Carolina Hurricanes

The Canes have a cap situation to manage and key players headed for unrestricted and restricted free agency. What's on their to-do list?

But his in-game adjustments worked, like Domi moving to the second line in Game 6 of the first round, yielding a two-goal game for Domi in Game 7. Brind’Amour is so good at his job and goes to bat so hard for his players that it’s almost detrimental. It’s a little wild to look back on the days just two years ago when there were roughly 18 up-and-coming high draft picks vying for a spot on the Canes’ loaded blue line, but such is life in this line of business. There’s a sense that some in the Canes organization wish Andersen would have pushed through and played, while others sympathized with the complexity of a goaltender injury on such a big body. The Canes were one of the best teams, but none of them even touched the top 20 in points. Brind’Amour said Raanta is getting checked out Tuesday but wouldn’t have been an option for at least a little while had the Canes advanced. But if it comes down to money, the Hurricanes have some options at center and Trocheck might be walking. He’s coming off a one-year, $1 million contract that he obviously outplayed, but my gut says he feels some loyalty to the Canes — and that paired with a quiet second round could lower his cost to a ballpark the Canes can afford. They also need to come to terms with the fact that Andersen might not play through an injury. There has been a lot of speculation about Andersen’s left knee injury that kept him out of the playoffs. I still love his potential, but I wouldn’t blame him if his confidence has taken a hit considering what happened this season and the entry-level contract situation that kept him in the AHL for an extra year before that. That leaves DeAngelo. There isn’t a comparable to him in the league, for obvious reasons.