Written off....already?

Okay maybe not written off, but it seems that many of our fans as well as some fans from other teams are not going to consider the Canes a threat this season. They are all saying how the Canes haven't done anything to make our team better in order to be a contender when opening night rolls around. This is directed more to the Canes fans, because I realize the others will always be quick to dismiss us..I expect it.
Let's realize that that we didn't have as many people headed to FA as several teams did and we re-signed the important guys back in June. Remember when we were thrilled because we re-signed Walker, Whitney, Ward and Welsey? Those were our "big" signings. Another thing that we did was get rid of some depth that wasn't very useful to us. Vasicek and Carter, who were both brought in to try and fill a 3rd line centre role, were allowed to become free agents on July 1st. Tanabe (our puck-moving defenseman) was also allowed to become a free agent because we already have 8 defensemen under contract. Now what are we looking for? A puck-moving defenseman. Ironic, eh?
We did get some new blood on the team. Draft-day brought us a surprise when we traded our 7th round pick for Michael Leighton, who will now be our third goal tender. I found this to be quite a steal. This team brings out the best in players and Leighton will do just fine should he have to play for us this season. We are also trying, yet again, to fill our 3rd line centre role with Jeff Hamilton. All things considered, Hamilton's numbers were really good and he should be a decent fit here. Perhaps our Cullen-syndrome will be taken care of this season?

I am tired of hearing how "If we just brought (insert the name of some player who was with us for the Cup: A. Ward, Recchi, Weight, Cullen, etc.) back, we would be contenders again!"
Really? That's all we have to do?
Our GM is not an idiot and if all we had to do to win the Cup over and over was keep so-and-so I HIGHLY doubt he would have let him go in the first place.
Besides..let's see how many on our current roster were with is for the cup (in bold):
Justin Williams - Glen Wesley
Eric Staal - Denis Seidenberg
Ray Whitney - Frank Kaberle
Andrew Ladd - Bret Hedican
Rod Brind'amour - Niclas Wallin
Trevor Letowski - Tim Gleason
Scott Walker - Mike Commodore
Erik Cole - Andrew Hutchinson
Craig Adams - Cam Ward
Jeff Hamilton - John Grahame
Chad LaRose - Michael Leighton
Cory Stillman

Over half of our roster is still the same as that in the 2005/2006 year. Perhaps we can't place the blame on us not having the 2005/2006 team? The 2006/2007 year was mediocre because the Canes thought they could slack and still defend their prize.
The Canes were very capable of getting wins last year and got them when the pressure was applied (Game against Anahiem and the last game of the season are perfect examples)

Now...we have our key players and additions that will hopefully help us along the way. We have 2 All-star forwards who will be leading the way. We have a Conn-Smythe winning goalie who now has two backups who will step up when he needs it. We have a team made up of players that other fans would kill to have on their side and we have management and coaches who know what they are doing.
Have some faith and don't be so quick to write your team off before you have seen them on the ice.