Dirty Black Summer

The Blackhawks have been on a cinderella run that none of us have seen in this city, well, EVER. As far as the Blackhawks go, that is. Regardless of what the Hawks do to finish the season, Stan Bowman and the Blackhawks are going to need to do work on some creative accounting to fill some holes, thanks to the salary cap rollback in the new CBA.

As the roster sits today, Bryan Bickell and Viktor Stalberg will be unrestricted free agents. Marcus Kruger and Nick Leddy will be restricted free agents. With the deals they are getting in Stalberg ($875K) and Bickell ($541K), even if they re-sign, it'll be for a raise. Lets say, for the sake of sanity, that each of them double their salaries. Stalberg would be at $1.75 Million and Bickell would be at just about $1.1 Million. Both are palatable cap hits, in today's market, but that brings the Hawks cap room to just under $1.2 million, with Kruger and Leddy still unsigned and no backup goalie. You can see where I'm going with this. Even if they are ok with humping the cap ceiling, they are going to need to shed some payroll. My gut feeling is that one, or both of them will be playing elsewhere. Jeremy Morin and Jimmy Hayes should be able to fill the Bickell/Stalberg slots pretty well. Ben Smith is also another candidate to fill some of that ice time. I wouldn't be heartbroken with any of these moves, but Stalberg's speed is an x-factor.


On the other hand, Leddy is in for a payday and Kruger isn't far behind. Even if both of THEM double their salaries, Kruger is at roughly $1.8 Million and Leddy is at $2.233 Million. Again, both decent cap hits, but if the Hawks keep all 4 at double their current salaries, the Hawks would be nearly $3 Million over the cap. That number drops to about $1.4 million over, if they play the kids in Bickell and Stalberg's spots. Either way, the Hawks need to make adjustments.

There are some easy solutions, with a buyout of Rostislav Olesz and maybe Steve Montador. These two moves, alone, free up almost $6 million dollars, make the most sense, and leave the Hawks some room to either sign or bring up a backup netminder, with some slight wiggle room. It's doubtful that they are going to pay Ray Emery the raise he is going to be looking for, come season's end, but I've been wrong before. Hutton and Karlsson are both unrestricted free agents and if one is re-signed, my guess would be Karlsson, based on his NHL experience. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see both left to test the market.

All of these moves and all of this speculation is based on one thing, the Hawks don't test the free agent market. At all.

This brings me to my next point, and I brought this up on Twitter and in my game recap last night. David Bolland. Has the success of the young centers made him and his $3.375 Million cap hit expendable? I would say yes, and here is why.

-With Bolland out of the lineup, Kruger and Shaw have filled his spot pretty admirably.
-Shaw has taken over Bolland's beloved third line shutdown spot, and some would say he's not missed a beat.
-Those in love with his playoff performance forget that he's no longer playing against the other team's top lines. Shaw's line has been.
-While Kruger has a tough time winning faceoffs, Bolland has has almost identical issues at the dot. If they want to have a #3 playing in the #2 spot, Kruger can do it at less than half the price, and much younger.
-Kruger and Frolik could center the 2nd and 4th lines respectively, at the same cap hit as Bolland.
-$3.375 Million is a nice chunk of change to have in your pocket.
-His growth hasn't been what you'd like for a 2nd line center, and he's been at a plateau for about 3 years.

With the moves above, the Hawks could go into the free agent signing period with almost $8 Million in their pocket. Of course, Stan doesn't like to dive deep into the free agent market, but a Bolland trade may alos bring back something of value, as well.

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Blackhawks Extend Razor for Another Year

The Hawks made a decision regarding their shakey goaltending situation early Sunday morning. A move that really settled nothing, in the grand scheme of things. They re-signed Ray “Razor” Emery to a one year extension worth $1.15 million. I honestly have mixed feelings about this move. I like Ray Emery and I suggested that that Hawks look into him last summer, but he is limited in his potential. If the Hawks can kick Crawford in the ass and get him back to his 2010-2011 form, Emery is low risk solution to the backup question. The problem is that there is no guarantee that Crawford will rebound, and the goaltending depth in the system is thin, to put it lightly.

