Elliott Friedman of CBC has an intriguing couple bullet points in his latest blog. He says:

“… Strongly believe there was one, possibly two teams who were willing to take Cristobal Huet from Chicago. (Should clarify: I’m more certain about one than the other.) But the Blackhawks decided to stand pat, much to the surprise of other GMs. Unloading Huet’s contract (two years remaining, $5.625 million cap hit) would have cost at least a first-rounder and an established player. (I know you’re going to ask, but I’d be guessing on whom. The source wouldn’t tell me.)…

Why did Chicago decline? Scotty Bowman believes strongly in the Detroit model: If you don’t have a top-three goalie, you protect him with great team defence and puck possession. The Blackhawks – disciplined and talented – have a shot. But, to duplicate the Red Wings’ success, they will have to show two things: their forwards are as committed to back pressure as Detroit’s and their defensive corps is as good. As great as the Blackhawks look, we’re talking Lidstrom/Rafalski/Kronwall/Stuart here. What a tough, tough call to make.”

This will raise red flags all over Chicago. “You mean to tell me the Hawks could have dumped that piece of garbage at the deadline and didn’t?” Let’s hold that emotional response for a moment…

Note that Friedman says the Hawks would have to part ways with “at least a first-rounder and an established player” to make the deal happen. The gamble of GM Stan Bowman is not only dealing with Huet’s contract moving forward, but those two other crucial pieces to the deal.

The reality for Blackhawks fans is that there are players on the NHL roster right now that won’t be in Chicago next year. We’ve discussed it; Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien and others might be wearing a different sweater on Opening Night next year. If the Hawks are going to be in a tight financial situation next year and in the future, the replacement for players like Versteeg, Sharp and Byfuglien are going to need to come from within the organization. But players like these don’t magically show up in August with a gym bag looking for a contract; draft picks, especially high ones, are critical to the Hawks sustaining any success.

The second piece of this gamble is the on-ice cost of dumping Huet. Friedman doesn’t speculate what the Hawks would have received in return for Huet, but what if they weren’t receiving an NHL player in return? If the Hawks’ current playoff outlook is questionable with Huet and Antti Niemi, how much more/less comfortable would you be with Niemi and Corey Crawford as the only netminders ont he roster?

Furthermore, what if the roster player had to be Sharp? Versteeg has struggled with consistency this year, and Byfuglien as hot/cold as anyone on the roster. While Byfuglien’s presence in front of the net was a big part of last year’s success, it’s clear that the player of these three that the Hawks could least afford to be without moving forward is Sharp. Whether it’s his ability to be an effective center or quality play at the point on the power play, Sharp has a big role in the Hawks’ rotation.

Moving Sharp and Huet would have actually hurt the Hawks’ depth.

The other consideration to make is that, if a team was willing to take Huet’s contract now, what are the odds that there will be an available partner to move his contract this summer? As the draft draws near, the Hawks will have to make decisions about current NHL players that will be restricted free agents (Andrew Ladd) and will also have a better grasp of the value of their first round pick. There is still potential for a move to happen that clears the cap space.

This is an interesting piece of information from Friedman, but needs to be digested with a grain of salt.

Most Chicago fans felt that the Blackhawks would make at least one major move, if not more, before Wednesday’s trade deadline. After all, there are a few areas (goaltending, goaltending and… goaltending) that most fans and analysts thought could use improving if the Hawks are going to make a run at the Stanley Cup.

But then the deadline came and passed… and the Blackhawks did nothing.

The knee jerk reaction to the lack of action from the United Center is a lot of four-letter words and sweaty palms. How are the Blackhawks supposed to win the Stanley Cup with the guys they have? What are we going to do? Help!

Pause.

Deep breath.

OK. Let’s take a step back and look at the Blackhawks from a sane, big-picture perspective. It’s going to be alright.

