Things are starting to heat up...

Canes signed Tuomo Ruutu today to a one year $2.25 mil contract.That number seems a little large in my estimation - to me he's still kind of an unknown in the offensive area (although not in the ability-to-get-stitches area). But, hey, it's only a year - if he doesn't live up to it, at least it's not a long-term contract. But if he can hit and fight and score, then it's money well spent in my book.

Interestingly, the player we traded for Ruutu, Andrew Ladd, signed a two-year deal with the Blackhawks as well today. Hope things continue to go well for him and he scores lots of goals this season (as long as they're not against us!).

Yesterday, Jeff Hamilton and David Tanabe were placed on waivers to be boughtout by the team. Which is sad in Tanabe's case, as he doesn't seem to have recovered from that concussion he suffered at all.

And hiding in that article about the buyouts was this gem:

Additionally, Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said the team has been unable to reach an agreement with forward Darcy Hordichuk, whose free-agent rights the Canes obtained from the Nashville Predators on Thursday. [...]

"The fact that we had tried to get a jump on it and he wasn't interested in what we had to say, it would appear we're not getting him," Rutherford said.

So, the point of that trade was...?

And to cap all of today's news off: Barry Melrose was instated as the Tampa Bay Lightning coach. Which is just sort of weird.