Blackhawks DVD and Leddy Thoughts

When the two of us watched the Blackhawks Championship DVD, we both went in with low expectations.  It’s impossible for a hour long documentary to accurately capture what 8 months felt like.  

For me, my big disappointment laid in the fact that they decided to reduce the regular season into three games (the two Finland games and the 5-0 comeback against Calgary) and a montage of goal celebrations.  I know it wouldn’t be prudent to waste 10 minutes on showing some key regular season wins but where would the harm have been in showing big plays or big goals that helped contribute wins.

Now I know they show the big three goals from this past season: Toews against Nashville, Versteeg against Columbus, and Kane against Minnesota, but there was room for so much more.  And it would have been more enjoyable to watch than Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith rubbing helmets multiple times.

For my partner, his big complaint came at the end.  When Patrick Kane scores the game-winning goal, not once is John Weideman and Troy Murray’s radio call played.  You’d think that probably be something Hawk fans would like to watch in real time over and over again.  Instead, all we’re subjected to is a generic call from Jim Hughson from the TSN crew as Patrick Kane gets undressed at center ice.

Those were our two big problems with it and maybe it’s a little frugal, but whatever.  The most entertaining parts of the movie came in the extras (That’s never a good sign).  For that, we’re going bullet points:

• The entire Sopel family look like they could be extras from ‘House of a 1000 Corpses’.  During the extra on-ice celebration (only found on the Blu-Ray, fyi), the Sopel family lines up for a family shot and the image still haunts my dreams.
• Also seen during the extra on-ice celebration, Rocky Wirtz finds Scotty Bowman and says something along the lines of “Thanks for everything you’ve done for us.”  But I thought we’ve been told countless times that Scotty doesn’t do anything and is merely someone the brain trust bounces ideas off?  Riiiiiiggghhtt.
• During the extra locker room footage, Dustin Byfuglien is singing along with some rap song.  The entertaining part of that is they included audio in that segment for all of three seconds.  Oh, those nasty censors.
• Patrick Kane and his ‘famous’ cousin in the locker room.  Glad they felt the need to include that.
• When Joel Quenneville gets doused in champagne, you see his glorious chest hair right through his white dress shirt.  It’s like a wet t-shirt contest, only awful.  Unless you’re into middle-aged men who don’t manscape.
• Patrick Sharp tells Andrew Ladd that Soupy told him they’ll never have to pay for a drink in Chicago again.  Everyone around the vicinity roars in laughter and it reminds of when someone says something that’s a thousand times funnier when you’re hammered.  Which probably explains why everyone was laughing so hard.
• Special runner-up in that category is when some players ask Quenneville if he was nervous and he replies with “Not as nervous as you were.”    
• Tomas Kopecky screaming like a girl any time a camera within 12 feet of him.
• Brian Campbell shaving some random black dude’s beard in the locker room.
• John Madden’s horrendously awful white-boy dance.

I think that’s all.  Perhaps the most important thing this film shows, though, is that it proves Patrick Kane was sober for at least 15 minutes this off-season. 

–After a ton of rumors over the past week, the Blackhawks and Nick Leddy agreed to contract terms.  His entry-level deal is three years for $2.87 million.  Before the speculation gets the best of everyone, let me point out a few things.

First of all, it was said from when the Hawks acquired Leddy in Feburary that scouts were not impressed with the way Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia was developing him.  This just proves those claims to be true.

Secondly, I don’t care what Stan Bowman said about him during the Prospects Camp, he’s not one step away from playing with the Blackhawks.  Bowman’s excitement over Leddy has led some to believe that he’s on some sort of fast track.  Sorry to burst that bubble, but again, this just goes back to the Hawks not wanting Lucia to stall Leddy’s progression anymore than he has.

Third, guys with junior eligibility don’t skip out on those years to play in the AHL.  Without getting too technical, the OHL, WHL, and QJMHL are simply better training grounds for teenagers than the AHL. 

If Leddy doesn’t make the Hawks out of training camp -which he won’t- then his next step will be somewhere in the CHL.  People seem to conveniently forget that when Patrick Kane was drafted, if he didn’t make the Hawks, he was headed back to the London Knights, not the Rockford IceHogs.  Leddy will do the same, either with a junior team that drafted his rights a year ago or as a free agent signing.

