For Erik Cole, it was a start, nothing more or less.

For the first time since suffering his leg fracture, the Canes' forward was back on the ice with his teammates, going through today's morning skate at the RBC Center. Cole wore a gold, non-contact jersey, but he was skating and cutting and getting in some work.

"It was just a pregame skate so we knew it wouldn't be anything too strenuous," Cole said. "I was on the ice beforehand, so it was to see if I could do some regular drills, the skating drills."

Canes forward Erik Cole will be out four to six weeks after breaking a bone in his left leg, general manager Jim Rutherford said today.

Cole was bringing the puck down the left boards and was injured with less than three minutes to play in the Hurricanes' 7-2 loss Saturday at Boston in a collision with the Bruins' Dennis Wideman. Cole's leg hit Wideman's right leg as Wideman attempted a hip check.

Cole was traded by the Canes to the Edmonton Oliers after the 2007-08 season but returned to Carolina in March in a three-team trade. An unrestricted free agent after the season, he signed a two-year, $5.8-million contract with the Canes in July.

Tim Conboy will go into the lineup for Tuesday's game against Tampa Bay. In Sunday practice, Conboy was working with Stephane Yelle and Tom Kostopoulos. Scott Walker was on Rod Brind'Amour's line with Jussi Jokinen.

Carolina Hurricanes forwards Erik Cole and Chad LaRose and former Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley will take questions from fans Friday night at the NHL team's "Summer Fun Fest" Friday night.

The second annual fan event is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on the South lawn of the RBC Center, with live music, games, sledding on artificial snow and other activities.

Wesley, who is now the Hurricanes' Director of Defenseman Development, will join Cole and LaRose in taking questions during a "State of the Hurricanes" forum scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

Afterward, there will be a re-broadcast of the Hurricanes' last-minute comeback win in Game 7 of its quarterfinal series against the New Jersey Devils.

Parking and admission to the event are free.

From Talking Points: 

As far as the Hurricanes are concerned, it's funny how much can change overnight. When we went to bed Tuesday, general manager Jim Rutherford's last public statement indicated that Erik Cole was ticketed elsewhere and there was a chance Chad LaRose might return to the nest quickly after testing the market.

By the time the biscuits came out of the oven Wednesday, the door was open for Cole to return and LaRose had been bid farewell. So far, that's what has happened -- Cole signed for two years at an average of $2.9 million a year and LaRose remains a free agent, with Rutherford now dangling an impending signing in front of the fan base.

Read more here.

Free agency in the NHL is a funny thing. Very little ends up being as it seems, reason goes out the window and even mild-mannered men like Montreal's Bob Gainey end up flinging money around like a Sex and the City character in a shoe store.

As far as the Hurricanes are concerned, it's funny how much can change overnight. When we went to bed Tuesday, general manager Jim Rutherford's last public statement indicated that Erik Cole was ticketed elsewhere and there was a chance Chad LaRose might return to the nest quickly after testing the market.

By the time the biscuits came out of the oven Wednesday, the door was open for Cole to return and LaRose had been bid farewell. So far, that's what has happened -- Cole signed for two years at an average of $2.9 million a year and LaRose remains a free agent, with Rutherford now dangling an impending signing in front of the fan base.

Canes forwards Erik Cole and Chad LaRose, as unrestricted free agents, go on the open market at noon today when the NHL signing period begins.

But for how long?

Canes general manager Jim Rutherford said today that although there are no guarantees, Cole may wind up returning. He said Cole has said he will not drag out the free-agent process.

"Erik is working hard to work with us," Rutherford said. "He'll still go into free agency but has said he will not stay out there long if he does not see a big deal he can get."

From Talking Points: 

Either way, this isn't what the Hurricanes expected to happen today. Perhaps Rutherford overestimated the desire of Cole and LaRose to remain in Carolina. Perhaps he assigned a greater financial value to that desire than they did. And perhaps they intended to test the open market all along (for a player, the chase for that one big free-agent payday can be a strong lure).

Read more here.

The only free-agent shopping the Hurricanes planned to do was in their own backyard, attempting to re-sign Erik Cole and Chad LaRose before they hit the open market. That didn't happen.

When the free-agent balloon goes up at noon today, both of those players will no longer be Hurricanes -- temporarily, and in the case of Cole, most likely permanently.

The clock is ticking closer and closer to the free agency signing period.

Where do the Canes stand on unrestricted free agents Erik Cole and Chad LaRose? General manager Jim Rutherford said Cole's agent, Steve Bartlett, has informed him that Cole will not sign a new contract before the deadline and will test the free-agent market.

UPDATE: LaRose's agent, Patrick Morris, said late Tuesday night that the two sides could not agree on financial terms and that LaRose also would test the market.

It will be four or five years before we know how the Carolina Hurricanes did in the draft last weekend, although they deserve credit for breaking new ground, by their standards, in terms of location (their first-round pick was from Quebec and three out of six picks were Europeans) and philosophy (all six were 6 feet or taller).

Whether first-round pick Philippe Paradis will be regarded as a steal or a bust is yet to be determined, but the record is already clear on many of the Hurricanes’ past drafts, at least those from 2005 and earlier.

We all know the misses — Igor Knyazev, Jeff Heerema, Nikos Tselios — but among the hits, here are the Canes’ five best draft picks since the team moved to North Carolina, not necessarily in overall talent, but in terms of how well they did with the pick.

Eric Staal, for example, was a relative no-brainer at No. 2 in 2003, but Cam Ward was not late in the first round a year earlier, which is why they bookend Tuesday’s Top Five: