Over the next three weeks, the Blackhawks will learn a lot about how they stack up against the rest of hockey’s elite teams.
Between now and March 25, the Hawks will play nine games against playoff teams, most of whom made significant moves at the trade deadline to improve their club. When the Hawks play a home-and-home against Columbus, they should have a good idea of what they’ll need to do to win the Stanley Cup.
Starting Friday, when the Vancouver Canucks come to the United Center (after hammering the Red Wings 6-3 on Wednesday), the Hawks will face one of the toughest stretches of games on their calendar. Four of the first five games are at home, against Vancouver, Detroit (now at 11:30 AM in Chicago, thanks NBC), Los Angeles, then at Philadelphia before hosting Washington on the 14th. In that stretch, the Hawks will do battle with teams currently in third, fourth and eighth in the Western Conference and first and sixth in the East.
If the last two games against the Islanders and Oilers seemed rough at times, wait until this stretch. The little mistakes in the corners will turn into goals, and the probability that the Hawks can hold one of these teams to three shots in a third period like they did on Wednesday is zero.
March 14: Ovechkin in Chicago
While the Hawks have faced the Canucks, Red Wings and Kings already this year, the game against the Washington Capitals on the 14th will be the only time during the regular season that they will face the team with the best record in the NHL.
Despite their potent offense and 92 points, the Caps were very busy at the deadline. Washington added defensemen Joe Corvo and Milan Jurcina, and forwards Eric Belanger and Scott Walker in four deals that give them more depth all over their roster. This game will be a nationally-televised gauge for how the Blackhawks match up against the Eastern Conference’s best.
After the first five games, the Hawks hit the road for an intriguing three game trip filled with familiar faces in new places.
The trip starts in Anaheim, where the Ducks added defensemen Aaron Ward and Lubomir Visnovsky at the expense of Ryan Whitney. The Ducks are presently sitting in 11th in the West, but are just three points behind Detroit for the final playoff spot. Adding the trade of Jean-Sebastian Giguere to Toronto for Jason Blake and Tesa Voskala (who was subsequently traded to Calgary for Curtis McElhinney), the Ducks made a number of impact moves to make a run for the postseason.
The Hawks play the following night at the Kings, who made a few strong moves of their own. Gone is Teddy Purcell, but the Kings added Jeff Halpern and Fredrik Modin. LA is the hottest team in hockey right now, running off an 8-1-1 record in their last ten games.
After a Friday night off, the Hawks spend the night of Sat. March 20 visiting the busiest team at the trade deadline, the Phoenix Coyotes. Peter Mueller is gone, but the Coyotes added Derek Morris, Wojtek Wolski and Lee Stempniak to a team that’s been playing very well of late. The Coyotes are just one point behind LA for the fourth seed in the West, and the added scoring of Wolski and Stempniak should only improve their 25th-ranked offense.
The Hawks will then come home and play the Coyotes again on Tues. March 23, concluding the nine-game gauntlet.
Following the home-and-home against Columbus, the Hawks will play each of their final eight games of the regular season against teams that are either currently in the playoffs or within four points of the eighth spot. Perhaps the best playoff barometer will come on Friday, April 2 when the Blackhawks play in New Jersey against the Atlantic Division-leading Devils.
In all, the Hawks’ final 19 games will prove to be a hard testing ground against teams battling for playoff position. Any questions the Hawks have in net will either be answered or magnified, and any scoring droughts will cost them games. When the regular season ends, Hawks fans should have a very good idea of how far this team can go in the playoffs.
Will the Hawks play for this?
As the Olympics begin, it gives us two weeks to look back at the first 61 games of the season. The standings in the Central Division are updated through the beginning of the break already.
Below are the full team stats for the Blackhawks to date.
Legend: PIM = Penalty Minutes, ATOI = Avg Time on Ice, PPG/A = Power Play Goals/Assists, SHG/S = Shorthanded Goals/Assists, GWG = Game Winning Goals, FO% = Faceoff Win Pct, BS = Blocked Shots.
