Carolina Hurricanes beat writer Luke DeCock posted an interesting item on his blog, the wonderfully named Lord Stanley's Blog, about one more piece to the Rats puzzle.

Albany's parent team has re-signed Pat Dwyer, Mark Flood and Joe Jensen, and added Dwight Helminen to fill Keith Aucoin's role, but the Canes want to bring in another forward for the Rats as well as depth at the position.

The two names being mentioned: Jeff Taffe, who had his nose broken on a hit by ex-Rat Joey Mormina in his NHL debut last season, and ex-Cane Jeff O'Neill. The catch? They are holding out for one-way deals, while Carolina is looking more at a two-way option.

Anyway, Luke's take on the situation can be found at:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/canes/oneill-back-in-canes-plans-%E2%80%94-maybe

In other matters, I see where Carolina released both its preseason and regular-season schedules. I'll have to give a shout to Canes GM Jim Rutherford and ask him why the Canes have yet to play a preseason game in Albany. Maybe it's an availability issue, maybe it's finances, maybe it's both. It would be great for the fans up here to get a glimpse of the big boys, particularly the ones that used to play here. Even the notoriously stingy Devils used to do that, and mix in a few veterans; though, admittedly, the trip was MUCH shorter.