The Hurricanes have a surplus of defensemen and will look to be completing a trade. "At this time last year, I had a real sense that we had things going and we could keep moving," Rutherford said. "But we have to be careful with what we're doing now because we have not had the consistency that we should have to have the success we had last year. So that's where a decision is going to have to be made in the next month. "Do we think we can get on that roll and ultimately run right through to the end? Or have the injuries, and I don't want to use this as an excuse -- I'll make it clear I don't think we need to use injuries as an excuse -- the fact of the matter is, have the injured players been injured too long to catch up to where they should be with their timing to be as good as they should be?"