Adam Proteau of The Hockey News solicited reader input on the "largest" nose in hockey last week, and to no one's surprise, Carolina captain Rod Brind'Amour ended up on top:

The Hurricanes’ captain wasn’t a runaway winner, but he didn’t win by an, er, nose, either. The runner-up award went to Colorado winger Ryan Smyth; third goes to Avs defenseman Adam Foote, followed by a three-way tie for fourth between Atlanta’s Colby Armstrong, Colorado’s Ian Laperriere, and Dallas’ Stephane Robidas.

Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour will be signing autographs at Marbles on Saturday (11 a.m.-noon) at the grand opening of Marbles' new sports exhibit, which includes a considerable Hurricanes component.

(For younger fans, Stormy will be there from 9-11 a.m.)

The "Center Ice" portion of the exhibit, funded by the team's charitable foundation, includes a synthetic ice rink and replica of the Hurricanes' locker room.

One little piece of overlooked fallout from last week's Erik Cole deal: Rod Brind'Amour and Niclas Wallin are the only players remaining from the 2002 Eastern Conference championship team.

(Technically, David Tanabe is the third, but "buyout pending" keeps him off the list.)

In addition to Cole, Glen Wesley and Bret Hedican have also left the team this summer, while Craig Adams left during the season.

For those who have been asking how Rod Brind'Amour is doing, the answer is … he's doing great.

Brind'Amour said he's skating three times a week and has been cleared for his usual late-June workout program.

TSN's Bob McKenzie just compared Colin Wilson, the seventh overall pick by the Nashville Predators, to Ron Francis and Rod Brind'Amour.

Stay tuned for further comparisons to Eric Staal, Matt Cullen, Kevyn Adams, Eric Belanger, Trevor Letowski, Josef Vasicek, Tommy Westlund, Mike Zigomanis and Damian Surma.