Everything Else

This Is Not My Beautiful Wife

By 1965 0

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.

Everything Else

Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees Stan Will Have His Picnic

By 1567 0

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?

Everything Else

The Road Never Ends And The Party Never Stops

By 1557 0

While us fans are still going to bask in the glow of Monday’s victory and Thursday’s parade (or in my case, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s Kyle Schwarber performance), this week is when the Hawks front office has to start to pivot toward next year, and namely to the point clearing out cap space to get Saad, Kruger, and whoever else they might like into the fold so we can attempt to do this all again in a year’s time.

Watching this unfold, I have to say I’ve been impressed with the local media’s reserved, optimistic tone about what the Hawks can do next year while the national — both here and north of the 49th — have been forecasting doom and gloom and it’s 2011 all over again! As it’s our job to piss on national and local narratives alike, let me poke some holes in this latter view, if you don’t mind.