So don’t order those Nick Leddy IceHog jerseys just yet.

Holding Pattern

We’re still here.

Unfortunately, the Hawks remain in a holding pattern while they wait for Antti Niemi’s arbitration hearing scheduled for Thursday of this week so there isn’t much to discuss.  They did, however, manage to lock in Bryan Bickell for the next three years at a very reasonable $542k cap hit.

So there’s that.

Otherwise, nothing much is shaking.  In the next couple days, we’ll have a review of the underwhelming Blackhawks Championship DVD up.  By then, the Niemi negotiations will probably be close to wrapping up one way or the other.

Until then….

Marty Reasoner, We Hardly Knew Ye

Marty Reasoner has now joined the immortal Kelly Kisio as one of the shortest tenured Blackhawks in team history.  As was predicted many times, Marty Reasoner was sent packing to Florida for career AHL’er Jeff Taffe.  Taffe was a 4th line center when he saw time in the NHL. 

So now the Hawks cleared off another $1.15 million off their books and seemed determined to gain enough room to offer a contract to Antti Niemi.  As it stands now - and assuming Cristobal Huet’s $5.65 cap hit is off the books – the Hawks have just under $5 million in cap space while still in need of two more forwards, a defenseman, and a goalie (substitute Toivonen instead of Crawford and the Hawks have about $5.2 in cap space.  So maybe that’s why Bowman pulled the trigger on the relatively harmless deal in Feburary.  Though that might be giving him too much credit). 

That’s all just to field a team of 18 skaters and 2 goalies.

If you fill in the bottom of the roster with guys making near or at the league minimum, it gives them about $2.55 million in cap space to sign Antti Niemi.  You’d think that be more than enough, but at the same time, you’re also looking at Jassen Cullimore as your 7th defensemen and Evan Brophey as your 13th forward.  Woof.

Here you can kill some time at work filling in your team here.    

–The reason I included Brophey is because the Hawks agreed to terms on a two-way contract with the 2005 3rd round pick.  Brophey took a paycut on his NHL salary going from $875,000 to $500,000 but actually got a bump in pay in his AHL salary going from $50,000 to $75,000. 

–Tim Sassone started fanning the flames of a possible Brian Campbell trade because Nick Leddy may be close to agreeing to terms on a professional contract.  I suppose we’ll have to wait and see, but that seems a little far-fetched. 

It wouldn’t be the rarest thing for a 1st round pick to bypass college after his freshmen year but I fail to see why Leddy is automatically locked into Campbell’s spot should he be moved.  You’d like to think the Hawks would be getting a little bit of salary relief in the process and could afford a more realistic option before heaping the pressure of being the Hawks 3rd defensemen on a 20 year-old with no professional experience.

Oh, The Things We Say

Finally, after a couple months of baseless speculation over the Hawks trading Patrick Sharp, Stan Bowman put his foot down.  Of course, a lot of the hot noise came from one guy throwing Sharp’s name out there and everyone else running with it. 

With all the deals Bowman has made this year, dumping Sharp’s incredibly valuable 3.9 cap hit would have been his worst.  Getting equal value in any trade and the Hawks would have (maybe) saved only a few thousand dollars.  If Byfuglien netted a prospect and a 1st round pick, Sharp’s asking price would’ve been double that and they’d likely have to be prospects of the NHL-ready variety.  So when you factor in the rookie bonus’ and such, the Hawks wouldn’t be saving much cap space.

Regardless, it’s all irrelevant now as Bowman finally broke his silence on whether Sharp was part of the invaluable core.  Though you have to imagine he’s always been a part of it and was just getting tired of answering the phone from people offering him the likes of Matt Walker for Patrick Sharp.

–Speaking of the aforementioned Walker, Monday’s trade of Simon Gagne for Walker and a 4th round pick already has to go down as one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history.  Even in a vacuum, it’s not even close.  Look more closely at it and it’s even more perplexing.  Tampa Bay was able to acquire a guy one year removed from potting 34 and on an expiring contract for a 7th defenseman with $1.7 cap hit over the next three years.

Unbelieveable.

Worst case scenario, Gagne battles the injury bug like he has the past two of three seasons.  Then the Lightning can wave goodbye in April.

