You might say that the Blackhawks had an eventful weekend. Stan Bowman saddled up with his big boy britches, and made some headlines during this year's entry draft. Everyone was expecting SOMETHING to happen, and the Hawks brass didn't disappoint; or they DID disappoint, depending on your feelings for Brian Campbell and Troy Brouwer. First things first, though.
The Hawks ended up with ELEVEN, you read that right, ELEVEN picks in this 7 round draft. That's half the amount of players that the Hawks will be rostering on November 3. That being said, they had 2 first round picks, thanks to the trade of Troy Brouwer, and had the "pleasure" of holding the Mr. Irrelevant pick at 211, thanks to the Boston Bruins. Before really digging into the eleven new Blackhawks, lets look into the two FORMER Blackhawks
First of all, Troy Brouwer was traded to the Capitals, for their first round pick. People are going to be ALL over the place on this one, but this was a "no brainer". The Hawks weren't going to resign him for the money he was probably owed, and they got a young FIRST ROUND player for him. Yes, Quenneville probably misused him, but if he was lighting the world on fire, he might have found a solid spot SOMETIME during the year. By the end of the year, he was an afterthought, and doing duty with the cretins on the forth line. In essence, Bowman traded a 4th line, 7th round player, for a first round draft pick. And like I said MANY times before, YES he led the team in hits, but this was by default. Who else on this team was going to hit someone? Jack Skille?...oh wait. The Big Slow? Hardly. It's a replaceable stat, and not worth the cabbage. If Kyle Beach would grow half a brain in that empty head of his, he'd already have taken Brouwer's spot, but that's another subject, for another rant. A+ for Bowman, on this move.
As if the Brouwer move didn't wake up the Blackhawk nation, it was announced (after I'd gone to bed for the night) that the albatross that is Brian Campbell's contract had been shipped to familiar territory, Florida. Hello, there Dale Tallon! I specifically remember a very good looking chrome domed loudmouth mentioning South Florida and their plethora of cap room as a destination for Mr. Soupie, but who likes to boast? Of course, I was pointed at like a fool. I guess I CAN be right from time to time. Anyway, with the trade of one pink elephant, came a smaller pink elephant in return. Rosti-Rusty-Rostislav Olesz is now your newest Blackhawk. Roll out the red carpet at the UC! No matter how you dice that name up, if people insist on calling him Rosti, I will continue to post this picture:
Where do we begin? I don't think anyone, including me, thought Bowman could actually pull this off. From this day forward I shall refer to Campbell not as Phantom 51, but as Catch 22, because that's what this is a case of. He is fast, talented, and makes the Hawks a better team when he's out there, but he was about $3 million on the bad side of a brutal contract. It could be argued that $7.1 million a year isn't quite as bad as it was a few years ago, and you'd be right. But the fact of the matter is that he was making at LEAST $2 million a year more than the Hawks needed to be paying for him. He certainly didn't squash all critics, while he was here, but he lowered them down to a dull roar. Purely from a talent standpoint, I want Brian Campbell wearing 51 in my colors. He moved the puck and he excels on the powerplay, which is exactly what he was advertised, 3 years ago. When he was out of the lineup, the Hawks looked questionable, at best. In fact, the playoff turnaround last year can be attributed to Campbell's return to the lineup, because they were struggling mightily before he came back, and they were pretty much dominant until Captain Serious was raising the cup over his head.
I get it though, in fact, I said it needed to be done. An extra $7.1 million can bring in quite a few talented players. What does this leave for the defense? I'm sure StanBo has his plan, but for the first time in quite a while, like me after a night at the Mexican place, the Hawks have a little turmoil in their back end. Nick Leddy is not even a SHADE of Cammpbell, yet. Campoli needs to be resigned and is, again, not Campbell. Deuce showed that the pressure of being "the man" on the back end was a little too much. Lucky Number Sleven and Hammer are what they are, and none of what they are is Brian Campbell. None of the names like Olsen, Connelly, Lalonde, Stanton or Danis-Pepin are anything resembling Mr 51. There are a few free agents, but none of them bring what he did. Someone is going to need to step up, or the talent level is going to need to be leveled off. Some unrestricted free agents that can move the puck are Joni Pitkanen, Ian White, and Christian Ehrhoff, but that's still a drop off in the talent category, and I don't want to even ENTERTAIN the little bitch that is Kevin Bieksa. The other option is going against the "guy code" and poaching a RFA, and there are some out there. The problem is that most teams aren't letting any of these guys go, even if it means grossly overpaying. Look at what the Hawks were forced to do with Hjalmarsson, and he's no Shea Weber, Drew Doughty, or Keith Yandle, so it's not even worth entertaining that thought. Friday, at 11cst/12est, the free agent period opens up, and it'll personally be like Christmas if StanBo whips his junk out on the table, and goes all in. The only name I'm throwing out there is Eric Cole, and you heard it here 2 weeks ago. Happy hunting, Blackhawks Brass, because we need something to cheer about.
In all this commotion there was a draft. Yes, really. In the order of cleanliness, I will followup with another blog just to spotlight the picks...Onward