Some of the Canes took to the ice today for a 75-minute session of "Camp Brind'Amour" at the RecZone.

Working out today: Rod Brind'Amour, Ray Whitney, Joe Corvo, Nic Wallin, Scott Walker, Aaron Ward, Sergei Samsonov, Chad LaRose and Tim Conboy.

Making a guest appearance: former Canes defenseman Sean Hill, who is in town visiting his wife's relatives and dropped by to skate.

The guys were a little rusty, a little winded, but that's to be expected. Walker and Ward also did some good-natured ribbing in the room after the workout.

The Hurricanes' recent moves — the re-signing of Tuomo Ruutu, the trade that dispatched Patrick Eaves and brought Aaron Ward back to Raleigh and the buyout of Frantisek Kaberle — put a fine polish on what the Hurricanes will look like next season.

There may be some tinkering here and there before the season starts, but as things stand now, the Hurricanes could go into training camp on target and under budget.

Those moves also offered a look at what the Hurricanes' roster will resemble in 2010-11, when a few big contracts expire, the cap is likely to decrease and a few prospects may be ready to jump to the NHL.

If there is anything Frantisek Kaberle and Tom Barrasso have in common, it was that they were both underestimated during their time with the Hurricanes.

Both were in the news Tuesday, Kaberle because the Hurricanes bought out his contract and Barrasso for his induction into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

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.

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.

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:

Two further notes from my conversation with Scott Walker in today’s paper:

1. Scott mentioned to me that a few fans were participating in a charity bike ride to raise money for cancer research in his honor. Turns out it’s Mike “Mo Must Go” Flanagan and his wife Leigh. You can donate here.

2. I asked Scott if he had spoken to Aaron Ward at any point this summer, and he said not since he apologized in the handshake line. (They’ll probably cross paths at the RecZone in August.)

Walker said he didn’t think his family situation played a role in The Punch — even in the best of times, Walker has been known to snap on the ice, notably head-butting Ottawa’s Mike Fisher during a fight in 2007 — but he did acknowledge it’s hard to know for sure.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with what I was going through then,” Walker said. “People say you don’t know how it can affect you, but I just saw Matt Cullen on the ice and Aaron Ward standing there, so I punched him.”

Will the Hurricanes be affiliated with the Albany River Rats next season? Good question.

General manager Jim Rutherford had this to say about the American Hockey League team:

"In all likelihood we will be affiliated with Albany this season. We will know in the next few weeks."

It was no surprise that Paul Maurice had the “interim” tag removed Monday. That was all but a foregone conclusion from the time the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated the New Jersey Devils.

But Ron Francis will be back with him behind the bench as associate coach, and that is a surprise — and not only because he was adamant during his lengthy playing career that he had no interest in coaching.

Scott Walker put it best. It was a heck of a ride.

From the opening night win over Florida to the 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh in the fourth and final game of the Eastern Conference finals,  it was a long and often tiring and mostly rewarding ride for the Carolina Hurricanes and an N&O rookie who was along for a lot of the ride.

What to the remember? Games are games and there were a lot of them. But it's all about the guys in the room and the men who coached them.

Let's go around the room:

Eric Staal: always a standup guy, even after the toughest defeats.