We’ll have more thoughts on this tomorrow, but feel free to discuss your Teuvo excitement and share grainy footage of Jokerit highlights complete with shouting Finnish announcers here for the time being.
This off season, there have been numerous teams debuting new threads. So far, the Hurricanes, Stars, and Sharks have shown what they’ll be wearing this upcoming season, with the Wild still yet to reveal their new road whites, and the Sabres bringing to the fore a new alternate third jersey. This also doesn’t even take into account the rash of one-time use sweaters that’s bound to happen for all of the outdoor games, some of which we’ve already seen.
There are so many new threads to be seen that even the Worldwide Leader felt it necessary to chime in with their all-important RANKINGS wherein the Hawks are completely erroneously left near the bottom of the top-10. And while it’s just one person’s opinion, to have it outside of the Top 6 (where honestly any of the Original Six could be used interchangably and any such ranking should have two seperate categories, such is the disparity between the flagship franchises and the rest of the league), we here at CI Headquarters have a few handy rules of thumb that work across the board, no matter the team.
Though things around here have been quiet for over a month, with the Hawks retaining their key young restricted free agents in Nick Leddy and Marcus Kruger, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Stan Bowman’s actions in building his team are the exception and not the rule. Bowman got burnt badly in the past when the Niklas Hjalmarsson signed an offer sheet with the Sharks, and if a couple teams around the league aren’t careful, they might find themselves in a similarly compromising position with this year’s diminished cap.
With the NHL season still about two months away from starting in earnest, and the the Olympics in Sochi still six months away, here in the down-iest of summer down time feels like a good enough time for this subject to be addressed now that the dust has settled from the release of the national team roster invite lists. It’s been bubbling under the surface for a while, and is only sure to boil over as time inches closer to the opening ceremonies, and that’s Russia’s flagrant LGBT rights violations, and how it’s going to affect the NHL’s participation in the Sochi games.
With the Summer Doldrums officially in full effect thanks in no small part to the League taking its sweet ass time to announce an agreement for Olympic participation in Sochi this coming February, and as a result its own regular season schedule, it’s time to take a spin into a couple matters beyond the Blackhawks.
But one local matter needs to be addressed first.
With Ray Emery’s understandable departure for a shot at the starting gig in Philadelphia and Carter Hutton signing with the Preds, that left a void that Stan Bowman would have to fill outside the organization in the form of a backup goalie. Antii Raanta and Mac Carruth both appear to have bright futures ahead of them, but need work in the North American-slash-Pro game respectively. Simply put, the Hawks needed a backup for Corey Crawford, who himself is entering a contract year.
I don’t think anyone thought it was going to mean the return of Nikolai Khabibulin.
Here’s where the Hawks will probably dabble the least.
With Viktor Stalberg’s inevitable departure and the trade of Michael Frolik, it seems as though many long-marinating Pigs such as Ben Smith, Jeremy Morin, and Jimmy Hayes will get their shot at being full-time NHLers this season. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some intriguing options out there, provided they’re willing to hop on board the Good Ship Blackhawk for cheap
Watch it at CSNChicago.com.
So bets on who’s the most drunk? Whose name gets mispronounced by a civic dignitary? Which player absolutely tanks his speech at the podium? The Kris Versteeg Ill Flowz Award?
To the surprise of exactly no one with a functioning brain, it’s been announced today that Stan Bowman will use the Hawks’ two “Compliance Buyouts” on Steve Montador and Rusty Olesz.
Bowman: Steve Montador and Rostislav Olesz will be bought out if not claimed on waivers. #Blackhawks
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) June 27, 2013
This will free up some much needed cap room, and these two players were the two obvious choices. But Bowman can’t and won’t stop there.
It’s a long way down the Holiday Road.
