The dog days of summer continue to get longer and less interesting, if you’re looking for any interesting NHL news. Only on a hot, sticky, late July day could Marty Reasoner and Jeff Taffe be the biggest hockey news in Chicago. Sadly, I regret to inform you that this is not a joke. Late yesterday afternoon, Marty “Tower this is Ghostrider requesting a fly-by” Reasoner and his freshly re-packed bags were traded back south to Florida for Jeff Taffe. This is probably a hair above the signing of the great Igor Makarov, on the list of important organ-I-zational moves . I’m talking great, as in, “doesn’t even qualify as news on the website” for Makarov. Seriously, this is a snore of a transaction. Reasoner was tabbed for the 4th line, most likely. In a perfect world, he would be a cheaper and younger replacement for Madden as the 3rd line shutdown center but, honestly, who can replace this “Hot Tub Time Machine” moment?
This means the Hawks save about $600,000 in salary, if Taffe even makes the team. So, if said player makes the team, he’ll either be warming the pine as a proud member of the 4th line, or a healthy scratch. I would personally just rather see some younger hungry kid from Rockford who throws his body around without any regard for his own safety, not some 29 year old journeyman who had a total of 2 points in 21 games last year. The bottom line is that we’re going to be seeing a lot of fresh new faces when the Hawks open up this year.