So the Hurricanes finally took a defenseman in the first round, for the first time in six years and the fifth time since Peter Karmanos and Jim Rutherford took over in 1994. Ryan Murphy doesn't have to do much in a Carolina uniform to rank as the best of the bunch.

The Hurricanes’ refusal to take defensemen in the first round has always smacked of stubbornness. It’s almost as if they said, “We’ve been burned before and we’re just not going to bother anymore.” And maybe for good reason: Two of the Hurricanes’ four previous first-round defensemen were total, complete and utter busts: Nikos Tselios, 22nd overall in 1997 and Igor Knyazev, 15th overall in 2001.