Draft-A-Palooza - The Deals

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:

Nevertheless, this young man is making WAY too much money, based on his skillset, and is due this utter THEFT until the end of the 2013/14 season. It's bad enough that it makes Brent Sopel and Kris Versteeg's contracts seem very palatable. This guy hasn't scored more than 20 goals or 30 points since 2001-2 in the Czech Under 20 League. Whatever the case, they can make this kid go away much easier than the extra $3 million that Campbell was towing around. We threw Tallon a solid, for throwing us a BIGGER solid. Enough about Rusty, and more about the departure of Brian Campbell.

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

Read More

Slave to the Grind

I apologize for getting to all this stuff a little late, but I was in Jolly 'Ol England for a couple of weeks, and it's hard to accomplish anything NHL related when there is a 7 hour time difference and no TV coverage. On to the subjects at hand:

• First of all, Just days after his 71st birthday, it was announced that Stan Mikita has stage 1 oral cancer. The prognosis is great, according to doctors, but my thoughts and wishes are with him and his family. Good Luck, Stoshly!
  
  
  
• Corey Crawford. This was a "slam dunk", and a "must have". Whatever cliche you would like to use; this was it. There was no doubt that the Hawks needed to go into next season with 26 year old Corey Crawford in net. This year was no time to jerk around with arbitration and offer sheets, and thank god, Stan Bowman made it a priority to re-sign his netminder, before this season was even over. That's one less thing we have to curse him over, come training camp. The preliminary numbers have the annual cap hit at a modest $2,666,667 for three years, which is more than reasonable. If you compare the mere facts of Crow vs. Niemi, the Hawks grabbed a guy that is a year younger, the same physical stature, with more North American hockey experience, for $1.2 million less a season. Crow had much better playoff numbers and an almost identical regular season, with a team that was in transition most of the year. This is a Charlie Sheen style WINNING, in every sense of the word.
  
  I've made no bones about the fact that I've been a Crawford supporter since '08-'09, when I felt he should have been given the backup spot behind Khabby. I can't say I ever imagined that his journey would ever turn out like this, but he is here, and the Blackhawks starting goalie for next season. I have cursed Dale Tallon more than enough for the "Huet instead of Crawford" ordeal. He has his own problems to deal with, in south F-L-A.
  
  All the numbers aside, Corey's style and demeanor work well with the Hawks style of play. He is calm, and virtually unflappable. I can't recall a time where he looked visibly shaken, in a game. Niemi, and Turco for that matter, are more physical goalies that sometimes confuse the Hawks D-men with their aggressive and theatrical style. This has shown to sometimes cause chaos, and lead to some pretty unusual goals against. Nothing against Niemi's talent, because he has proven to be a talents netminder, but Crow is a better fit.
  
  
  
• Alexander Salak. On May 20th, reports were floated by Jesse Rodgers of ESPNChicago.com and later by Chris Kuc of the Tribune and Adam Jahns of the Sun Times, that the Hawks had re-signed the 24 year old Alexander Salak to a two year $600K agreement, which if true, is a deal. Considering that Salak was hitting the cap to the tune of $1.3 million a year, previous. Strangely, nothing has been said since, which would lead one to believe that the information was incorrect. The information had to have come from a credible source, but Rodgers may have jumped the gun.
  
  At any rate, this would be another important signing, because they need to lock up a legit backup for next season, so they can attend to other issues. Salak is another player I have been crowing about, since the Hawks acquired him with Frodo. I'll be watching to see how this plays out. Nothing has been updated on CapGeek.com, so it is not official with the league, yet.
  
  
  
• David Gilbert. The Committed Indians reported late yesterday that the Hawks had reached an entry level agreement with 6'2", 20 year old center David Gilbert. Just another big young kid to bolster Rockford. don't expect too much of him, right away, but stranger things have happened, lately.
  
  Not too much is known about him, other than his size. He played this season in Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QMJHL, and had 51 points in 52 games. The Hawks brought him up to Rockford late in the year, where he had 3 points in 5 games, and plus 3. His draft profile, in 2009, said the following:
  

  "Still growing into his body at 6'1 and 184 pounds, Gilbert's main assets are his vision and his hands. Able to skate up the ice with the puck on a string, he's equally adept at making a play as he is at scoring the goal himself. Gilbert still needs plenty of time to round out the rest of his game and would benefit greatly from becoming both stronger and faster. Questions abound about his work ethic as well."

  
  Take from that what you will, because it really says a whole bunch of nothing...
  
  
  
• From the Hospital ward, Troy Brouwer and Chris Campoli both had minor surgeries to repair injured appendages. Brouwer had his bum shoulder fixed, and Stromboli had his knee fixed. Brouwer's injury was no surprise, but Stromboli's was slightly surprising. Neither injury is serious, but this could help the Hawks bargaining position, as both players are RFA's when the season ends. Both could very well be back in a Blackhawks sweater, for next season at relatively bargain prices. A healthy Stromboli could really be a breath of fresh air for Hawks fans, that didn't even know he had a very uncomfortable knee ache. Unfortunately, this knee ache had nothing to do with the poor turnover that send the Vancouver Canucks into the second round, and the Blackhawks to the golf course.
  
  
• This was under the radar, but Mathis Olimb decided against staying in Rockford and signed a 2 year deal with Frölunda HC in the Swedish elite league. Maybe the maiming he took in camp from Kyle Beach had something to do with it. Who really knows, but at 25, he looked to be a little short and frail for the grind of the NHL. Not that Marcus Kruger isn't, but they obviously saw something in Kruger that they didn't in Olimb.
  
  Reports have also been floating around that defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy, who came over from Atlanta in the Andrew Ladd Trade, has left North America to sign with the Atlant (not a typo, try and keep up) of the KHL. Really, good riddance, because he had obviously fallen out of favor in the Hawks eyes. You don't burn up the first year of a 19 year old's entry level contract, if you have a "ready for action" Ivan the Terrible waiting for ice time. The Hawks probably weren't interested in re-signing him anyway.
  

Read More