Blackhawks Make More Roster Moves
After Friday night’s loss to the Rangers, the Blackhawks announced roster moves that bring the NHL roster to 36 players.
The Hawks announced that forwards Matt Carey and Phillip Danault and defenseman Stephen Johns have been assigned to Rockford.
The team also announced they have released defenseman Cam Barker from camp.
Well I guess we don’t need to talk about Barker anymore. After all the posts and Tab’s game comments, I am a little surprised by demoting Johns after only one game.
What’s CC got to do to get more love? He has done the job, and he and his team have come close to 2 cups in 2 years.
Darling may be good (haven’t seen him play) but if he is a back-up it can’t be to Raanta.
Wait, what. Am I missing something. We send down players that can play hockey and keep three tards that can barely skate all because they can take a beating really well. Sounds logical to me ????
Relax…Carey, Danault and Johns are all meant to be cornerstones in Rockford this year…Johns will get a call up during the season and he he likely won’t look back…but he should start the year in Rockford and become a leader there. Danault had a FANTASTIC camp…the Hawks know that he will be on their roster next year, he’s done everything they have asked of him…he’s in Rockford to lead that team and continue working on his F/Os and PK…Carey as we already discussed, needs a full year in Rockford to work on his 2 way game and build up some more muscle. He could be ready next year.
The good news with the Hawks cutting Barker, is that it means they are very happy with what they have…a lot of us have felt that the Hawk D prospects are the true strength of this organization’s depth. Barker played pretty well and was brought in case the Hawks D prospects took a step backwards…they didn’t, so Barker isn’t required.
A very nice tribute to Ross that he was left on the roster for another game with Rockford’s camp opening tomorrow. The coaches very much like his overall game, he has a very high hockey IQ and plays hard every shift! Nice to see…
As for Bass, LaBrie and Mashinter…Wow…they will stick to take ice time in preseason so our regular forwards can rest, but what a bunch…none of them can check without committing a penalty, they have a hard time hitting players because they can’t catch them, and none of them seem to know how to fight…Bass’ disastrous fight last night took the air out of our already listless sails…the day of the goon player is over in the NHL, Q will recognize it soon enough.
Remember all of the confident “Barker will be with the Hawks in some capacity” talk that was going on like… 4 days ago… and how some took exception with me reminding the masses that he was a TRYOUT?
Johns will be a fixture in Chicago soon enough. Clendening has a fantastic shot to make the roster now. Particularly with Leddy likely to be traded in a few days.
Keith-Seabrook
Oduya-Hjalmarsson
Clendening-Rosival
Runblad
Johns up for good at some point too.
Sharp-Toews-Hossa
Saad-Richards-Kane
Bickell-Kruger-Shaw
Morin-Smith-Nordstrom
Rasmussen
Crawford
Raanta
Tab, Barker had a good camp, the reason he didn’t stick is that the Hawks D prospects showed that they are for real and that some (Dahlbeck, Johns, Clendening) are ready. Its a good thing, you don’t have to try and turn it into a negative…Lighten up Francis…
Rufus, I think you might need to flip Dahlbeck and Clendening around. I am probably Adam’s #1 supporter, but Dahlbeck has shown already that he’s the safer play for the Hawks…
To me, it looks like the Hawks will start the season with Dahlbeck and two veterans on the 3rd pairing, and Clendeing and Johns will get sent to Rockford to work on their consistency knowing full well, that they will be back up when the moment is right! They are both very close. For Adam to stick now, he’s going to need a big performance in his next game at both ends of the ice. But what a great “problem” for Chicago to have…3 young, strong DMan that are going to make this team better!
I have no problem with the moves the Hawks made – Danault, Carey and Johns were not going to make the Hawks out of camp so better for them to be there for the start of the Icehogs training camp. And Barker, not a surprise that he was let go.
But I do have a major complaint with the thought process vis-a-vis the “enforcer”. First, just to be clear, I’m not one who thinks there’s no room for fighting in the game. I loathe the staged fight but have no problem with a fight in the moment of anger or retribution. But – if a guy is going to take a roster spot and cap space to be the enforcer – then he has to (1) actually be able to win fights, and (2) actually be able to do more than fight. The three stooges vying for the enforcer role have already shown they are not capable of doing anything more than fighting and so far they haven’t shown they can actually win a fight. The fact that they haven’t been removed from the Hawks training camp roster yet leaves me with the inescapable conclusion that his neanderthal gene has spread to the reasoning faculties or Q, and maybe Stan also. It seems like the requirement of having an enforcer on the roster is overriding the requirement to construct the best team with the best chance to win.
Rant over.
Brad,
I agree with you that Dahlbeck is ahead of Clendening and a safer bet to make the roster this year. Either Leddy or Oduya will be gone to get us under the cap this year.
Next year at this time, we will see Rosy and the survivor of the Oduya/Leddy also gone. Johns and Clendening hopefully will both be ready next season after seeing spot duty this year for injury fill-ins. The Hawks will need even more cap space next year and won’t be able to afford 3rd pairing d-men making 2 million or more. I don’t see Rundblad being more than our cap friendly 7th d-man, but I hope that he proves me wrong.
From the above-delineated comments, it sounds like Bollig was Guy Lafleur Jr compared to these three other guys still in training camp. Bowman and Q are both at fault — Bowman signs and/or trades for them, and Q is obsessed w playing them. Lombardi and Sutter figured out halfway thru last season to discard slow skating purported goons in their entirety. Result: Stanley Cup.
There could be another reason the thugs are around now. That reason may be that pre-season games do not count and you don’t want to ice a team that won’t sticky up for itself in a game that does not count. Someone could get to taking liberties.
-TL
Hi guys! Hope you missed me.
