Several players leave the Hurricanes organization in what's reported as a “huge mess” for the team

According to a report from AHL insider Tony Androck, the Carolina Hurricanes are indeed having difficulty with their AHL and ECHL players, as predicted by many this past offseason.

The Hurricanes currently have no AHL affiliate, with the ECHL's Norfolk Admirals as their only farm team. The team has tried lending out players to other AHL teams and lending its players to the Admirals, but neither approach is acceptable to some of the Hurricanes' players.

Specifically, Androck reports that several Hurricanes have refused to report to the Admirals, with at least one player returning to Europe instead. 22 year old forward and former 2nd round pick Noel Gunler is headed back to Karpat in the Finnish Liiga, rather than accept an ECHL job. I suspect that other players will make similar moves.

From Androck:

The team also attempted to assign defenseman Anttoni Honka and at least three other skaters to the Admirals earlier this week. It remains to be seen what will happen in each of their cases.

Suffice it to say though that this is a giant mess for the entire Hurricanes organization. Having a stable farm system with not only your own team(s), but your own coaching staff, development staff and scouting staff is imperative to operating a sound NHL team. So far Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has shown that he's comfortable doing things his own way, but you have to think that his brazen disregard for player development will catch up with the team eventually.