First of all, let’s be realistic about playoff position. The Blackhawks are going to win the Central Division; they have a 14-point lead on second-place Nashville. Despite a few moves by the Predators, it’s unrealistic to think that the Preds will catch the Hawks with 20 games left in the season. By winning the division, the Hawks are assured of one of the top three seeds in the Western Conference in the playoffs.

Secondly, at the top of the Western Conference there are as many issues with the other teams as there are with the Blackhawks. The Sharks are only two points in front of the Hawks for the top seed, and have questions surrounding their own situation between the pipes. While Hawks fans might have reasons to question Antti Niemi’s lack of experience and Cristobal Huet’s questionable, albeit limited, results in the postseason, the Sharks have a netminder in Evgeni Nabokov that not only has a resume filled with recent playoff failure, but he just crapped his pants in the Olympics for Russia.

There’s no reason to think that the Hawks can’t catch the Sharks for the top spot, and should have at least even confidence with the Sharks, if not better, in the goalie situation in Chicago. With Vancouver nine points behind the Hawks in in third, and with a tough division chasing them, to assume that the Blackhawks will end the year in one of the top two seeds in the West isn’t far fetched.

So the Central Division and seeding in the playoffs shouldn’t be a concern.

The Blackhawks, despite their offensive droughts and struggles in net, still rank near the top of the NHL in most statistical categories. This team is not bad. It’s easy to scream about soft goals and a bad night when the team’s playing for a championship; remember, two years ago the Blackhawks were trying to remember how to spell the word “playoffs.”

Also consider the reality of what’s left this season.

Because of the Olympics, every team in the NHL will have to slam 20 games into the next five weeks. Simple math indicates that teams will average four games per week, with travel, before the playoffs begin. Whenever a trade, no matter the profile of the player, takes place, there is always an adjustment period that will take place. Before the Olympic break, the Hawks added Kim Johnsson from Minnesota and are still working through who will play how many minutes on the blue line.

Practice is where players get to know each other, and where coaches are best able to gauge how players work with each other. It’s hard, in any sport, to establish flow to a game plan when you’re mixing up players that don’t know each other. But with teams having only two, sometimes three days off per week to not only travel but also practice, working new players into the rotation is going to be hard to during the rest of this year’s regular season.

Another factor the Blackhawks had to consider at the deadline is that Dave Bolland has only played a couple games after returning from injury, and Adam Burish is coming back on Sunday. Adding two smart players to the mix, along with Johnsson, gives coach Joel Quenneville too many pieces to have in uniform every night already. The Blackhawks will have enough trouble picking someone to watch from the suite every night.

Let’s not ignore the reality that every team that will compete for the Stanley Cup this spring had players in the Olympics. This presents a few situations for teams to deal with when considering a trade.

First, the immediate impact of a trade on contending teams is players missing from the ice. On Wednesday night, the Blackhawks host the Edmonton Oilers, who will be without Denis Grebeshkov and Lubomir Visnovsky on their blue line; both players were dealt before the deadline. The Oilers received only a draft pick for Grebeshkov, and won’t have Ryan Whitney (acquired for Visnovsky) in uniform yet for the game. So the Blackhawks will face a depleted defensive unit a night after getting their tails whipped in New York.

The Oilers are just one of many teams that will be without players in key positions tonight. If points are at a premium at this time of year, can a team trying to gain the best position possible in April afford a night with two or three AHL guys playing a major role on the ice? No.

Second, the medium-term impact is trying to work new players into the rotation and still get Olympians the rest they’ll need to be fresh in the postseason. Look at Anaheim, for example. Ryan Getzlaf and Cory Perry played seven games in Vancouver for Canada, and now they’re not only losing Whitney but they’re looking at a roster that is adding Aaron Ward and Visnovsky on the blue line.

The on-ice chemistry will either remain a work-in-progress that will have to be figured out during games (again, potentially costing the team valuable points), or will be achieved through practices on the limited off days the team has in the coming weeks.

The long-term impact on a roster is dead legs. Both Ward and Visnovsky should be key contributors for the Ducks down the stretch, but at what expense to the odometer of their Olympians’ legs? With limited time for rest between now and the end of the season, finding time to be off the ice will be crucial for teams hoping to make a deep run.

