Recchi waives no-trade clause, traded to Hurricanes

'Canes add more scoring depth for the stretch run and the playoffs by adding Recchi, who ought to fill in nicely for Cole until he can return.
When Cole comes back during the playoffs, the Canes will be even stronger and have to be considered one of the Cup favorites at this point.

Good job, Jim Rutherford!

***Side Note***
I wonder if Recchi left a thank you note on Brooks Orpik's locker on his way out the door?

from ESPN.com

The Carolina Hurricanes added another important offensive piece Thursday, acquiring veteran forward Mark Recchi from Pittsburgh less than an hour before the NHL's trade deadline. Recchi gives the NHL's top team a replacement for injuredforward Erik Cole, who will miss the rest of the regular season after fracturing a vertebra in his neck less than a week ago against the Penguins. Cole already had a career-high 60 points in 60 games before the injury.

"I didn't feel pressure to do it, it wasn't an absolute necessity," Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford said. "It's not like we were out looking at several players. While the loss of Erik hurts our team, if we weren't able to get Mark Recchi, we weren't going to get anyone else."
To make the move, Recchi waived his no-trade clause.
The Hurricanes sent defenseman Niklas Nordgren, minor league forward Krys Kolanos and a second-round pick in 2007 to Pittsburgh. It was the second surprising trade in about a month for one of the league's small-market teams; Doug Weight also had a no-trade clause before arriving from St. Louis on Jan. 30.
Rutherford expects Recchi to join the Hurricanes in time for Saturday's game at the Florida Panthers.
"This group of players have played extremely well," Rutherford said. "They certainly have shown that we have as good a chance as anyone else in the playoffs. Any time you get to that point, and you can add elite players such as Weight and Recchi, you need to get that kind of depth to do well." Carolina led the NHL with 91 points entering Thursday night.