Legend: SO = Shutouts, TSA = Total Shots Against
Patrick Kane led the Hawks with two goals on Tuesday night.
Even with a fantastic game happening on the ice, the action off the ice might end up being the headlines after tonight’s Blackhawks win over the Stars.
Antti Niemi allowed three goals on 27 shots, Patrick Kane scored two first period goals and Kris Versteeg closed the deal in the shootout as the Hawks finally beat Dallas for the first time in three games this year. With the 4-3 victory, Niemi has now won starts in consecutive games for the first time this year.
Brent Sopel earned huge hero points in the overtime when he skated an entire two minutes penalty, blocked a handful of shots and, just after the penalty expired and without his stick, swatting the puck around the board with his hand to clear the action out from behind the net. After a couple questionable passes early in the game, Sopelshowed up huge in the overtime and should get a good deal of the credit for the Hawks’ second point on Tuesday night. For the game, Sopel played an incredible 4:45 shorthanded.
For the Stars, Marty Turco did all he could to earn a win. He faced 40 shots, 38 of which were in regulation, and allowed just the two goals to Kane and one to Troy Brouwer in the third period. He continued his excellence in the shootout, but takes the loss after Versteeg beat him.
Both teams might have some drama on their rosters between the final horn and tomorrow morning, though.
First, for the Stars, a trade was consummated during the first period that brings young goaltender Kari Lehtonen from Atlanta in exchange for defenseman prospect Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth round draft pick. Vishnevskiy, 21,was one of Dallas’ top prospects after the Stars selected the in the first round of the 2006 draft. The addition of Lehtonen, who has spent time with the Chicago Wolves, means Dallas has three goalies on their roster.
Turco has been a hot name in rumors for months, and this could only build the speculation that his days in Dallas are numbered or even over. Indeed, rumors began to fly even during Tuesday night’s game that the Stars and Flyers were talking about a deal that would send Turco to Philadelphia in the wake of Ray Emery getting hurt. The Stars play in Calgary on Thursday night, so it will be interesting to see how many plane tickets the Stars have when they arrive at O’Hare this evening.
For the Blackhawks, a small observation from the television crew might lead to some intrigue tonight. John Madden and Colin Fraser both left the bench early (Madden in the second period, Fraser in the third) and were not heard from again. For the game, Madden played just 9:12 and Fraser saw only 6:50 on the ice. Versteeg stepped in as a third center as the Hawks played with abbreviated lines throughout the third period. What made the move even more frustrating was that Madden had won 10 of 12 faceoffs before leaving. Versteeg, however, won four of five faceoffs in his time in the circle and looked good between Marian Hossa and Brouwer.
According to coach Joel Quenneville after the game, Madden sustained a lower body injury and is doubtful for the two games this weekend. Fraser appeared to take a puck to the face and did not return. Whether or not these injuries lead to a roster move is questionable; it’s more likely that it could keep Stan Bowman from pulling the trigger before the Olympics. We’ll see if Jordan Hendry skates as a forward over the weekend or if a player is brought up from Rockford, perhaps Jacob Dowell or Jack Skille.
The Blackhawks failed to score on the power play again on Tuesday, going 0-3 with the advantage. The Hawks now haven’t scored with an advantage in six games and have only scored once in 25 opportunities over their last eight games.
Rumors are swirling that Dave Bolland will return to the ice for the Blackhawks on Wednesday night at the United Center when the Blackhawks host the St. Louis Blues.
Bolland has been out since Nov. 5 because of a back injury (herniated disc) that required surgery. In the 13 games Bolland played for the Hawks before going under the knife, he scored two goals, was credited with four assists, and was +3.
If Bolland is in the lineup, the questions being dodged for the last month become relevant: who’s the odd man/men out?
The first issue to consider is the how coach Joel Quenneville puts his lines together with Bolland being available. The general assumption is that Bolland will be playing center on the Hawks second line, but it isn’t guaranteed that he’ll jump straight into the mix between Marian Hossa and either Patrick Sharp or another skilled wing in his first game action in almost three months. He might not be ready for the speed of the game, and expecting him to carry the 18-20 minutes required of the second line center would be an aggressive, and potentially irresponsible, move.
So where does Bolland go?
One logical spot would be into the third line. Bolland skated with Kris Versteeg at times last year, and has familiarity with both Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd. In this scenario, the top two lines for the Hawks would stay intact, and Bolland would bump John Madden to the fourth line with Ben Eager and Tomas Kopecky. Unfortunately for Colin Fraser, his roster spot is in jeopardy if this is the lineup Quenneville uses.
Another option would be to move Sharp back to wing opposite Hossa and indeed drop Bolland into his slot as the second center. That would shift Ladd down to either the third or fourth line, and could move Byfuglien down as well. In this scenario, Eager or Kopecky could be watching the game from the suite. Frankly, having Kopecky off the ice isn’t a terrible scenario; despite playing better lately, Kopecky still has the worst plus-minus on the roster at -4 and has scored only 11 points this season.
There’s another scenario that appears to be gaining consideration from many analysts, though.
All season, especially after the extensions to Duncan Keith, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were signed, the Blackhawks have been in the forefront of trade rumors because of their salary cap situation. In early January, CommittedIndians discussed the long term reality for the Hawks roster, and at that time we postulated that it would be Ladd that might be dealt during the season because of his expiring contract.* Even though Ladd will be a restricted free agent after the season, odds are that the Hawks won’t be able to afford him, and moving him during the season to bolster the blue line makes more sense than waiting for the draft.
Considering the return of Bolland, it makes more sense that the Hawks are picking up steam in trade rumors. A number of sites, including the Daily Herald, have linked the Blackhawks to Pittsburgh defenseman Jay McKee. McKee was a healthy scratch last night, which has only elevated speculation that he could be moving. However, if the Hawks are going to make a move it would figure to A) be for a younger player than Brent Sopel and B) be for a player who’s better than Cam Barker. McKee fill neither of those criteria. However, according to one story, “McKee is a 6-foot-3, 210-pound physical, stay-at-home defenseman who interested the Hawks last summer before he signed as a free agent with the Penguins for only $800,000.”
That doesn’t sound like a player that would cost as much as Ladd, or even Sopel for that matter. If Pittsburgh was willing or able to take Sopel’s cap hit off the Hawks’ books, I’m sure Stan Bowman would sign on the dotted line with anything that writes, but that doesn’t seem to be logical or realistic.
Other names the Hawks have been linked to as potentially bringing depth to the blue line for the rest of the season have been Carolina’s Aaron Ward, Toronto’s Garnet Exelby and Los Angeles’ Sean O’Donnell. Considering the action that’s already taken place in Toronto this week, a move with Brian Burke and the Leafs is certainly possible.
What could evolve into an intriguing scenario, though, is how willing Carolina becomes to dump veterans. The Hurricanes are playing well, as the Hawks unfortunately found out on Saturday night, but are far from playoff contention in the East. They have been rumored to be ready to clean house, but are waiting for the right offer(s). A name that would look good in Chicago is Ray Whitney, who’s rumored to be drawing more interest than Ilya Kovalchuk right now. Whitney, 37, has scored 41 points this year and has the desired expiring contract that would make him a great veteran to add to the Hawks’ roster for the stretch. If he and Aaron Ward were packaged together, it would present enough value that the Hawks could consider sending a package including Barker and perhaps Ladd to Carolina.
Of course the Hawks have a history of dealing with the Canes; Ladd was acquired from Carolina just two years ago.
However the roster shakes down, it’s encouraging to have a healthy Bolland back on the ice. He’s one of the more skilled players on the roster, and Hawks management considers his Hockey IQ to be elite. The Hawks are three points behind San Jose for the best record in hockey, and they’re about to get better.
It’s late January, and the Blackhawks will play the seventh game of a long road trip in San Jose on Thursday night. Whenever those two scenarios meet, there are usually players missing from the lineup. Throughout this season, we’ve seen Jordan Hendry step in for Brent Sopel, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Cam Barker and even in a forward role at times. There have also been occasions when the Blackhawks have needed the shuttle running a kid back and forth from Rockford to have a full roster.
