This week like many others over the long off-season figured to be a light one for Hurricanes hockey news. June and early July will actually be incredibly busy if for nothing else than a bunch of speculation about the roster building gauntlet of the expansion draft, the NHL draft weekend and then free agency. But April, May and August could prove challenging to fill out a reasonable Sunday Canes Chronicle.

But based on another Friday happy hour phone conversation between Stan Bowman and Ron Francis, this week is ripe with news all centered on Friday’s trade fireworks that saw the Hurricanes acquire the negotiating rights (because his current contract ends on June 30) to Blackhawks goalie Scott Darling.

I did manage to sprinkle in some other news, but as one would expect, this week’s reading includes a heavy dose of Scott Darling.

The Scott Darling trade

Matthew Barlowe wrote up the positives and negatives of the Scott Darling trade at Oak City Sports.

Scott Powers at The Athletic-Chicago covered the Scott Darling trade from a Chicago perspective.

Cory Lavalette from the North State Journal detailed Darling’s career path prior to this trade to the Hurricanes.

Back in 2015, Shawn Wilken from Last Word on Sports offered another view of Darling’s long and uncommon journey to reach the NHL.

And if you missed it on Friday, I offered my initial thoughts on the Scott Darling trade about an hour after it was announced. (I will write a part 2 probably for Monday.)

A couple other good reads

After an less than capacity crowd in Ottawa for a second round playoff game, an odd role reversal had Brian LeBlanc from Canes Country and a non-traditional market casting a few stones up into Canada based on attendance issues.

With progress made on the goalie position (assuming Darling is signed), Lyle Richardson’s mention of Alex Galchenyuk in his rumor roundup at The Hockey News is worth noting. 

Go Canes!