RALEIGH -- If this is what next season is going to look like, plus or minus a few players, then fall can't come soon enough for the Carolina Hurricanes. This spring may not be so bad, either.
After all of Wednesday's wheeling and dealing, the Hurricanes are left, for these final 20 games, with the skeleton of their team for next season - a team that pounded out a 4-1 win over the disinterested Ottawa Senators on Thursday with real efficiency.
Relative old-timers - Rod Brind'Amour and Tom Kostopoulos, combined age 70 - scored the first two goals, with 20-year-old Zach Boychuk picking up an assist on each, his fourth and fifth of the season. Boychuk was called up from the Albany River Rats of the American Hockey League on Wednesday, presumably permanently.
"It's my time to come up here and prove something," Boychuk said. "There are only 11 forwards here right now, so there's a spot up for grabs, and there's lots of capable guys down there [in the AHL] able to take them - guys like Jiri Tlusty and Jerome Samson and Drayson Bowman.
"For me to get the call, I feel very happy about that and now I just have to do the best I can to prove I'm the one they want."
Of all the young players on the roster now, he figures to play the most significant role in the fall, but he's hardly alone. Justin Peters, who backed up Manny Legace against the Senators, has put himself in position to fill that role behind Cam Ward next season. Pat Dwyer looks like a capable fourth-liner, Brett Carson has done well on the blue line, and Brandon Sutter's rapid development may be the best news of an otherwise depressing season.
Add in a top draft pick and a free-agent defenseman, get Ward back to full health, wait to see if Brind'Amour wants to play out the final year of his contract, decide whether to re-sign Ray Whitney or Brian Pothier, and there you go - your lineup to start next season.
Assuming the Hurricanes don't make any waves and hold onto 28th place, they'll go into the draft lottery with a small chance to pick first, but no worse than fourth. At this moment, even without that injection of top-end young talent, this group playing out the string in a soft open for 2010-11 is commendably competitive.
When this winning streak ends, tougher times are going to come for this group, which is filled with young players ripe to wear down as the season drags on into its final month. That's inevitable, and understandable.
For now, though, there's plenty for everyone to prove. In Boychuk's case, the former first-round pick was yanked out of his cushy top-line spot in Albany and thrown onto the NHL team's fourth line, asked to show he has the grit to go with his game.
"A lot of people might think that I'm a small winger who can only play in the top-six forward positions, and if not, it's not good for my development," Boychuk said. "These guys are giving me the opportunity to go out and play on the fourth line and create lots of energy and bang bodies.
"That's going to get me a better shot at cracking it next year."
Boychuk did that Thursday, and although it's just a start, it's a promising one.
The same thing can be said of the Hurricanes. Their performance may not have helped them move up the draft order, but it certainly offered reassurance they're on the right track for the future.