With the exceptions of Dave Bolland and Adam Burish, both of whom have missed most of the season to date, the Blackhawks will be fully together on the ice for the biggest game on the Western Conference calendar in 2010.
Hjalmarsson didn’t practice on Thursday, but is reportedly good to go for the game. Sopel, who’s been banged up and missed Tuesday night’s game in Edmonton, will also be active for Thursday night’s game.
Cristobal Huet will start in net for Chicago.
The Sharks, on the other hand, will be without Dan Boyle on their blue line this evening.
Cam Barker, who has missed the last five Blackhawks games with an upper body injury, is expected to return to the lineup for Saturday afternoon’s contest in Columbus.
Barker has struggled statistically this year, with only 13 points (four goals, nine assists), and hasn’t scored a goal since Nov. 11 against Colorado. Coming off a 40-point season in 2008-09, Barker has failed to emerge as a consistent force on the power play and has fallen to the third defensive pairing.
Considering his $3 million cap number, Barker might be on borrowed time in Chicago. With Adam Burish and Dave Bolland coming back from injury soon, Barker, 23, will likely continue to be among the more popular Hawks in trade rumors between now and the Olympics in February. Jordan Hendry has filled in admirably for Barker over the last couple weeks.
As he has all year, Niklas Hjalmarsson was exceptional on defense Thursday night.
OK, so it took 61 seconds for Brian Campbell to score what turned out to be the game-winning goal on Thursday night. It was clear in that first minute, though, that the Blackhawks that showed up to play were the hungry Hawks with the best record in hockey, not the flat group of kids that had lost their previous two games. An emphatic 3-0 win was a good way to leave home on a nearly-three-week road trip.
Cristobal Huet bounced back from a mediocre third period in Minnesota to play very well, including a key save early in the second period when the puck bounced over Niklas Hjalmarsson’s stick and Raffi Torres got a clean look. Of Huet’s 24 saves, though, only a handful were on tough shots as the Hawks defense was smothering and again created quality chances for the offense in the other end.
The defensemen weren’t only the story in the Hawks’ defensive zone, though. Campbell and Duncan Keith scored two of the Hawks’ three goals, and Hjalmarsson was named the Number Two Star of the game after a statistically quiet performance that was exceptional to watch live. Hjalmarsson was credited with one assist, two hits, and four blocked shots in the game, but his stick work in the corners and pass prevention was fantastic. At only 22-years old, it’s becoming more clear with each game that what Scotty Bowman saw in Hammer when he referred to him as “a young Niky Lindstrom” before the season started might be enormous, but appropriate, praise.
Kris Versteeg has two assists, extending his career-best points streak to nine game. Keith’s goal was his 10th, and gives him 43 points for the season. Considering Keith’s career highs are 12 goals and 44 points, both set last year, he’s on an incredible pace to shatter his personal bests in the NHL and certainly challenge for the Norris Trophy.
The Hawks also skated through their checks well. Clearly the best hit of the night was in the first period, when Troy Brouwer crushed Columbus superstar Rick Nash into the boards. Hjalmarsson and Jordan Hendry also had good, hard hits later in the night, but Brouwer’s hit on the Jacket’s best player after an early goal set the tempo for the night.
The Hawks third goal was scored by Dustin Byfuglien, who had a good night as well. It was Big Buff’s first goal since Dec. 26, but he had eight assists in an eight game stretch since then and has quietly crept up to 23 points now on the season.
The Blue Jackets get another crack at the Blackhawks in Columbus on Saturday night, beginning an eight-game road trip that will keep the Hawks out of the United Center until Feb. 3. Last night was the Hawks’ last chance for almost two weeks to perform for their home audience, and they put on a great show.