The Hawks depth at defense is kind of funny. Clendening, Johns, Dahlbeck… they all look like they belong in the NHL.
Forward is getting just as silly. I know Stan wants to give this roster another shot, but they have a lot of talent waiting in the wings.
Danault can fly and read the game amazingly well. Offensively, maybe not so much. But he can’t have a worse shot than Kruger, right?
Does anyone else really enjoy the Hawks “enforcers” getting their faces pounded in every time they try to fight? Good times. Slick play by Stan making sure all of the people he acquired to punch faces can’t play hockey or fight.
I’ll be back full time soon to share my poorly thought out opinions and tell you why you are wrong!
Unless we get another Bob Probert, I think Rasmussen is enough to be the tough guy. But these guys need to realize we don’t need an enforcer. The mind state should be, “if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.”
I haven’t seen the recent games but the comments regarding the “three stooges” make me cringe. The problem is that the core team really doesn’t have anyone that will fight above the middleweight division (Shaw, Morin). While I still don’t understand giving a roster spot to someone who doesn’t help the team, clearly there continues to be a market for the John Scotts of the world. I’m still trying to figure out how we got a 3rd round pick for Bollig but again there is a market for these guys. Maybe in the trade that is coming soon we will get back a big guy who can skate a little bit in return for Leddy and Versteeg. Regarding the comment on the Kings, they have guys (Clifford, Nolan) that can hold their own in a fight but also can skate and contribute in other ways from time to time.
Trivial: Kyle Clifford 71GP 3G 5A 8PTS 6 81PIM
Brandon Bollig 82GP 7G 7A 14PTS -1 92PIM
…not a world of difference in my opinion.
JS- I completely agree with your last two statements… (especially the last one!!!)
EspoForever,
like Smith on Smith.
JS Welcome back…good thoughts already!
Rasmussen as a tough guy? Ugh what? I think if you need a guy to drop the mits, Morin has done it. You know Shaw will. I’d like to see Bickell do it, especially since he doesn’t really do mush on the score sheet until playoff time. Hawks have guys on the roster that will fight. If you want to keep a punching bag on the roster. Fine. Keep him in the press.
Remember back in the LA series when everyone was (rightly) complaining about the lack of 4 solid lines. And, remember Sr. Brad’s post from this past summer’s conversation with Coach Q re Morin (according to Sr. Brad, Coach Q admitted that Morin was not properly prepared during the season to earn significant PO minutes). Well, whatever happens with the roster moves due to Cap Space I do NOT want a repeat of last year. The new Blackhawks need to see appropriate ice time during the season so that 4 solid lines are “rolled” during the playoffs. No repeat of last year when Versteeg was unable to contribute, Bollig was Bollig, Handzus was (fill in the blank), and Q was hesitant to put Morin in the line-up.
Drop the puck already!
Hello gents, I follow this site and enjoy reading the regulars on here. I had to join to express some of my thoughts.
Barker could have really helped our cause by hitting Rosy instead of TT to put him on the LTIR with a non-serious minor upper or lower body injury. Losing Rosy to LTIR is about the equivalent of 40 games and would have helped us. If that happens, my understanding is that we don’t have to count his salary against this year’s cap. Seriously, that was in gest as I don’t want to wish harm on anyone. However, I would rather have the studs Dahlbeck or Johns replacing Rosy. I’d rather have them use their youthful skills and abilities to overcome some youthful mistakes than to see Rosy using his experience to try to compensate for his aging skills. Unfortunately, I believe we are stuck with Rosy this year. That hurts us!! I sure wish we could dump him on someone. My fingers are crossed.
I then hope we can package Leddy and Versteeg somewhere. I value Leddy’s offensive skills, but we have ample skill in our forward group and I easily see Clendening fillingt any void created by the loss of Leddy’s offensive attributes. My understanding is that Clendening does have a little more of an edge to him. I have seen his weight listed at 190 and then at 197. I don’t know what is accurate, but Clendening was one of the top 4 conditioned men in camp. Back to the boy, Leddy is totally afraid of any type of physical contact. He looks like a boy among men when the stakes in any game are raised. In the playoffs, you separate the boys from the men and it is clear that he does not have the guts to do what it takes to win. That’s why he has disappeared in the last two playoffs. We need guys on the team that put it on the line. I do not believe Leddy does that. He could go get 50-60 points get on another team. With his skills he will do that, but we want men that do what has to be done to win Stanley Cups.
On to Versteeg. He was one of my favorites in 2010 and I was thrilled when he was brought back. I still like him and want him to do well, but I would prefer to give some opportunity to some youth with some size.
With those three gone, I believe that gives us about 6.5-7.5 million in cap relief. It also opens up some room for some youth. Danault, Rasmussen, and McNeil are all 200lbs plus and could skate. I’d rather see them get a shot than wait to see what happens with Versteeg. Rosy and Leddy gone would open doors for Clendening 19olbs plus, Dahlbeck 205-210lb’s, and Johns is 225-235lbs. That’s some good size and all are solid on their skates. We need to shore up the “D” and move some bodies from in front of CC. Dahlbeck and Johns will do that. The Kings have a lot of size that skates, the size of these yutes (as cousin Vinny would say) equal their size.
Adding this size to our line-up is all the toughness we need instead of giving a valuable roster spot to one of the thugs that cannot play hockey or fight. We don’t have many physical players, but this size makes us tougher. We don’t need an enforcer. I agree with someone above that they are playing just to save injuries from any of our regulars.
Love everyone’s input. It really is enjoyable reading. Keep it up gents.
The day of the GOON IS GONE?????? that’s hockey dude fighting is a part of hockey !!…if anything Q don’t have enough goones