Francis: Hurricanes could use depth on D to strengthen forward ranks

The Carolina Hurricanes could take a bit from Column A to stabilize Column B.

That's the message being affirmed by general manager Ron Francis, who knows where colleagues are focusing in on his depth chart.

"I think everyone is always looking for D and we feel comfortable with our depth there," Francis told Pierre LeBrun of ESPN. "We're always looking at all options to make our team better; if that's an area of strength and you can address an area of weakness, we'd certainly look at those possibilities."

To be sure, the Hurricanes boast one of the most impressive crops of young defensemen in the NHL: Justin Faulk (24), Ryan Murphy (23), Jaccob Slavin (22), Brett Pesce (22), Noah Hanifin (20), Haydn Fleury (20), and Jake Bean (19).

LeBrun adds the Hurricanes could potentially move one of the defensemen in a trade involving a front-line center, that being the area of weakness Francis seems to be referring to.

With less than two weeks to go before the trade deadline, the Hurricanes sit next-to-last in the Eastern Conference, eight points out of a playoff spot.