As we’ve discussed, the Blackhawks are headed towards a summer with a lot of questions. Many analysts have already written about the Hawks need to cut payroll off their 2010-11 cap number to put a full team on the ice next year; they have committed roughly $61 million to 15 players, and the cap is expected to end up somewhere between $56-58 million. Simple math indicates that the Hawks likely need to cut somewhere around $10 million off that payroll to afford a full roster next year. Below are the players that are signed through the 2010-11 season, and their respective cap numbers:
The players with an asterisk next to their cap numbers indicate that they are in the final year of their curent contract in the 2010-11 season. So the reality for the Blackhawks is that not only do they need to cut payroll off their 2010-11 books, but they have decisions to make with some current players, especially Seabrook, Byfuglien and Niklas Hjalmarsson (a restricted free agent after this season), during next year.
Earlier this year, we discussed how the NHL’s current collective bargaining agreement works with regard to buying out the contract of a veteran player. At that point, early in the season, buying out Campbell’s enormous contract was a point of interest. However, considering Campbell’s play since then, keeping him on the blue line despite his cap number seems to be a better idea than moving him for nothing. Indeed, even trading Campbell wouldn’t seem to be a great idea at this point because of how well Campbell’s been playing.
Considering the cost of replacing someone who is playing as well as Campbell is right now doesn’t even figure to be a likelyhood in respect to the escalating cost of elite defensemen in the NHL. Chris Pronger will be at $7.5M when his extension kicks in with Philadelphia next year, Zdeno Chara is making $7.5M, and Calgary’s duo of Jay Bouwmeester ($6.8M) and Dion Phaneuf ($6.6M) set the market for a top defenseman well above the cap number the Hawks will have for Keith moving forward. Reality seems to indicate that Campbell could be at or below market value within two or three years.
Because of the wild trade speculation in the NHL right now, and teams looking to get a lower cap number, including the Hawks, good players on the Chicago payroll have been linked in many rumors. Barker, Versteeg, Byfuglien, Sharp and Sopel have all been linked to various rumors, most recently with regard to a potential move that would rent Atlanta superstar forward Ilya Kovalchuk for the rest of this season.
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun wrotean article that looks at how the current CBA has impacted parity in the NHL, and how it has diminished the window to win for any team that puts together a great roster. Right now, the biggest team dealing with that reality is the Blackhawks, and when the cap is examined further it appears the Hawks have a limited horizon to win the Stanley Cup despite the extensions they have in place with some of their younger superstars. This school of thought is a driving force behind the speculation that the Hawks are the frontrunners for Kovalchuk, who reportedly will want to test free agency this summer and will want a deal in the neighborhood of $10M per season and around 10 years in length. Not many teams will want to part with a package close to what the Thrashers will want for one of the game’s top scoring forwards, only to have zero guarantees that they will be able to keep him after this season; the Blackhawks might not have a problem renting a player while moving payroll of their future books.
So how do the Blackhawks unload $10 million without devastating the current roster?
One route that might become a reality is buying out Huet. He’s statistically playing very well this year – he currently ranks fifth in the NHL allowing only 2.17 goals per game – but, because of his ups and downs might be easily replaced by Antti Niemi and a younger, cheaper netminder. The killer when the Hawks try to trade Huet, though, is the number of decent-to-good goaltenders that will be free agents this coming summer. Why would a team trade for Huet and pay him his cap number when they could sign someone like Martin Biron, Jonas Hiller, Dan Ellis, Ray Ellis, or make a qualifying offer for a player like Jaroslav Halak or Kari Lehtonen. We haven’t even mentioned older goaltenders like Marty Turco, Jose Theodore or Evgeni Nabokov yet, either. In all, there are 24 goaltenders that will be free agents this summer, only one of whom, Turco, has a higher cap number than Huet this year.
So trading Huet might not be an option. However, signing one of the 24 free agents might be, and the net cost of keeping Niemi and adding a free agent could be lower than just Huet by himself next year.
Thus, the buyout conversation begins.
If the Hawks decided to buy out Huet, they would be able to stretch out a percentage of what they owe him over a longer term. Without getting into the boring math of the discussion, the difference between Huet being on the payroll under his current contract and the financial implications of buying him out could mean the difference between keeping a player making $3 million and losing someone like Versteeg, Byfuglien or even Sharp.