Look around the Western Conference. Phoenix improved the most, moving underwhelming Peter Mueller out and adding Wojtek Wolski and Lee Stempniak up front and Matthieu Schneider and Derek Morris on the blue line. The Los Angeles Kings also made a couple solid moves, adding Jeff Halpern and Fredrik Modin. But outside of Phoenix, LA and Anaheim, nobody in the West did much to make a dramatic improvement.

In the East, the Washington Capitals certainly made some strong moves, as did the Pittsburgh Penguins. But only one of those teams can play the Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup, and anything can happen in a seven game series.

If the Blackhawks were good enough to be at the top of the conference with what they had, if they stay together and avoid the potential headaches that other teams will have to deal with moving forward, they’ll have a great chance to run deep into the playoffs and possibly compete for a Stanley Cup.

On Wednesday morning, Scotty Bowman appeared on 590Fanand talked about the trade deadline. He shared a few things about the Blackhawks that were fairly surprising, and contradict the popular rumors of the past few weeks.

First, Bowman indicated that the Blackhawks only have about $500,000 in cap space for the rest of the year. He notes that cap space is an issue for the Hawks.

Secondly, Bowman says the Hawks are possibly looking for a center, and speaks to the number of wings on the market.

Third, when pressed about the Hawks situation in goal, Bowman confidently says the Blackhawks are not looking for a goalie, says the team has their two netminders in place, and goes as far as to say the Hawks’ management is “laughing at” the rumors.

Bowman could be lying to keep options open for the Blackhawks, or he could be shattering many of the rumors that had been flying about the Hawks looking for a new goaltender, a power forward or defensive depth.

Bowman, of course, is the Hall of Fame former coach of, most recently, the Detroit Red Wings who is presently an advisor for the Blackhawks. He is considered by many to be one of, if not thegreatest hockey mind of the last 30 years. His son, Stan, is currently the General Manager of the Blackhawks.

In the last three weeks, the Blackhawks have made a couple very subtle moves that certainly look like the team is loading up the blueline in Rockford for a bigger move.

Nick Boynton was acquired from Anaheim on Tuesday afternoon for future considerations. Boynton, 31, has played in 42 games this year and has seven points (one goal, six assists) and 59 penalty minutes while skating just 16:45 per night.

In a minor league deal, the Blackhawks acquired a familiar face, Danny Richmond, as well as young goalie Hannu Toivonen from St. Louis for goalie Joe Fallon. Richmond had played in Chicago between 2005-08.

Jassen Cullimore was added before the roster freeze as well.

Why all the defensemen?

A name to watch as the trade deadline approaches is Simon Danis-Pepin. Danis-Pepin, who will turn 22 in early April, was the top defensive prospect in the Hawks organization until the arrivals of Dylan Olsen and Nick Leddy, and the development of Shawn LaLonde. Danis-Pepin is a large human being (6′7, 205), which might make him attractive to Eastern Conference teams.

The trade deadline is at 2:00 pm CST on Wednesday.

The hottest trade rumor surrounding the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday morning is that there are discussions taking place a trade between the Hawks and Toronto Maple Leafs that would send goalie Cristobal Huet and some other pieces, likely prospects or draft picks, to the Leafs for defenseman Jeff Finger. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers is indicating that this deal would like be a precursor to another deal, likely for Florida’s Tomas Vokoun.

So who is Jeff Finger?

Finger, 30, has only played in 30 games this year for Toronto. He has scored two goals and has seven assists, while rating  just -2 in 14:49 on the ice per game. He has blocked 72 shots in those 30 games, though. In parts of four seasons in the NHL (190 games), Fingers has just 56 points (17 goals, 39 assists) in his career.

He is, essentially, another Brent Sopel.

Why would Toronto unload him? Because of his contract. Finger is set to make $3.5 million through the 2011-12 season. He would be $2.165 million cheaper than Huet over the next two seasons, but would still be a dead weight contract.

