Blackhawks Offseason Thread

[burnt out cubbie fan]

BTW here is a free agency tracker that is sortable by team.

 

http://tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=11850

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I love Havlat, but Hossa is a huge upgrade in total, he's better offensively and defensively, and he's getting a better cap number than Havlat had last year to boot.

 

This was more or less a straight swap in the roster of Havlat for Hossa, and that's a great deal (especially because it weakens Detroit as well).

 

Your wingers are now Hossa, Sharp, Kane, Ladd, Byfuglien, Versteeg, Eager, Burish, plus a couple of prospects ready to break in (Skille for sure, I doubt Beach will be ready next year). Technically Sharp can play center, but he's not as good there. Any more wingers would be a waste of resources.

 

Meanwhile, our centers, afaik, are Toews, Kopecky, Bolland, Fraser? That still doesn't seem Cup ready to me. We need another top-line center for the eight millionth offseason in a row.

 

 

Edit: Wait, Burish is a center, right? That still doesn't quite do it for me.

[manbearcub]

This is quite possibly going to be the best team in Black Hawks franchise history.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Ok, here is the Blackhawks' cap situation for 2010-2011.

 

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=CHI

 

They have a little over $31 million committed to Hossa, Sharp, Byfuglien, Kopecky, Campbell, Seabrook, Sopel and Huet. That goes up past $35 million when you include Bolland's new deal.

 

The cap was $56.7 million last year, and despite rumors it would go down, it will be $56.8 million next season.

 

Kane, Toews and Keith will all be RFAs before the 2010-11 season, so they are not included in that 35 million. If the cap more or less stays level, you have roughly $21 million left for Keith, Toews, Kane and eight other players to make a 20-man roster, the bare minimum. Even if you can get those eight others for $7 million combined (which would mean nothing but cheap prospects, high picks will have higher cap hits immediately), that leaves you with just $14 million in space for those three players. Realistically, you won't be able to fill the roster that cheaply and you'll have $12 million in space for those guys. I really doubt that's enough.

 

One of three things will have to happen happen:

 

1) Tallon finds a way to deal Campbell or Huet, maybe Sharp

2) Tallon gets Keith, Toews and Kane to sign super-long, cap-friendly deals

3) Either Keith or Kane will be let go for the huge RFA compensation haul they'd bring. My heart says keep Kane, my head says keep Keith.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal.

 

I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

[manbearcub]

is there any chance sopel is still around (@ $2.5 mill)?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

is there any chance sopel is still around (@ $2.5 mill)?

 

Unless someone really wants to trade for him, I don't see why not.

[RedFlash]

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal.

 

I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

 

I don't mind Madden as long as he is on the 3rd line.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal.

 

I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

 

I don't mind Madden as long as he is on the 3rd line.

 

It looks like the centers are Toews/Bolland/Madden/Kopecky. Unless Bolland or Toews takes a big step forward, that's not a great bunch, but our strengths are going to be at wing and D.

[sherwood921]

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal.

 

I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

 

 

Madden is a perfect fit. Won the selke once and finished 2nd twice. Two cups and is one of the best PKers in the league. We now have a bevy of forwards and can actually afford to deal one or more of our extra wingers (buff, ladd, versteeg, Brouwer, eager) for a solid defenseman. This team is loaded.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal.

 

I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

 

 

Madden is a perfect fit. Won the selke once and finished 2nd twice. Two cups and is one of the best PKers in the league. We now have a bevy of forwards and can actually afford to deal one or more of our extra wingers (buff, ladd, versteeg, Brouwer, eager) for a solid defenseman. This team is loaded.

 

Campbell, Seabrook, Keith, Barker, Hjarlmarsson, Sopel and others. We don't need another D-man. I wouldn't mind an upgrade at center, but realistically, we are pretty much set here. We'll trade for draft picks, if anything, to save cap space.

[Drew Doughty]

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal.

 

I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

 

I don't mind Madden as long as he is on the 3rd line.

 

It looks like the centers are Toews/Bolland/Madden/Kopecky. Unless Bolland or Toews takes a big step forward, that's not a great bunch, but our strengths are going to be at wing and D.

