RALEIGH - After watching the Carolina Hurricanes miss the playoffs for the second straight season, and identifying the defense as the primary problem, Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford vowed to make changes, no matter the cost.

The price of progress, Hurricanes fans discovered Tuesday, was steep.

The Canes sent popular forward Erik Cole to the Edmonton Oilers for 24-year-old defenseman Joni Pitkanen, parting ways with a player who won over fans during the 2002 playoffs before stunning them with his unlikely return from a broken neck in Game 6 of the 2006 Stanley Cup finals against those same Oilers.

For Cole, who at 29 had spent his entire NHL career with the Hurricanes, it was a difficult day.

"The friendships and everything make this tough," Cole said. "The good news is it's during the summer, so we have some time. If this were midseason, I'd be packing my bags and catching a flight. At least we can take our time and talk about everything."

The need to add a top-pairing, puck-moving defenseman, the blue-line vacancies left by Glen Wesley and Bret Hedican, a glut of forwards and Cole's contract status -- he has one year left at $4 million -- won out over sentiment Tuesday.

"We had a good team that missed the playoffs and shouldn't have," Rutherford said. "We needed to change our defense. Now we've done that. We think it will work. We hope it will work. ... I feel pretty good about the changes that we've made. Unfortunately, we had to let a good player go."

The Canes made a handful of other moves, bringing back defenseman Anton Babchuk from his exile in Russia and re-signing fourth-line forwards Ryan Bayda, Wade Brookbank and Tim Conboy, but Cole's departure made the biggest waves on the first day of the NHL's free-agent signing period.

"It's tough to lose him, especially because he's such a good guy," Hurricanes center Matt Cullen said. "Everybody likes 'Colesy' a lot and is going to miss him as much as a guy as a player. Obviously, his ability speaks for itself as much as what he's done."

Cole ranks among the franchise's top seven in games, points, goals and assists since the team moved to North Carolina in 1997. Only Jeff O'Neill and Rod Brind'Amour have scored more goals than Cole's 129 since then.

Cole was on his way to the best season of his career in March 2006 when Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik broke two vertebrae in Cole's neck with a hit from behind into the boards. Cole was back in the ice in less than four months, drawing the penalty that led to Frantisek Kaberle's Cup-winning goal in Game 7.

"I don't plan on showing up the first day with my Stanley Cup ring on, I can tell you that," Cole said.

In his place, the Canes will have Justin Williams, Scott Walker and Tuomo Ruutu on right wing and a remodeled defense with Pitkanen and Tim Gleason on the first pairing and Babchuk back in the mix.

The fourth overall pick in the 2002 draft, Pitkanen has averaged 36 points through four NHL seasons, posting 26 in 63 games for the Oilers last season with the Canes watching him closely.

"It was very exciting to find out I was headed to Carolina," Pitkanen said in a telephone interview from his native Finland.

At 6 feet 3 and 210 pounds, he's a bulky presence in front of the net, if not overly physical. And at his age -- he'll be 25 by opening night -- the Canes are counting on improvement.

Pitkanen is a restricted free agent, and while the Canes can match any offer, he's still open to approaches from other teams. Rutherford said he had only spoken briefly with Pitkanen's agent, Larry Kelly.

Even with the return of Babchuk, who signed a one-year, $1 million contract, the remaking of Carolina's defense may not be complete. Rutherford said the Canes were in negotiations with another defenseman, a defensive-minded player in the $1 million-per-year range, which would necessitate another trade to clear salary space in Carolina's $45 million budget.

Bayda and Brookbank signed one-year contracts worth $475,000, while Conboy will make $475,000 in the NHL and $100,000 in the AHL this season and $500,000 in 2009-10. The odd man out could be Chad LaRose, although the Canes continue to negotiate with the restricted free agent.