teams around them got better. Rangers are going to add Patrick Kane. I mean, they still probably need some defense, but the Rangers got better. The Devils got better.

Signe and the Devils didn't really take anything significantly off their roster either. So I don't know. I think there is there's some there's some level of what are you going to do about this?

I don't disagree. I mean, I just think you can't panic. You know, when you panic, that's when things go really sideways. And that's when, you know, like I said, for a while there, it looked like Gavrikov was going to be getting more than a first round pick. And, you know, that happened last year with with Ben Sherrod. It happened the year before with David Savard.

And, you know, those guys are good players that you can fit in your lineup. But do you win a Stanley Cup because of David Savard? I would say nobody thinks Tampa got over the top because they added David Savard two years ago. No, he was a he was a depth piece.

That's all he was, was a depth piece. And Tampa has a history of overpaying. There's no question about it. They also also have two Stanley Cups, two batters hanging in the rafters and not necessarily because of what they added.

But they because they have superstar level players who are on the team. Corey, I will see you. I won't see you at the arena for a while now where we're playing late night hockey. But I'll talk to you very soon, man. I appreciate your time. Anytime, buddy. You got it.