Carolina GM Cordell has heard for years that the Cane's were on the decline....that they had 1 or 2 seasons of competetive life left in them....that they would finish out of the playoffs.... and for years they have remained competetive, made the playoffs, and have pushed the elite teams to the limit! This season has seen a large number of new GM's and a few older one's decide now was the time to make a push in the Eastern conference and it has been a dog fight ever since. GM Cordell went into the season feeling that an asset upgrade here and there would likely result in yet another post season appearence and quickly targeted goalie B.Elliott in free agency despite having J.Allen and M.Neuvirth both already locked up. Many GM's were left wondering why devote such a large sum of $ to a position of strength and the answer was simple.....the plan all season was to move Neuvirth for a young asset to help out elsewhere with an eye to do the same with Elliott and that was exactly what happened! Those moves led to the recent frenzy of activity that has been critisized and viewed as a move to the future as well as mailing it in for this season but that couldn't be further from the truth! "Landing Koivu for the first line and Sharp for the second to add to the guy's we still have has once again allowed us to balance out the line-up from top to bottom" said GM Cordell " we are deeper and better throughout the line-up then we have been all season and we are still where we need to be for a run....for those out there that thought some of our moves were questionable or we lost them then look again" When asked what was meant by those comments GM Cordell just smiled and said "we are better now and look at next seasons roster"....So after viewing the roster for next season we see a number of high priced free agents hitting the market (Koivu,Sharp,Russell,Tyutin,Niemi) but there are several returnees having solid real life NHL seasons and will rerate as well or better then this seasons! Players expected to rerate as well or better next season include(Staal,Johansson,Athanasiou,Reider,Pearson,Read,Versteeg,Bailey up front as well as most if not all defense). Carolina certainly moved quite a bit of talent but this is a healthy line-up for the first time in awhile and has now won 2 straight since the last deal. Time will tell if these moves pan out but GM Cordell is confident Carolina will make the playoffs and is better positioned with youth moving forward!