8 more years: Blackhawks (autoplay)
Thankfully Stan learned math before Common Core: ESPN Chicago
Pirri gets his shot: TSN
Yet Kane has to keep answering maturity questions: PD
NHL 15 is apparently awesome: SI
It’s always a weird mix at Prospects Camp. You have the made men of 1st round picks and this year they’ve added the spice of kids already in the organization. You have the mid-level picks who definitely have something to prove before they had back to whatever campus or Canadian backwater to work on their games. And you have the college free agents who very well may never wear a NHL logo on their chest again and are doing their best to make it count.
I don’t know how much you learn from any of it, especially with a team like the Hawks who have a pretty much set top roster and one in Rockford that will have a lot of returnees trying to move up the depth chart. But it can’t hurt to look. So I moseyed down there today to catch the scrimmage. Just some random observations:
It’s always a weird mix at Prospects Camp. You have the made men of 1st round picks and this year they’ve added the spice of kids already in the organization. You have the mid-level picks who definitely have something to prove before they had back to whatever campus or Canadian backwater to work on their games. And you have the college free agents who very well may never wear a NHL logo on their chest again and are doing their best to make it count.
I don’t know how much you learn from any of it, especially with a team like the Hawks who have a pretty much set top roster and one in Rockford that will have a lot of returnees trying to move up the depth chart. But it can’t hurt to look. So I moseyed down there today to catch the scrimmage. Just some random observations:
Dineen joins the staff: Blackhawks
Clendening thinks he’s ready: PHT
TVR is thankful: ESPN Chicago
Uh no: PD
Somehow the name Kevin Dineen escaped our attention when we were speculating who would replace Jamie Kompon and whatever it was he actually did here. It probably shouldn’t have. After all, Dineen was a Whaler when Q was, and a very decent one at that. What Dineen didn’t have was previous coaching experience with Quenneville, so maybe that’s why we missed him.
Dineen has various head coaching experience in a lot of places. He was an AHL coach for six years in Portland, for both the Anaheim and Buffalo organizations. His record there was very impressive, as the Pirates amasses 39+ wins five out of six seasons.
He then went to Florida, to take over the Panthers in their Garage Sale Binge phase, where Dineen took all of their 11 signings and acquisitions in the summer of 2011 and got the Panthers to a Southeast Division title, even if that division was terrible. It took until overtime in a Game 7 for the Devils to eliminate them. But Dineen only got a season and a month after that, and was axed, even though the team was basically garbage.
In one place: ESPN Chicago
Determination: Chicago Suntimes
Its starts already:Chicago Tribune
Johns excited: Comcast AP
That’s a bad thing? Sportsnet AutoPlay
Common Sense approach: PD
With the Free Agency Faucet now slowing down to an annoyingly audible drip, there’s not a lot to kick around other than the looming trade the Hawks will need to make to get under the salary cap.
For the uninitiated, the Hawks are still approximately $2.2 million dollars over the NHL’s salary cap of $69 million. There have been numerous scenarios fleshed out both here and elsewhere for just how the Hawks can do that. And looming as always is annual self-suck known as the Blackhawks Fan Convention, where John McDonough and Jay Blunk are loathe to trot out players who will not be here come October.
It could have been more: ESPN Chicago
Look into the future: PD
Hawks set the Market: SI
First draft: PHT
Well okay then: TSN
Now that Daydream Nation is firmly secured in Chicago until the next lockout and one of them has to be bought out after to get under the $12 salary cap Bettman instills to end that dispute, Stan can start figuring out just how he’s going to put next year’s team together.
What’s that you say? This year’s team is still over the cap? Why yes, it is. But we’ve been down this road a few times already, and the answers to get under this cap are known to everyone. It’s a punting of Oduya, or Sharp, or Rozsival, or Seabrook, or Versteeg (that would be a miracle) or some combination thereof.
It’s next year where some of the challenges lie. But is it that bad? Let’s look, yes?
