PR - Hurricanes

CALGARY HURRICANES SIGN ROMAN HARMLIK TO 1-YEAR 9.5 MILLION DOLLAR DEAL

Roman Hamrlik just became the highest paid defenseman in the history of the Calgary Hurricanes. The Hurricanes held an earlier press conference to announce the signing.

"Well, on behalf of the Hurricanes organization I'd like to welcome Roman to Calgary. We're a team that is going through transition and Roman wanted a situation that would allow him to continue to play at a high level while also giving him the flexibility of either re-signing, retiring or moving on in his career." Said GM Derek Major in the opening speech.

The Hurricanes took a severe hit in the defensive part of the team. As the team continues to transition from the old guard into the new the defensive corps took the biggest hit. Bryan Mccabe and Brian Leetch are not the players they used to be. Robert Schnabel is the next on the depth chart after Mccabe. Hamrlik walks into the top defensive pairing immediately because of this.

Why the drop in defense?

"To put it plain in simple, we kind of hoped our young guys would have developed faster. Up front we have incredible depth. Our top line (King, Svitov, Sundstrom) are all our own draft picks. Our 2nd and 3rd line units are made up of fairly young guys or ones in their prime. We're looking good there. On defense we are only this season starting to see that depth emerge with guys like Badass Jack and Ryan Parent. These two guys will have lots of opportunities to become regulars this season."

Because of the salary cap hit to the Hurricanes Brian Leetch and Derian Hatcher were immediately dispatched to the farm team. "I think its safe to say that those two guys are available for cheap. Brian's situation is purely a financial situation, I'd love to have him back for a smaller price." Said GM Major.

The new season is just around the corner and the team is looking very promising. The GM has stated that we should expect several new changes in the coming days and weeks.

Calgary Sun 2007.