 

toews could easily take a big step forward. if bolland has another 50-ish point season as a 2nd line center, that's easily acecptable.

 

madden is an excellent third line center. one of the more underrated in the game.

[sherwood921]

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal.

 

I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

 

 

Madden is a perfect fit. Won the selke once and finished 2nd twice. Two cups and is one of the best PKers in the league. We now have a bevy of forwards and can actually afford to deal one or more of our extra wingers (buff, ladd, versteeg, Brouwer, eager) for a solid defenseman. This team is loaded.

 

Campbell, Seabrook, Keith, Barker, Hjarlmarsson, Sopel and others. We don't need another D-man. I wouldn't mind an upgrade at center, but realistically, we are pretty much set here. We'll trade for draft picks, if anything, to save cap space.

 

Sopel is a 7th d-man at best. I'm expecting him gone anyway. There's also a chance Barker is gone as well for cap reasons similar to Versteeg. A stay at home defenseman to play with Campbell would be nice to have.

[brinoch]

I think the Hawks are pretty much set at center with Toews, Bolland, Madden, Kopecky and Burish.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I think the Hawks are pretty much set at center with Toews, Bolland, Madden, Kopecky and Burish.

 

It's Bolland that's irking me, I guess. He's not a bad No. 2, per se, but he's not exactly elite at that position either.

[sherwood921]

I think the Hawks are pretty much set at center with Toews, Bolland, Madden, Kopecky and Burish.

 

It's Bolland that's irking me, I guess. He's not a bad No. 2, per se, but he's not exactly elite at that position either.

 

He's not a crazy producer...but he's a fantastic two way center. Remember, he played against top lines the majority of the season, that was a major role. I assume Madden will help shoulder the defensive load which may allow some more offense out of Bolland as well. He put up very good numbers in juniors I believe also.

Edited July 2, 2009 by sherwood921

[Soul]

Doesn't 12 years sound like an awfully long time? I love the player, but how do we get out of the contract if in, say, year 5 his knees become like ground beef?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Doesn't 12 years sound like an awfully long time? I love the player, but how do we get out of the contract if in, say, year 5 his knees become like ground beef?

 

It's very heavily frontloaded.

 

The idea is that it's more like an eight-year deal, with four years of tiny salaries added on at the end. The reason is that the salary cap hit is the average yearly salary. So they basically gave him an 8-year, $8 million (or so) per year deal, but got away with a $5.2 million cap hit.

[Drew Doughty]

havlat to minny from the sounds of things. "verbal agreement" according to darren dreger of tsn.

[burnt out cubbie fan]

Does anybody know what type of RFA Versteeg is?

[brinoch]

I think the Hawks are pretty much set at center with Toews, Bolland, Madden, Kopecky and Burish.

 

It's Bolland that's irking me, I guess. He's not a bad No. 2, per se, but he's not exactly elite at that position either.

 

He's sneaky good. Seriously, the team will be fine, offensively, with lines that are going to look something like:

 

Sharp-Toews-Hossa

Versteeg-Bolland-Kane

Ladd-Madden-Byfuglien

Eager-Kopecky-Brouwer

Bench: Burish, Fraser, Bickell?, Beach?, Skille?,

 

There is definitely excess talent here... the Hawks could make a deal.

 

I worry more about the defense:

Seabrook-Keith

Campbell-Barker

Hjalmarsson-Sopel?

Bench: Hendry, Johnson

 

I'd look for a deal that trades a forward for a defenseman.

[kujay]

Holy crap I just got home and found out about Hossa. Holy crap.

[kujay]

And I didn't even notice about Kopecky and Madden.

 

So, it's plus Hossa, Kopecky and Madden, minus Pahlsson, Walker and Khabi.

 

It's been a good day.

[RynoRules]

Fairly certain that I read that Campbell is being shopped. This makes sense.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Fairly certain that I read that Campbell is being shopped. This makes sense.

 

Anybody taking him wouldn't make sense. He's got a huge contract.