Every summer would be good for their business:Let’s Go Hawks
Oh so that is where that rumor comes from:NBC 5
Actual hockey related rumors: Blackhawk UP
88 and 19 will ALWAYS be a bargin: PuckDaddy
Oh and 50:SI
In Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh trust bore Cups: TSN
This is yet another post we’ll probably have to revisit when the summer moves are complete, because some ballast still has to dumped before anyone calls this complete. But it’s not so easy to evaluate Stan Bowman’s performance this summer because there’s a ton of emotion packed up in every move. And seeing as how I’ve been accused as driving most of the noise, it’s probably up to me to try and suss it all out.
At the top, no I don’t think this has been Stan’s best work, but it’s probably better than most think and it’s certainly not a complete failure. Let’s see why.
We enter upon Convention weekend, and after a deep run like the Hawks just had it seems like they’re starting another party before the last one has even ended. But they probably want to give these guys a full six weeks out of town or whatever. But with the convention starting, that means it’s time for John McDonough to put on his full court press. And he hasn’t disappointed again this season.
There are a host of reasons that David Haugh could have turned himself into the latest columnist/patsy with his Duncan Keith… I don’t know, expose? I suppose that Keith could have called him out of the blue to explain why he won’t be there this weekend. But given Keith’s wariness of the press and with everything else, that seems highly unlikely. I suppose Haugh could have found out Keith won’t be there and went to find out why, but again that doesn’t seem all that likely.
I’m not sure why the Hawks couldn’t have just announced that Keith would not be attending this convention due to a personal matter and left it at that. While some adult autograph seekers would have stamped their feet about it, any rational person would have barely made a noise and moved on with their lives. After all, it’s not really any of our business.
With the news just dropping that Johnny Oduya is also going to be seeing Dallas regularly from a DC-9 at night, it’s probably high time we take a look at what is now his replacement, Trevor Daley.
Before we do that, a final word on Oduya’s departure. Up until Saad’s trade, I really had no hope that Oduya would be returning. And not much of a desire for it either. The Hawks had squeezed out what has to be almost all of his plus-play the past couple years, he’s 34 and there are limits to what he gives you. While he would have been a great place-holder while Johns learned the ropes and up until Johns took his role, I didn’t think that was completely necessary.
But then Johns was dealt, and in came Daley, and as you’re about to see playing Daley in the top four has the potential to be a real, real problem. The sanctuary of the known that Oduya provides suddenly seemed very reassuring. And now we’re about to be tossed into a pretty choppy sea with no guarantee of port.
This is a post we might have to keep coming back to as the summer develops. But I thought it would prove useful to compare the sell-offs of the summers of ’10 and this one, and to compare how poised the Hawks are for their next Cup as they were with that one. It won’t make for pleasant reading, but so much of what we do doesn’t either so you’ll be used to that. No time like the present, let’s dive on in and not care if the water is shallow or not.
What Hawks Lost After ’10: It’s a pretty long list. Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Kris Versteeg (and it’s pretty funny that they simple CAN’T move him now), Brent Sopel, Ben Eager, John Madden, and Colin Fraser. In other terms, the Hawks lost 2/3rd of their third line (Versteeg and Ladd flanked Bolland most of that season), their 4th line center, a top six left winger (that’s where Byfuglien ended up anyway), a couple other components that rotated in on the 4th line in Eager and Burish, and their #5 d-man.
I should also add that Antti Niemi had to be left on the side of the road after his arbitration hearing.
Never let it be said that the Hawks aren’t completely aware of how to manipulate reaction to stuff like this, because I don’t think it’s any coincidence that they dumped the news of Patrick Sharp and Stephen Johns getting dealt to Dallas (where Johns can pound on all their forwards for the next decade five times a year) for Ryan Garbutt and Trevor Daley. Nice try Stan, but we’re always watching.
