Just when things slow down in Blackhawk Land, Stan Bowman pulls us right back in. Tuesday the Blackhawks announced a couple of deals.
First of all, the team announced that they had re-signed, NOT RESIGNED, Ryan Stanton to a one year extension. No financial term have been announced yet, but you can expect something in the area of a two way $600K deal. Stanton has been a solid, on the cusp, player in Rockford for a few years now, and made his NHL debut against the Blues in the last game of the season. This isn't a huge development as Stants would still be the #8 guy on the NHL roster.
Stanton is pretty highly regarded in the Hawks system, and still only 23 years old. He specs out at 6'2" and 205lbs, which is on the large side of average for NHL defenders. Players and fans seem to really like him, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see him this year, and under favorable circumstances.
Just a short while after the Stanton re-signing, and all sane Hawks fans dreams came true; after winning the cup that is. Dan "Gorilla Salad" Carcillo was traded to LA for a conditional draft pick. Since others in the Blackhawks Blog Brotherhood covered this more eloquently rthan I, you can just read for yourselves. To say I vehemently agree with their points is to put things lightly.
Go forth and read:
And the fine young cannibals over at HockeeNight
On to the Mailbag. Figured I would throw it out to the fans to answer a few questions. Here we go:
Several people asked about the prospects that will need to fill the open roster spots.
Excellent question. With the passing on of Gorilla Salad, there is yet another spot opened up. Realistically, the Hawks need to replace Bolland, Stalberg and Frolik at a minimum. This is assuming that Bolland was slotted for the second line center spot.
As far as second line center goes, the Blackhawks seem to be pretty content with a Marcus Kruger, Brandon Pirri and Drew LeBlanc slugging it out for the position. They have pretty decent potential, as Pirri was the AHL's regular season leading scorer, and LeBlanc was the Hobey Baker award winner in College this spring. Word has been circling that Leblanc is considered further along than originally expected. The issue I would be worried about is faceoffs. Hopefully the addition of consultant Yanic Perreault, and the re-signing of faceoff wizard Michal Handzus will help the kids along in this process. Kruger would "seem" like the most likely, with his experience, so we'll see how this plays out. If that happens, then Pirri or Leblanc move down to the 4th line.
As far as some of the open wing spots, you can bet on Ben Smith making the team out of camp. The organ-I-zation has been high on him for a while, but there just simply wasn't any room. He could be slotted on the 3rd line, replacing Stalberg, or the 4th line, replacing Frolik. The speedy and gritty Jeremy Morin will get a long look, probably making the team, in those two spots as well. The dark horse in this race is Jimmy Hayes. He has the size but he doesn't use it to his advantage as much as the coaches would like. He's more like a poor man's Eric Daze, than Bryan Bickell. With his frame, he "should" be the leader in this race, but they really don't seem to know if they want him at center or wing. Personally, I'd like to see him on the 4th line with Handzus or one of the kids, and I wouldn't be opposed to Bollig out there from time to time. If Kruger can't hack the second line job, he could play center or wing there as well.
The Hawks are going to try and slot Bickell in on one of the top two lines, at least to start, which might mean that Saad slides down into the bottom six. This leaves the third line around Shaw open for Morin or Smith. I could see lines shaking out something like this, come fall:
Kane-Toews-Bickell
Sharp-Kruger-Hossa
Saad-Shaw-Smith
Morin-Handzus-Bollig
While I really have no use for Bollig, Quenneville will play him, so that's why I included him. I'd much rather have Jimmy Hayes playing in that slot, but the Mustachio rules the roost.
If you mention Kyle Beach, I'll cut ya!
As far as the defense goes, it's a real tight ship organizationally. The top 7 spots are spoken for, unless someone really blows the doors off the joint, in camp. Stanton seems like the logical "first responder", if there are injuries, and Adam Clendening could see some time, in an emergency, as well. Dylan Olsen, Klas Dahlbeck, and Shawn Lalonde aren't all that far behind either.
With the Goaltending, unless there is a miracle, there is only one new player you have a chance of seeing. Antti Raanta. He was signed to be the backup/heir apparent to Corey Crawford. If he doesn't pull a Salak, he'll be the backup next season, or earlier if Khabibulin wilts. There is a definite drop off in talent after Raanta. Kent Simpson would be next, followed by Mac Carruth, and finally Brandon Whitney. If they get past Raanta, expect the Hawks to sign a veteran for emergency duty.
At what point is the faceoff considered won?
Like hitting, won faceoffs are somewhat of a subjective statistic. What constitutes possession? I think it's safe to say that a won faceoff is when a players team takes unabated control of the puck, whenever that may be. Its really subjective to the official scorer's opinion.
Why did Stan spend so much on Bryan Bickell?
I've seen this quite a few times, and before July 5th, I may have agreed. But once Free Agency opened, equivalent players like David Clarkson, and Ryane Clowe grabbed the money and ran. Bickell is 2 years younger than Clarkson, and three years younger than Clowe. Bickell had 23 regular season points in a third line role, while Clowe had 19, and Clarkson had 24. When you take all of this into account, the Blackhawks got a player two years younger, for between $850,000 or $1.2 million less per year. Stan won this derby, because Bickell will be easier to unload than the other schmucks just because of his age and salary alone.
And finally from Fork at HockeeNight: Describe Sopel's dong in 5 words or less.