According to @OnFrozenPond on twitter, Tomas Vokoun has indicated that he’s been advised of a possible trade, and that he is keeping his options open with the Panthers. Vokoun has a full no-trade clause on this contract that would have to be waived for him to be dealt to the Blackhawks.

If the Blackhawks are going to make a move for a goalie, specifically Florida’s Tomas Vokoun, the Hawks are certainly playing their best poker faces right now. On Thursday the team practiced without the six players that have games remaining in the Olympics, and coach Joel Quenneville was asked about his goalie situation when he met the media. 

“During the course of the season somebody is going to get the net and get the opportunity to keep it,” Quenneville said. “That was the chance and (Niemi) took it and he’s got it. Based on him winning, it’s tough to change the goalie in that situation.”

Does that sound like a coach preparing for a major trade? Maybe not, but Quenneville has been in the NHL long enough to know how to handle the media, and his locker room.

“We’ll announce our goalie going into the Islander game and go from there, but we won some games and I don’t like usually bucking that trend,” Quenneville added.

One trend Quenneville will have to deal with, whether a trade is made or not, is the playing time he’s giving his forwards. Adam Burish skated with the team on Thursday and indicated that he is targeting the Sunday, March 7 home game against the Detroit Red Wings for his return. Ben Eager also skated on Thursday, creating a more crowded roster from which Quenneville has to choose is lineup each night.

A candidate to possibly see some time in the the suite before the break was Tomas Kopecky. He is tied with Dustin Byfuglien for the worst plus-minus on the roster (-6) and has only contributed 12 points (4 G, 8 A) this season. However, Kopecky has played very well in the Olympics for Slovakia, and his game-winning goal that put Slovakia in the medal rounds for the first time ever should put his confidence at an all-time high.

As the Olympics continue Friday night, the trade rumors will undoubtedly pick up. If, and where, the Blackhawks make a move could be one of the dominoes that lead to other deals all over the NHL, so we’ll be sure to stay on top of the situation.

Alex Auld is now on waivers in Dallas.

When the Dallas Stars traded for Kari Lehtonen, the rumor mill began swirling around their net. With aging Marty Turco unhappy with his playing time, he instantly became the center of most of the whispers coming from Texas.

On Wednesday, though, it appears the Stars have taken steps to clear out their crowded crease. Alex Auld has been placed on waivers.

Auld, 28, has just a $1 million cap number and, like Turco, is in the final year of his contract. In 21 games this year, Auld is 9-6-0 with a 3.00 goals against average and a .894 save percentage.

Coupled with the news of an extension to Pekka Rinne in Nashville, Auld’s availability at low cost is another option for NHL teams looking to bolster their depth in net.

Pekka Rinne appears to be the Predators goalie of the future.

The Nashville Predators will reportedly announce late Wednesday afternoon that they have agreed to an extension with goalie Pekka Rinne. Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. UPDATE: TSN is reporting Rinne’s extension is for two years and $6.8 million ($3.4 million each).

Nashville, like Montreal, was one of the teams that could become active in the trade market before the March 3 deadine because they had two netminders facing free agency this summer. The Preds were reportedly going to make a choice, based on both the on-ice performances of Rinne and Dan Ellis and the progress of contract negotiations, and then open up trade talks regarding the one they didn’t extend.

Which means Ellis is now trade bait.

The Blackhawks have been rumored to be close to a deal with Florida, upgrading their situation between the pipes to include Tomas Vokoun. If Vokoun is indeed available in a trade, however, there would be many potential suitors. The Philadelphia Flyers were one team that was allegedly looking for a new face to put at the top of their depth chart in goal, and they would likely have interest in Vokoun.

Nashville had also reportedly received offers for 26-year old defenseman Dan Hamuis, who will also become a free agent this summer.

The likelihood that a trade would go down inside the Central Division, either between the Blackhawks and Blues or Predators, is doubtful. But the potential of Ellis and Hamhuis being packaged could impact the trade market competing with the Blackhawks for Vokoun, if the Hawks aren’t interested in making an offer to Nashville along the lines that they had discussed with Florida.

