The Hawks cut down their roster to 28 today, sending various scraps to Rockford, along with two of their security guards in Cody Bass and Pierre-Cedric-Luc-Zinedine-Stephane-Thierry Labrie off to pasture as well. The Hawks have five more cuts to get to 23, if they can even end up carrying 23 depending on how they solve this cap problem that Stan has backed himself into. Because I’m totally sure the offers he’s hearing as we get closer to the regular season are getting better all the time.
So who will be the five to have their dreams crushed? We can be sure Ryan Hartman isn’t going to stick around here, especially after missing camp. The Hawks won’t carry three goalies, so one of Leighton and Raanta is going as well. Almost certainly Leighton, but you never know. So now we’re at 26, with three cuts to go.
This discussion is probably a little silly, because Leddy and Versteeg could be traded by the time I’m finished writing this and then the Hawks would be at 24 depending on what came back. But we don’t have much else to do today, so…
Essentially, you have Teuvo, Morin, and Mashinter vying to be kept on the roster. I could throw Peter Regin into that discussion, but I can’t imagine that Stan re-signed Regin only to lose him on waivers when attempting to get him to Rockford. But then again I couldn’t imagine Stan would have let this cap problem go all the way until a week before the season, so anything is possible. I know people love to bring up Ryan Stanton but I really don’t know what else Stan was supposed to do as Stanton didn’t have a place here, especially after Q fell in love with Michael Kostka for reasons that elude anyone with two eyes and a general grip on reality. Shit happens.
I would imagine the Hawks would like to keep two extra forwards and one extra defenseman (though let’s not rule out eight d-men with Cumiskey being trotted out at forward because that’s totally going to happen). That means one of the aforementioned trio is going to miss out. Obviously, Mashinter is the one who should be given that he has no versatility or skill, whereas Morin and Teuvo can do a couple different things. But I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.
As good as Trevor Riemsdyk has looked, I just can’t see him sticking here to start the season. He only had 26 games in the NCAA last year, and then a handful in Rockford, so unless he’s immensely more talented than we’ve been led to believe he’s not sticking around. Plus, it does him no good to be in a pressbox as a #7 or #8 d-man. He needs to be playing wherever he is. So essentially you have your eight d-men if the Hawks go that way. But it’s a little clouded because Leddy, Cumiskey, and Rundblad all in theory do the same thing and would make terrible partners for each other on the nights Rozie needs a rest. Which makes you think Leddy is most certainly going, but he hasn’t yet and just about anything could happen.
I suppose we’ll get our answers Wednesday. Either Mashinter or Morin will be trotted out with Smith and Kruger, and if they look good while doing so you can be pretty sure the other is going down I-90. They’ll probably take Teuvo with them due to cap problems, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Teuvo gets as much in these last two games to prove he doesn’t have to.
Again, all of it is conjecture until Stan does something to get under the cap, unless the plan is to have McDonough bribe the NHL to not punish the Hawks for going over. And let’s not rule that out.
