from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

Here are five reasons why the folks at NHL Central Registry might want to stay close to their phones in the days ahead:

The Carolina Hurricanes want a shakeup
The Hurricanes aren’t done. After adding another right-shot weapon to their blue-line in Dougie Hamilton, the likelihood of a deal involving Justin Faulk went up considerably. He’s just 26 with a manageable $4.833-million cap hit the next two seasons (albeit with $6-million owed in actual salary) – the kind of player rarely dealt in today’s NHL.

Then there’s winger Jeff Skinner, who drew serious trade interest from Los Angeles before it managed to reach an agreement with Kovalchuk over the weekend. He’s scored 89 goals over the past three seasons and will become an even bigger target once other top-six forward options start flying off the board....

Cap Space
There’s money to be spent. When you scan the homepage of invaluable resource capfriendly.com, it’s fascinating to see how much cap space some teams have:

• Vegas ($30.975-million)
• N.Y. Rangers ($29.45-million)
• Toronto ($24.679-million)
• Detroit ($21.869-million)
• San Jose ($18.842-million)
• St. Louis ($16.617-million)

more on the Hurricanes and 3 more reasons...