The Predators are currently in second place in the Central, 16 points behind the Blackhawks, and are sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference.

We’ll see where the trade winds blow as the Olympic tournament continues, but Nashville might become a major player in both rumors and player movement in the coming weeks.

JR wants Halak, but would it work?

Over the weekend, current NBC talking head and former Blackhawks All Star Jeremy Roenick decided it was his turn to spice up the trade rumors swirling around his former employer.

Before the Olympics, Roenick told the media that he didn’t think the current Blackhawks’ goalie duo of Cristobal Huet and Antti Niemi was good enough to win the Stanley Cup. Hopefully NBC wrote “the obvious” on the memo line of his next paycheck, because not many fans, observers, analysts or even management with the Hawks have been overwhelmingly confident in Huet this season.

The issue most people have with Niemi is his lack of experience; of course, Roenick should know better than to question a goaltender’s experience as a factor in the playoffs. After all, Roenick was a member of a Blackhawks team that put a kid in net six times in the playoffs that hadn’t stepped on the ice during the regular season. Ed Belfour went 4-2 in the 1990 playoffs before eventually winning the Calder Trophy the following season.

But Roenick decided to add his opinion to the trade rumors, and said Montreal’s Jaroslav Halák, currently playing for Slovakia in Vancouver, would be a better fit for the Hawks than Florida’s Tomas Vokoun. There are a lot of holes in Roenick’s trade proposal, many of which are simply a matter of being current.

The central issue in Montreal, and the reason they are involved in as many rumors as they are, is that both Halák and Carey Price are free agents after this season. Because both are considered above-average goalies, the assumption is that they will choose one to sign to a new deal and the other will be traded before the March 3 deadline to add on-ice quality and depth.

Roenick claimed that Halák “wants out” of Montreal because of the “Price situation.” If Roenick had done his homework, he would have realized that when Halák would have wanted out of Montreal was closer to Thanksgiving than today. Halák did reportedly tell Montreal brass that he wanted to be dealt if his long-term future was not with the Habs, but has since won the starting job from Price. Given the recent change of General Managers in Montreal, the organization is no longer as tied to Price as they once were, meaning either netminder could be dealt.

Price, in my opinion, is no better than Huet. He also would not add the desired “better” experience to the Blackhawks’ roster that would, in theory, be one of the central keys to making a deal. Yes, the Blackhawks need to save money against next year’s cap. But Stan Bowman isn’t going to sacrifice this year’s chances for a Stanley Cup just to save money next year. Moving Huet for Price would not improve the situation in net for the Hawks, and his career playoff numbers (5-10, 3.11 GAA, .896 save pct) wouldn’t make anyone sleep easier at night.

Halák, who will be 25 in mid-May, would also not bring much playoff experience to the table. He has only seen action in three playoff games in his career, but has performed well (0-1, 1.86 GAA) in those opportunities. Ironically, it was the development of Price that forced Huet out of Montreal in February of 2008. Once Huet was dealt to Washington, Halák was promoted to the NHL roster.

Another issue that Roenick fails to deal with is the payroll situation in Montreal. Currently, there are 14 players under contract for 2010-11 in Montreal with a cap number of $45.732 million. Because both Halák and Price are restricted free agents, adding Huet’s $5.625 million cap number would be a complete net addition to their bottom line; if the Hawks are in a tough financial situation right now, trading Halak for Huet would put the Habs in an equally bad situation. In Roenick’s proposed world, either the Hawks would be forced to take salary back, or Montreal would have $51.357 million committed to only 15 players. This would give them only between $4-5 million to fill their roster, meaning they wouldn’t quite be able to average $1 million per player to complete their roster.

The math doesn’t add up for the Hawks to make a deal for Halák.