There are a couple of scenarios are possible, as far as the offseason, to help beef up the goaltending:

First of all, the Blackhawks could pickup a goalie in the draft. I have nothing to back this up, but I’ve seen it mentioned that the Hawks might be looking at someone like Russian goalie Andrei Vasilevski to fill some of their depth issues at the position. This is all good and well, but young goalies are RARELY NHL ready in less than 2 years. This could be the plan, but that leaves some holes for the near future. Alex Salak has fallen down the depth chart, because of a terrible year in Rockford, but can still rebound into a decent NHL player someday. Carter Hutton is a decent depth guy, at best. Nothing against the guy, but he was an ECHL guy that was discarded by the Sharks at the beginning of the season. The Chances that you’ll see Carter Hutton as the everyday backup to any Blackhawks goalie is slim. Which brings me to my second scenario.

The Hawks could bring in either a veteran or young unproved guy to compete with Crawford and Emery. They did this last year with Emery to compete with Crawford and Salak. Look how that turned out. The problem is that there isn’t really much out on the market. Josh Harding is good but might command Crawford money. Everyone else out there is a veteran. There are some good RFA guys out there, like Corey Schneider, Ondrej Pavelec, and Anders Lindback, but most of those teams are likely to match an offer. Lindback is a strong possibility to poach from Nashville. He is young, and a younger version of his teammate Pekka Rinne. Nashville is VERY tight on cash, with Ryan Suter becoming free agent. All purely just speculation, but good ideas.

The last scenario is that they could trade Emery, now that they own his rights. I’m sure there were a team or two calling Bowman about the availability of Emery at the trade deadline. With his experience as a backup, and in the playoffs, some teams no doubt would be interested. Even if the Hawks get a draft pick or two in return, that's not a bad deal. Again, just speculation, but food for thought.

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Blackhawks News And A BriefcaseFull Of Blues

Halfway through the month of December and the Blackhawks are still holding onto the #3 spot in the entire NHL. Even with all of the issues they have been having, they are able to pretty much stay there. Granted, there are 6 teams within 2 points of the Hawks (including Blackhawks south, The Panthers), but Hawks fan's have things to be happy about. The Blackhawks are also second in the league as far as Goals For. As with every good, there are plenty of things I would call "concerning", rather than bad. Lets go over a few:

• Razor's Edge. How could the goaltending quandary not be the first item on the list? Corey Crawford has come out "sub-par" and Razor Emery has actually over-achieved. This play has gotten Razor 3 starts in a row, when he takes the net tonight in Minny. I keep saying it, but this is not yet a controversy. Quenneville is going with the hotter hand, while he has the luxury of letting Crawford work the kinks out. This may very well turn into the same scenario as the last two years, but we mustn't drink the Razor Kool-Aid just yet. Crawford is not a fragile ego'd Huet, or an over the hill Turco. He's still young and impressionable. If Stephane Waite can't fix Corey's foggy head, then I will fully endorse panic mode, because the Hawks goaltending in Rockford isn't exactly comforting. Salak, and Richards haven't done anything notable, which is hugely disappointing, and Carter Hutton is small and not NHL ready, either.
• Bickell, Smith, Bickell, and so on. After last season's shocking 17 goal output, One Trick Bick opened some eyes in the NHL circles, if only to make league scouts say, "Don't give him 3 days to get his shot off". This also gave him a false sense of his place, as an NHL forward. He's a big ass that can cause traffic in front of the net, and if you give him time, can rip off a nasty wrist shot. Unfortunately, Mr. Bickell began to drink his own Kool-Aid (Yuck, I know), and lost his true identity. He began to think he was some kind of established sniper, and forgot to go to the net. Right to Q's Doghouse with you, Son. In steps every beat writers wet dream, the sandy haired Ben Smith. EVERYONE had been clamoring for the kid to step in. He was going to do great things because he had a handful of good, not great, games 8 months ago, right? Despite only scoring more than 20 goals once, in his Sophomore year at BC, he's a top six guy. Well, If you ask the Blackhawks Meat Beat Crew, they'll feed you that bologna. I've stated all along that Smith is, at best, a solid 3rd liner, who could fill in from time to time in other spots. Anyway, Smith was called up and, coincidence or not, laid a big steaming pile of poop in two of the Hawks worst games Hawks fans have seen in quite a long time. Now, by no means was this solely on Smith's shoulders, but he was absolutely invisible. Q had seen enough, and gave him the old "Healthy Scratch" treatment for 4 games. Bickell, who had been dropped to the fourth line, proceeded to swim in a sea of suck for those 4 games, and was scratched in favor of the kid. The Meat Beat threw fits of joy and spewed delusions of grandeur, when Smith scored in his first game back, but he then returned to earth so fast that he landed about 75 miles west of the UC, in Rockford. Now, we're back to the very affordable Bryan Bickell, who may or may not be angry enough to use that big ass to throw people around. At a dollar to pound ratio, the Blackhawks have to be winning on this one, right? Wednesday night's game will hopefully show us what One Trick Bick has learned, if anything. If not, he's cheap enough to sit in the press box, or even dangle as trade meat. Suck can be easily replaced.
• Hammer Time. All of us bloggers have been taking notice of Hammer's play lately, because that is what we do. If we point out the good, that's only restating the obvious. In this case, we can really blame Doug Wilson. As revenge for sending them packing in '10, he pulled a dick move on his former team and ran the price up on Hammer, like some kind of bidding war between the knuckleheads on Storage Wars. For those of you who are familiar, liken Wilson to the Dave Hester, yelling "yeeeeeeeeeep". Anyhow, Bowman had to keep him, at the time, and overpaid by at least a million for him. A young, good sized, Swedish defensive defender with a lot of potential could really be a steal a few years down the road. The problem, here, is that Hammer has not progressed, and, in fact, he's REgressed. He refuses to use his size to punish opponents, he really offers zero offense, and he absorbs huge hits. He has a constant look of extreme pain glued to his face, and he's only 24 years old! No player can take this abuse for long, and it's showing in his development. Yes, we all know he blocks shots, but that doesn't take a masters degree to accomplish, in fact, it's probably the easiest of all talents to master. You know where the net is, and where the defender is, just figure out the angle and cover your nuts. The bottom line is that time is running out. Nick Leddy has all but jumped Hammer to become the #3 guy. Hammer was never going to be a 40 point defender, but 20 would be a reasonable goal, and the even bigger issue is his physical play. He CAN punish people, like he did against the Islanders, but he's just too tentative. The clock is ticking, Nik.
• The latest of the entertaining shenanigans is today's article by NHL Blogger Extraordinaire Puck Daddy, aka Greg Wyshynski. Apparently, in a recent WGN radio interview, the host asked a question regarding the tired joke of the Sedin Sisters. Hardy, Har-Har, right? Bolly played to the audience and threw out a few jokes. Weeeeeeell, the Intarweb, mostly Vancouver Canucks fans, is up in arms over this, thanks to Wysh. Like this is the first time they've heard this shot. Really, it's like shooting fish in a barrel with Canucks fans, and this joke has been beaten to death. If you're going to get the idiots of the Intarweb up in a huff, find someone who is making a more recent stab, like their $10 Million backup goalie with the weepy face and greasy hair. I prefer the Tomax and Xamot Crimson Twins reference for the Sedin's, myself.

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Razor vs The Alligator

While the media and fans should be more concerned with who will open up at the #2 Center slot, because Patrick Sharp hasn't played and will undoubtedly be out of shape and still tender from his surgery, the media is having a field day with this Alexander Salak vs Ray Emery "controversy". The Center questions worry me MUCH more than the backup goaltender situation. Teams can sneak by with questionable backup netminders, hell, the Blackhawks themselves did it with Huet. Veteran or not, the guy would have had a difficult time stopping the Hindenburg, and his ego was as fragile as wet paper mache. But I digress; I'm not here to bash Huet for the ten thousandth time, because he's been out of our lives for over a year, and we must be thankful for that. The matter at hand is Older, Broke-Hip Veteran vs. Younger, Spastic Kid. I'll refrain from calling myself a goaltender, because some nights I'm the furthest thing from it, but I've played the position for years and understand it, which is more than I can say for 99% of the "journalists" weighing in.

