This may surprise a few people, but I'm actually not as down on the Canes' future as I have been the past few seasons. IMO, our forwards are actually fairly solid. We haven't really had any lines click yet, but having your No. 2 center on the shelf for half the season tends to throw the lines into a bit of disarray. But I think Eric Staal has cleared up a lot of concerns with his two-way play and leadership so far this season. Skinner is a stud (when he's not concussed), three young forwards have taken giant steps forward (Lindholm, Nash, Rask), another has legit upside (Nestrasil), and guys like Tlusty, Gerbe, Boychuk, Terry, Dwyer and McClement have been fine in their roles. That's 12 forwards that have been decent or better. Add Jordan and get Semin back on track somehow and we have a very representative forward unit. (Malone is the only forward who is just plain bad at hockey.)
And I think the goalies have been OK. Ward's resurgence is certainly a surprise, but I honestly feel that we're fine in goal even if his play falls off a bit, because I feel Khudobin is better than he's showed so far in a backup role.
However, then there's the defense. I wholeheartedly support blowing up this unit. I think our failings on the back end are affecting our breakouts, our speed through the neutral zone and our ability to use the points in the offensive zone. In other words, a lot of our offensive struggles are really issues with our d-men.
If we're being honest, we've only got two legit NHL defensemen, and I think we're overrating both of them. If Sekera hadn't had the season he had last year, we'd be losing it over his d-zone turnovers. And if Faulk didn't give us visions of Drew Doughty his first two seasons, we'd be losing it over his amazing ability to look completely lost on most nights. Hainsey, Gleason and Bellemore are fringe guys, at best, and Harrison and Liles don't belong in the league (although I think Liles has skill and could play if he wanted to, but as far as I can tell, he only cares in games against teams that have let him go).
The bottom line is that we really need to overhaul the defense. I'm actually to the point where I wouldn't mind trading Sekera or Faulk if we can get payment based on what the perception of them seems to be around the league, and not actual production. There's just not a lot here and nothing should be off the table.