How Will Carolina Hurricanes Replace Andrej Sekera Moving Forward?

February 26th, 2015 by Mark Jones Leave a reply »

The Wednesday trade that sent Andrej Sekera to the Los Angeles Kings opens up both a short-term hole and long-term opportunity for the Carolina Hurricanes defense.

The first-pairing partnership of Sekera and Justin Faulk—which had produced 55 percent of the team's total points by defensemen over the past two seasons—is no more.

The veteran leadership and, at times, incredible playmaking ability that the 28-year-old Slovak provided is also gone.



Left populating the 'Canes defensive unit stands Faulk, who remains on pace to set the franchise record for points by a D-man in a season, and a mismatched collection of depth blueliners possessing no familiarity whatsoever with playing big minutes.

The team's defensive pairs looked as such at Thursday's practice:



It's far from a stable, well-established group of six players. Two (Ron Hainsey and Brett Bellemore) hit unrestricted free agency last July before eventually re-signing with Carolina; two (Bellemore and Tim Gleason) are currently on track to do so this coming July; another (Michal Jordan) ha ...

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