Razor Emery
I would like to point out that I've always liked him, and pulled for his success. Before he was ever signed to his tryout, I was suggesting that if they were nervous about Salak, they should bring in Emery. He would be cheap, and still has potential. Many weeks later, and here he is, donning the #30 for our Fearless Feathered Warriors. I like his fire, which is generally perceived as misguided anger. The facts remain that he had a bit of an issue in the KHL, with a team trainer, as well as some fisticuffs in his previous NHL stops. Good, bad, or indifferent, the guy hasn't had the easiest road, and I'm not saying that most of it wasn't his fault. I'm just saying, I understand. He has had his flashes of solid play, but nothing has really stood out, to pull him ahead of Salak. We know what we're going to get from Emery, barring another serious injury. He's no worse than Turco last year, and Huet the year before. As a backup, I can deal with that, FOR THE RIGHT PRICE. I guess we will see what happens in Emery's first full game, against Pittsburgh.

Nevertheless, we're here splitting hairs over guys that may or may not play 20 games this year and, if things go well (or horribly wrong), no playoff games. Emery has sensitive hips, and requires a little more care than your average goalie. There are times when I sensed him playing gingerly when having to make extreme side to side motions. This would be my biggest concern. Other than that, he's not going to dominate or singlehandedly win you games, nor should he be expected to. Backup goalies main objective is to give the usual starter a rest. Break up the long season, so your money guy can recover. If he can keep the Hawks in a game, like he did for Anaheim last season, he has done his job.

Alexander Salak
Again, this is a kid that I really like, and have been on his bandwagon since his rights were acquired from Florida. He's young, talented and has good size. He hit a point in his career where Europe and the AHL weren't enough competition for him, and here he sits, sharing a stool with Emery, trying to get his NHL chance. At a glance, Salak shows the skills to make it in the NHL, and may develop into a solid NHL starter someday. The problem here, is that he needs more NHL caliber seasoning. He's a relative unknown, and still getting use to NHL snipers. It's clear to anyone with a brain that the Hawks would love to end up with two, young, talented goaltenders. Not one young goalie and one older question mark. Emery would be a single season fill in, a lot like Turco was, and Salak would be the 1B to Crawford's 1A. It's a great problem to have, and the Hawks would undoubtedly love to start that scenario this season. If Salak had lit the world on fire, that would be the case, but he's done nothing to set himself apart from Emery.

What worries me about Salak is his rather unorthodox stance. It is very wide at the base, almost cartoonishly wide. When you watch him get ready for faceoffs you can see him adjusting his feet very wide, to get in a comfortable stance, but it takes away some of his height. On top of that, he holds his glove and left elbow VERY low. All of this is fine if you're and upright goalie, but Salak plays a very aggressive butterfly style, which has him down on his knees sometimes before the shot is even taken. Dare I say that this is what we saw Huet do? It's the truth, as much as it pains me to say that. This is a fairly accurate representation of his stance, even though you can't see how wide his feet are:
You can see how low his glove is

The Verdict By all accounts, if the price is right, Emery will get the backup spot. He's done nothing to lose it, even though he has done nothing to win it outright. Salak has played his preseason complete game and played solid for 2/3 of that game, so if Emery can just perform the same or better, he should be offered a contract. Salak can go to Rockford and compete with Richards and Hutton, whom he will beat out for the starting job. If the Razor Experiment goes terribly bad, they can bring Salak back up. One should expect Salak to dominate in the AHL like he did 2 years ago, and be the outright backup next season, while Emery will be shopping for a possible starting gig somewhere else. Barring an extreme decision, The management will make the safe play, and stockpile their talent.