There has not been a package linked to anything between the Hawks and Montreal anywhere, just speculation that the Hawks would have interest in a young goalie that might be available at the right price. Clearly, adding a contract like those of Kris Versteeg or Patrick Sharp is completely out of the question given Montreal’s cap situation, so the Hawks wouldn’t even be able to accomplish their desired salary dump in a deal with Montreal either.

For the Blackhawks, adding Halák would be an improvement on the ice over Huet but would present other issues this summer for Chicago as well as Montreal. The Blackhawks would then have to deal with both Niemi and Halák being restricted free agents. Being forced to re-sign both goalies could be an expensive proposition for the Hawks to deal with in a summer in which they still need to cut money to be under next year’s cap.

The flip side of the deal is the proposal for Vokoun. In that deal, as we discussed over the weekend, the Blackhawks would send Huet, Versteeg and Corey Crawford to Florida for Vokoun and either Denis Seidenberg or Jordan Leopold. Both Seidenberg and Leopold are free agents after this season, meaning the Hawks would be eliminating Versteeg’s $3.083 million cap number. Adding that to what the Hawks already cut in the Barker-Johnsson trade, the Hawks would be closer to their goal of cutting roughly $10 million off nexy year’s payroll (Barker also had a $3.083 cap number, and Johnsson is a free agent this summer).

Vokoun would come with a slightly higher cap number than Huet ($5.700 million), but in this case it’s the length that matters. Vokoun has only one year left on his contract after this season, while Huet has two. The significance of shedding $5.7 million off the books in the summer of 2011 is that Brent Seabrook, Dustin Byfuglien and Troy Brouwer are all scheduled to need new contracts at that time. Therefore, the immediate cap savings might not happen, but the Hawks would feel cap relief when they need it in 15 months.

So while our old buddy JR might think Halák is the right/better guy for the Hawks, the number don’t add up.

As the middle weekend of the Olympics has arrived, the business of NHL hockey is again on the minds of many in Vancouver.

The Blackhawks rumors are once again swirling, and there appears to be a new twist. A number of sources, both out of Canada and the United States, are now saying that the Blackhawks will indeed be active before the March 3 deadline, but could make more than one deal after the Olympic roster freeze is lifted at midnight on the East coast entering March 1.

ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun linked the Blackhawks to Florida (and, in the Olympics, Czech Republic) netminder Tomas Vokoun. Reports earlier this week were that Vokoun had not yet been asked to waive his no-trade clause, but the goalie told the Miami Herald’s George Richards that he would waive it if the right situation presented itself.

HockeyBuzz’s staff of writers have reported a lot of wild rumors surrounding the Blackhawks, with Ecklund spinning his usual tripe while John Jaeckel does a better job of of not only making sense, but not reporting everything he hears. However, both Ecklund and Jaeckel have recently referenced the possibility that the Hawks will make a smaller trade, possibly to set up a larger deal, fairly close to the roster freeze being lifted.

As we discussed on Thursday, reports are that the Blackhawks will look to add a defenseman to the mix still despite the Cam Barker-Kim Johnsson deal, and are also allegedly involved in talks to add a number one goalie. Various sources have claimed that Cristobal Huet and prospect Corey Crawford could be dealt as parts of these deals.

UPDATE: Jaeckel reported on Saturday, Jan. 20 that the deal he referred to earlier in the week was indeed with Florida. The deal he is reporting to be rumored, which was alluded to by ESPN 1000 as well as ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, would send Huet, Crawford and Versteeg to the Panthers for Vokoun and either Jordan Leopold or Denis Seidenberg. Both Seidenberg and Leopold will be free agents after this season, while Vokoun has one year left on his deal with a slightly higher cap number ($5.7 million) than Huet ($5.625). The financial difference between the two netminders would be that Huet has two years left on his contract to Vokoun’s one; being able to cut $5.7 million off the books after next year would provide Stan Bowman with the flexibility to re-sign Brent Seabrook, who will need a new deal after 2010-11.

The Olympic roster freeze is in place until midnight of Monday morning, March 1, though. Certainly the rumors will continue to fly for the third of March.