Huet stands to make $5.625M for two more seasons. If the Hawks opted to buy him out, they would pay him $1.875M for four more years. Yes, the Blackhawks would have him on the payroll in 2012-13 and 13-14 under this scenario, but the organization would save $3.750M in each of the next two seasons by buying him out. Assuming the Hawks re-sign Niemi at a larger salary, and either (finally) promote Corey Crawford or sign a free agent, the total net cost for the Blackhawks to have two netminders could be under $2 million.
If the Blackhawks bought out Huet, they would need to only move roughly $6-7 million more off their payroll for next year. Trading a player like Sopel, who will make $2.333M, would make that number closer to $5M, which means moving only two more players would make the math work. Further considering the Hawks organizational depth, it’s realistic that Barker and Sopel could be replaced by Jordan Hendry and a prospect like Shawn LaLonde for significantly cheaper than the cost of the two veterans.
There will be trades, and next year’s Blackhawks might not look a lot like this year’s version. Bowman has the job of keeping the Hawks competitive in the future, and the first step in doing that might be buying out Huet.
Cam Barker left Sunday night’s win early in the third period and, after Tuesday morning’s skate, coach Joel Quenneville said he has been ruled out for the game against Minnesota. Barker has what is being defined by the Hawks as an “upper-body injury,” but it appeared he hurt a shoulder being driven into the boards on Sunday night.
Niklas Hjalmarsson is still questionable after being hit in the head with a puck on New Year’s Eve. There has not been word yet that anyone has been recalled for tonight’s game, but the Hawks only have Jordan Hendry listed on the roster as an extra defenseman, so missing Hjalmarsson and Barker could put the roster in a tough situation. Hjalmarsson did reportedly skate at the morning practice, but has not officially been ruled active for the game yet.
UPDATE: Hjalmarsson is active for Tuesday night’s game.
Thankfully the Minnesota Wild come to Chicago as one of the bottom teams in the Western Conference. The Wild are killing only 82.4 percent of their opponents’ power play chances, and the Hawks have scored with the man advantage in seven straight games. The Wild also rank 22nd in the NHL on the offensive power play (16.8 percent) while the Blackhawks are among the best in the league in killing opponents’ chances (86.9 percent, second in the NHL).
Could the Blackhawks make a deal for Atlanta's Kovalchuk?
A number of reports are swirling that the Atlanta Thrashers have given superstar forward Ilya Kovalchuk and his agent a deadline of Monday to accept their latest, and final, contract offer. If there isn’t an agreement, the Thrashers could move fairly quickly into the trade market, where Kovalchuk would undoubtedly become one of the hottest commodities available. A couple analysts believe the Blackhawks could sneak in and acquire him as early as this week.
Reports are that the Thrashers GM Don Waddell and Kovalchuk’s agent have been meeting at the World Junior Championships over the past week, and that a final offer has been made by Waddell. Kovalchuk is in the final year of a deal paying him $7.5 million, with a cap number of $6.4 million. To date, he has performed at a level worthy of his salary; in 35 games, Kovalchuk has 25 goals and 22 assists. His 47 points rank seventh in the NHL, just one point ahead of Patrick Kane’s 46.
A rumor that has been on the outside of the Kovalchuk rumor mill, which has been at least warm if not piping hot all season, is that the Blackhawks might jump into the mix and snatch the star left wing quickly. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun wrote of the rumor in his latest blog, citing a rival Western Conference GM that says adding Kovalchuk might be not only a great move for the 2009-10 Blackhawks, but also help relieve the payroll in 2010-11 as well.
Two names have been central to most of the rumors surrounding Kovalchuk: Kris Versteeg and Cam Barker. Unloading both young players wouldn’t be easy to stomach, but the impact on the Blackhawks could be incredible.
