Blackhawks off season

[minnesotacubsfan]

Losing Saad sucks

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Thought for sure the plan was to move some payroll to keep Saad. Still have the payroll and Saad is gone. I'm bummed.

 

That was the plan, but Saad had to sign some kind of deal by today or else they'd be exposed to an offer sheet.

[UMFan83]

I'm ok with the trade, Dano is going to be good and center is a more important position. Still going to miss Saad though.

 

Yeah he was a really likable dude. Care about losing him more that Ladd, Byfuglien, Bolland, Campbell and Leddy

[Guest]

I'm ok with the trade, Dano is going to be good and center is a more important position. Still going to miss Saad though.

 

Yeah he was a really likable dude. Care about losing him more that Ladd, Byfuglien, Bolland, Campbell and Leddy

 

only because we knew those guys were gone ahead of time. saad is worse than at least 2 of those 5.

[ARCubsFan]

I'm ok with the trade, Dano is going to be good and center is a more important position. Still going to miss Saad though.

 

Yeah he was a really likable dude. Care about losing him more that Ladd, Byfuglien, Bolland, Campbell and Leddy

 

only because we knew those guys were gone ahead of time. saad is worse than at least 2 of those 5.

What? No he's not.

[Guest]

I guess I'm resigned to the idea that this was the right thing to do. I'm definitely not happy about it, though.

[Guest]

I'm ok with the trade, Dano is going to be good and center is a more important position. Still going to miss Saad though.

 

Yeah he was a really likable dude. Care about losing him more that Ladd, Byfuglien, Bolland, Campbell and Leddy

 

only because we knew those guys were gone ahead of time. saad is worse than at least 2 of those 5.

What? No he's not.

 

ladd and campbell were definitely better than saad

[Guest]

I'm ok with the trade, Dano is going to be good and center is a more important position. Still going to miss Saad though.

 

Yeah he was a really likable dude. Care about losing him more that Ladd, Byfuglien, Bolland, Campbell and Leddy

 

only because we knew those guys were gone ahead of time. saad is worse than at least 2 of those 5.

What? No he's not.

 

ladd and campbell were definitely better than saad

Are you talking about at the time of the trade or future value?

[Guest]

 

Yeah he was a really likable dude. Care about losing him more that Ladd, Byfuglien, Bolland, Campbell and Leddy

 

only because we knew those guys were gone ahead of time. saad is worse than at least 2 of those 5.

What? No he's not.

 

ladd and campbell were definitely better than saad

Are you talking about at the time of the trade or future value?

 

i'd probably take 24 year old ladd over 22 year old saad going forward. campbell i obviously wouldn't, but that hurt their immediate future more than losing saad.

 

my point is that losing saad feels like more of a kick in the balls because we weren't expecting it.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Campbell was all but washed up by the time he left

[jersey cubs fan]

I guess I'm resigned to the idea that this was the right thing to do. I'm definitely not happy about it, though.

Yeah, right thing to do after not trading sharp last year. Default right thing to do. The two greatest words in the English language, de fault

[jersey cubs fan]

Ladd was better than saad? I considered Ladd a nic piece that was tough to lose but saad seemed more useful.

[seanimal]

the return is decent, and a whole lot better than nothing. sucks to lose him but as has been mentioned, we've let go of better and we're trading from a position of strength. have fun in columbus with your millions of dollars fool!

[seanimal]

Ladd was better than saad? I considered Ladd a nic piece that was tough to lose but saad seemed more useful.

 

the proximity effect

[MarkR]

I wonder if our opinion of Saad is somewhat clouded based on the fact that he's played with two hall of fame players on the same line. Not saying he isn't a really good player, because I think he is, but if he was seriously looking for 6.5 million at the last call before he hits RFA, what else is Bowman supposed to do? He acquired two players who definitely fill a need in hard to fill spots. I'd love to see a couple more defensemen acquired, but listening to some "woe is us" calls on ESPN Radio in Chicago, there's some perspective that needs to come into play here.

 

I think picking up a couple of serviceable defensemen will keep us as a strong contender again next year. I still doubt Sharp or Bickell is here come opening night anyways.

[squally1313]

In my opinion, this trade had very little to do with Sharp, or Bickell, or the salary cap issues. According to a lot of rumors, someone told Saad and his agent, and the Blackhawks too, that they were going to offer Saad $6.5m over 5 years. While we could have found a way to afford that, it would not have been a good deal.

 

Your stars are almost always overpaid. We're already doing that with Toews and Kane, and we can't do it with Saad too. Someone like Columbus can build a team around a 22 year old potential (more on that later) stud American. We already have 19 and 88.

 

So at that point, it's taking the picks, or taking the deal. You can argue the picks could be a better value long term, but they aren't going to help the team next year, especially if we still have replace Sharp and/or Bickell (and Vermette, Richards, Versteeg, Desi, etc.). Anisimov is basically Vermette, and Dano is 20 years old with almost the same point pace as Saad. Yes, definite sample size in play. But Dano wasn't playing with two Hall of Famers. The other guys are depth, but they're cheap depth.

 

I hope Saad flourishes in Columbus and earns that contract. But we shouldn't be the ones paying it. Does it weaken the team? Absolutely. But we knew it was going to be weakened. And it's not even July yet. We'll be fine.

[Guest]

Campbell was all but washed up by the time he left

 

campbell was tremendous in his last 2 seasons with the hawks.

[Guest]

Ladd was better than saad? I considered Ladd a nic piece that was tough to lose but saad seemed more useful.

 

pretty close, but i'd take ladd. ladd kind of gets forgotten because of how stacked that 2010 team was on paper. he's great.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Ladd and Campbell were the only two cap casualties I thought were worth fretting over, now Saad joins them.

 

I was looking forward to him being a fixture for a long time if he continued to develop.

 

But in the present, we traded a 52-point winger who was responsible defensively but nothing special there, and we improved our 2nd/3rd line center situation plus added some overall forward depth. That doesn't make the title defense look one bit worse in sum, IMO.

[Gingerballs Lives]

Ladd and Campbell were the only two cap casualties I thought were worth fretting over, now Saad joins them.

 

I was looking forward to him being a fixture for a long time if he continued to develop.

 

But in the present, we traded a 52-point winger who was responsible defensively but nothing special there, and we improved our 2nd/3rd line center situation plus added some overall forward depth. That doesn't make the title defense look one bit worse in sum, IMO.

 

I'd put Leddy in that group too. I know you can't keep everyone but I thought for sure they would make Saad a priority. He was a monster in the playoffs, I don't think they win the cup without him.

[seanimal]

it always seemed like q didn't really trust leddy enough to allow the team to derive maximum value from his play

[Guest]

I've always thought of Saad as Brouwer's replacement.

[Guest]

Saad is a great piece but he's not a guy who can carry a line. He's more of a guy who maximizes the opportunities he's given than someone who makes opportunities.

 

I think Teuvo is the latter.

[jersey cubs fan]

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[jersey cubs fan]

so he has a 3.3m cap hit this year then it goes up to 4.55.

 

 

They still have a lot of cap work to do.