Reading the draft tea leaves

The Hurricanes' amateur scouts met this week to go over their draft board, with that event now a mere three weeks away. Based on what Peter Karmanos said Wednesday, in addition to Jim Rutherford's previous comments on the subject, it looks unlikely the Hurricanes will make a run at Tyler Seguin, although I believe with their quiver of picks, it's impossible to rule that out. (You can read all about that in the paper on Sunday.) If they stay at No. 7, or move up in a less dramatic way than a jump to No. 1, they have some options. First of all, some ground rules. Rutherford has left the door open to taking a defenseman, and I think it's safe to say everyone would agree that the current state of the Carolina blue line leaves an open spot on the second pairing that a top-10 pick could step into without much trouble. But the Hurricanes don't have a very good record when it comes to drafting defensemen in the first round. Part of that is because they don'...