There’s so many factors in this I’m not sure where to start, so I’ll go player by player. We knew Sharp was likely to go, even after Saad had to be tossed overboard because the math didn’t work with both Sharp and Oduya. No one expected a great return on Sharp, but I can’t help but think Stan Bowman overplayed his hand a bit here. While we won’t ever know what exactly was on offer before and at the draft, we know that there were discussions with several teams while Stan reportedly chased a 1st and a prospect. What he ended up with was an aging, one-way d-man (and not the right way) and a middle aged 4th liner, and he had to toss in Stephen Johns for the privilege of that. Would a 2nd and a 3rd round pick really have been any worse?
For those of you that joined the blog recently, during the summer on Friday’s is when I tend to just write about whatever I want, as do the others on the blog. Feather even went through a streak of reviewing video games and The Walking Dead. So prepare yourself, as I’ve got all sorts of things rattling around this bald dome of mine.
-As the Hawks sit between several rocks and a very hard place with the cap constraints, the past couple days I can’t help but cast my mind back just short of three years ago. That would be Bettman Lockout III. Or maybe even Bettman Lockout II, which got us this current system. During that lockout, most owners were under a gag order. We never got what Rocky was really thinking during all of it, and whenever he did talk he was on the party line, out of fear of massive fines from The Commish.
And owners do that during labor disputes, but those labor disputes, at least these days, aren’t really about owners vs. players. They’re owners vs. owners, and the owners take it out on the players to protect themselves from each other and themselves. They know that when back to normal business, they’re going to do everything they can to put a winning team out there and all those loopholes get closed in the next CBA.
The holding pattern arrived earlier this year. For those of you who are new to our little prison riot here, when we hit July and August most of this becomes my own stream of consciousness. So I’ve got some thoughts to spit out about the Hawks and others today, if for no other reason than I’m bored.
We had a nice little Twitter kerfluffle yesterday when I retweeted a reporter in Miami saying that the Hawks and Panthers had a deal for Patrick Sharp but ol’ Shooter nixed it. It was from CBS Miami’s David Dwork (I only just realized what an amazing name that is). Of course, any time you do this there’s a counter surge from others saying that this is all poppycock and their sources say that the teams haven’t spoken in weeks. Sometimes I wonder if this isn’t for effect more than actual reporting so everyone can cover their ass. Either way, it’s kind of impossible to know what the real truth is.
It must be a pretty dizzying summer for Patrick Sharp. From Cup win to near certainty he would have been shipped at the draft, then he wasn’t, then Saad was, and then he might stay, then he might not, then a few of the possible destinations he would have had on his list dried up. The question is what happens now.
On the surface, there are legit hockey reasons to keep Sharp around. If Bickell is indeed flogged to anyone who will take him, along with Versteeg, the Hawks simply won’t have anyone to play the left side. Whichever of Dano or Teuvo doesn’t play center would be more effective on the right (seen it with both of them last season already). Viktor Tikhonov is probably going to play on the left, or at least will be tried there in camp. Panarin also plays left wing, but you would be hard pressed to think Quenneville is going to go to battle with two inexperienced kids as his only scoring left wings.
Now that the siege of July 1 is over and the Hawks have picked their lot, we’re left to sit and wait out the rest of the summer as the Hawks bleed out the rest of the moves they’re going to make. So just want to clean up some thoughts as we begin to hit down time.
-The Hawks only made one move, signing Viktor Tikhonov, which is interesting if nothing else. He has first round pedigree, and was somewhat unlucky to be promoted to the NHL too soon and under coach Gretzky, which you’ll remember was not a very pleasant experience for anyone. That clearly stunted his development. I don’t know that his numbers in the K make anyone spit out their drink, and he may just end up Rockford depth. But it’s clear the Hawks are going to give themselves plenty of options on the wings.
The only wings for sure on next year’s roster are whichever of Teuvo or Dano isn’t used as a center, Kane, Hossa, Panarin and Shaw. Any or all of Sharp, Bickell, and Versteeg could be gone. And Danault (also could be a center), McNeill, Morin, Tropp, Tikhonov, Hartman and maybe one or two more are going to scrap for what could be as many as three spots open or as little as one, depending on who’s traded. Someone’s going to earn it, that’s for sure.
