Everything Else

Friday Free-For-All

By 1983 0

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.

Everything Else

The Shortest Straw

By 1830 0

With the aquisition of Brad “Religion” Richards, even at the cap friendly number of $2 million dollars for this season, the Hawks are now currently around $2.2 million dollars over the cap while carrying 22 players on the active roster by opening night.

This means that someone is going to have to be voted off of the island in short order, particularly with the Convention coming up in a couple of weeks. If there’s one thing that McDonough and Blunk are conscious of it’s optics, and they’d hate to have a player kissing hands and shaking babies all weekend at the Regency just to have someone’s favorite player launched, even if they technically don’t have to until opening night in October. Add that to the cover that the long holiday weekend will bring tomorrow, as well as the tendency for media types to try to bury bad news on a Friday afternoon, and it would not be the least bit shocking to see someone go tomorrow.