i think staal and tlutsy are the only guarantee in carolina's line-up this season.
semin seems like a good fit on the right side.... but

ruutu's injury sure messed things up.

jordan wanted out of pittsburgh so that he could play more offensive minutes than he was getting. but the curent situation in carolina leaves the team with a bottom six that is not capable of successfully playing against other teams top line. i think j. staal will need to eat these tough minutes again and I can't see skinner playnig tough minutes yet. he is a horrible defensive player and semin might be a better fit in those tougher minutes.... joikinen may be on the second line or he may need to center the third line. lots of question marks here - this team needs some rookies to come in and win some jobs.

then again, they could adopt the TB model and load up their talent on the top two lines and give them all of the easy minutes and give a bunch of overmatched scrubs the tough assignments and hope they don't get hammered every night. time will tell with this one.