One of the issues coach Joel Quenneville has been dealing with, despite having arguably the deepest group of forwards in the league, is finding the right combinations to sustain consistent offense. Many fans have dreamt of a top line of Kane, Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa, but to date that group hasn’t played together consistently. The issue is that Kane and Hossa are both right wings, and when Quenneville hasn’t felt comfortably trying to move Kane to the left side. Troy Brouwer has played on the left side with Kane and Toews for most of the season.
Another factor to consider is that the Hawks hope to get two key players back from injury after the Olympics. Both Adam Burish and Dave Bolland have missed most of the season because of injuries, but are rehabbing well and appear to be on track to join the team in March. Bringing both of these players back into the mix could be an enormous lift for the offense in a number of ways. The biggest impact would be the return of Bolland to the center position on the second line, allowing Patrick Sharp to move back to a wing. Quenneville has been forced to mix up his center rotation in Bolland’s absence, and bringing consistency back to that spot would be huge.
So how would dealing two players like Versteeg and Kovalchuk impact the Hawks lineup?
First, let’s deal with the reality for Hawks fans. Money has to come off the payroll for next year one way or another. There are a lot of good, young players that are popular with the fans but the numbers game indicates they won’t all be here next year. The Hawks are not going to move Kane, Toews, Hossa or Bolland this year, and most analysts believe Dustin Byfuglien’s roster spot is safe as well. Considering his cost and performance this year, Brouwer would have to be considered safe as well. On defense, the Hawks won’t move Duncan Keith or Brent Seabrook, and Brian Campbell’s contract will make him hard to move. He’s played well enough lately that it wouldn’t be prudent to move Campbell at this point anyway.
That means the Hawks will look to move salary by trading players from a group including, most prominently, Sharp, Versteeg, Barker and Brent Sopel.
The consideration now much become how the players are moved. Does GM Stan Bowman unload salaries just for the sake of dumping salaries, or does he go for broke? It’s possible to accomplish both. Dealing for Kovalchuk might be an overwhelming move to bolster the present while accomplishing the movement of money off the future payroll.
It’s hard to imagine that moving a player like Versteeg for a likely rental in Kovalchuk makes sense long term, but look at what the Hawks offense would look like if they made this deal. We’re talking about a fantasy team, not the Chicago Blackhawks.
Once Bolland comes back, the Blackhawks could realistically have two of the top 10 scorers in the NHL on their first line if Quenneville opted to put Kovalchuk with Toews and Kane. Consider as well that you would then have a second line of Sharp, Bolland and Hossa and then move Brouwer and Byfuglien, who have 10 and 11 goals respectively, playing with John Madden on the third line.
Quenneville might personally pay for the airline tickets to get Kovalchuk to Chicago. That lineup is scary.
Moving Barker off the blue line is what could become an issue, but Barker’s inconsistent play would make it easier to handle moving forward. The Blackhawks would likely have to bring a defenseman up from Rockford, or add a veteran off waivers to either join Sopel for the rest of the season or back up Jordan Hendry, who has played very well in relief this year. With the Hawks giving a three-year deal to prospect Shawn LaLonde, Barker becomes the most likely player on the roster to be moved.
By making a proposed Barker-Versteeg for Kovalchuk trade, the Blackhawks would cut ove $6 million off their 2010-11 payroll and would add an elite scorer to their already-potent offense for what could be a magical run at the Stanley Cup. Renting Kovalchuk would be a calculated gamble by Bowman to push all of his chip into the table and let the rest of the NHL know that the time of the Blackhawks is now.
As it stands today, and argument could be made that the Hawks are among the best offensive group in the league; they’re one of only three teams with at least five 10-goal scorers already. But with all due respect to the great front line of Heatley, Marleau and Thornton in San Jose and the Sedin twins in Vancouver, there would not be a better, deeper offense in hockey than the Blackhawks if this deal happened.
If the rumors are true, and Kovalchuk could be on the move as early as the middle of this week if he turns down Atlanta’s offer, the Blackhawks could make another strong statement that we are indeed witnessing the beginning of a special era in Chicago sports history on the West Side by making a deal for a superstar like Kovalchuk.