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Please Hockey, Save Us From Boredom and Idiocy

Even though the weather is nice and hot in Chicago, hockey fans can't help but dream for September, so we can see a little puck-n-ice action. The summer is a great time for me, and most of the hockey reporting world to get some much needed down time. That time is quickly coming to a close, though. August is here, and training camp is right around the corner, but this leaves time to continue the silliness of the summer NHL rumor mill. Here are a few issues I haven't had a chance to weigh in on yet.

A rumor was brought to my attention late last week, regarding Patrick Kane going to rehab for drug abuse. This is some of the silliest crap I've heard in a long time. Look, we all know professional athletes like to party from time to time, and Kaner is a young kid having fun with life. There have been NO signs of anything out of the ordinary with young Patrick, and the only rehab he will be seeing is for his surgically repaired wrist. By all accounts, Kaner has put on some bulk, and is ready for the new season. Cut the kid some slack, because I'm sure what all of YOU were doing at 22 probably weren't your finer moments. Lets not get crazy with the rumors.

Who would have thought that inviting a guy to try out for your team would cause such discussion? Last Wednesday it was announced that the Blackhawks had invited former Senators, Flyers, and Ducks goalie Ray Emery to try out for a spot in camp. Immediately, there was an uproar from the Twitards about this move. I cannot stress enough how this move can do nothing but help the Blackhawks. They don't owe him a single cent for coming to camp, and if he looks good, they can offer him a contract. This said contract can either be to play behind Crawford or start in Rockford. Granted, he won't want to play in Rockford, but he's free to then walk away. If HE completely shits the bed, then the Hawks let him walk.

Not only that, but it creates some competition for Salak and even Crawford. Wouldn't it be NICE to have to make a tough decision between Emery and Salak? That's a problem Stan Bowman should be licking his lips at, and not to mention that there aren't many goalies willing to TRY OUT without a contract. Bowman should be lauded for getting Emery to agree to this situation, because most goalies would want SOME kind of monetary gain, even if they don't make the team. This guy has been to the Stanley Cup finals, AS A STARTER, WITH THE OTTAWA SENATORS. Yes, He was a bust in Philly because he had MAJOR hip problems that kept him out for roughly a year, and almost ended his career. This is the same injury that ended the career of one of the best athletes in the 90's, Bo Jackson. Bo didn't know hockey, but Ray does. He has rehabbed the injury after his surgery, he is back in the league, and he looked VERY WELL for the Ducks, last year, when Hiller went down with a foggy head. Remind me where ANY of this puts the Hawks at risk, please?

On a more personal note, I happen to really like Ray Emery's fire and attitude. He has had his issues, but has he really been any more of a handful than Dan Carcillo? I hope he does well for the Hawks, and I would gladly wear an Emery jersey. He's not going to win a Vezina trophy, but he's also not going to hurt the team as a backup. Welcome to Chicago, Ray Emery, and I hope to tell you that in person some day soon. Here is to healthy competition.

It was announced this week that former Blackhawks Chris Chelios and Gary Suter were elected to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, along with Keith Tkachuk. None of this should be a surprise after the careers they both had, here in Chicago and elsewhere. They were the original Keith and Seabrook, or should I say Keith/Seabrook are Cheli/Suter version 2. Being a Calgary Flames fan back in the day, I was very familiar with Suter, and couldn't believe the Hawks were able to get him for Frantisek Kucera and Jocelyn Lemieux. That's STILL a steal. He played for the Hawks for 4 1/2 seasons and including 34 playoff games. He was the perfect compliment to Cheli's physical play, and it showed on the ice.

What needs to be said about Cheli? Maybe the BEST American born player to step on the ice, and one tough son of a bitch. He came in under fire, when the Hawks traded away fan favorite Denis Savard, but he quickly won his home town fans over. Before long, Savard was fading into the twilight of his career, and Cheli was at the top of his game. No matter how you feel about his departure here, he's still one of the best ever and deserves to be a first ballot inductee to Toronto, as well.

These two are still my favorite Hawks duo just ahead of #2 and #7. Congrats, Guys!

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