Best case, well, they may have found their Brad Richards-lite.  Plus, they have no obligation to re-sign him in the summer as they gave up nothing to acquire him.  

All I’m going to say for all our fantasy hockey players out there, grab Gagne as a late round sleeper pick.  You can thank me later.

Jack Skille, Come on Down

The Hawks are getting very close to filling out their roster.  This morning, they agreed to a one-year, $600,000 deal with 2004 1st round pick Jack Skille.  Skille took a decent sized paycut from his previous salary of $1.2 million.  With time ticking on his NHL career, this is very likely him taking one step back in hopes of taking three steps forward next summer.

With the signing, the Hawks now have 10 forwards under contract for next year’s roster.  You would have to assume Bryan Bickell and Jake Dowell are also very close to coming to terms.  That would give the Hawks exactly 12 forwards, or four full lines.  You’d have to expect them to carry one more forward or they could be planning on the Rockford dance again this year.

They still have a couple more slots to fill on the defense with 5 guys currently under contract, though John Scott is one of them.  And the goalies, well, that’s where things get a little stickier.

Hawks Match Sharks Offer; Sandwich remains a Hawk

The Blackhawks have matched the 4-year, $14 million offer sheet that the Sharks offered to Ham Sandwich on Friday afternoon.  So he’s locked in as most have predicted.  The Niemi arbitration hearings are scheduled for July 29th.  The Hawks could be in wait and see mode until then with their other restricted free agents.  

Marty Reasoner’s odds to open the season with the Hawks have lowered significantly.  Please hold back all tears.

The Honeymoon is OVAH!!!

And with one gutsy swoop from Doug Wilson on Friday afternoon, the Blackhawks off-season has been completely thrown on its head.  After an early cap-cleansing with the predictable names becoming ex-Hawks, the Hawks are now faced with the un-enviable position of having to make some real difficult decisions. 

Stan Bowman is facing the most important week of his general managing tenure to date.  A couple weeks after foolishly blabbing to the press that no one signs players to offer sheets, his words came back to bite him.  Oh, the irony.  (Whatever ends up happening in this whole thing, those quotes from Bowman will be what the majority of fans remember.  While it’s one thing for us to tell you no one signs anyone to offer sheets; it’s quite another when a general manager blabs about it to the press.  Stuff like that tends to bite you in the keyster.)

After three years of Dale Tallon’s nasty habit of overpaying his own restricted free agents in fear of an incoming offer sheet, the opposite reaction has almost turned out to be worse.  Now, the Hawks are faced with a near-impossible decision.

Either match the offer and deal with the consequences after or let Sandwich walk, collect two low picks, and likely avoid a cap-dance summer next off-season. 

While everyone will be quick to point out the Hawks gaining $4 million in cap space next off-season, they still only have 9 players currently signed.  If you factor in Ham Sandwich’s cap hit of 3.5, they’re operating with about $12 million of space with 11 players in need of a contract including Brent Seabrook.  And, essentially the Hawks will be in the same mess next summer as this one.

Unless, of course you bite the bullet on Sandwich’s contract, hope nothing happens to diminish his trade value and then unload his contract next summer after guys like Shawn Lalonde and Dylan Olsen become more seasoned for regular roles. 

All of this is without taking into account what’s going on in the Blackhawks net.  

If Bowman chooses Sandwich over Niemi, it opens up a whole other world of opportunities.  If there’s one thing that fans won’t ever forget, it’s letting that franchise goalie get away.  I’m not convinced Niemi is anything special, but goalies are wildly unpredictable and if he becomes the next Dominik Hasek, it will be the decision that will never be forgiven.

There’s been a lot of talk about the Hawks using the Detroit model for their goaltending, which is to build from the defense back.  What people seem to forget is the Wings only won the Cup with one goalie who fit that so-called model (Osgood).  Mike Vernon and Dominik Hasek weren’t exactly glorified shooter tutors. 

That model blew up in their face just as many times as it helped them win it all as Curtis Joseph, Bill Ranford, and Manny Legace all took turns continuously crapping on themselves in big games.

Basically, I have no idea what the right move is.  Whatever Bowman ultimately chooses, it’s going to piss off a ton of people.  

If he matches the offer sheet, Antti Niemi will very likely become an ex-Blackhawk and next summer, he’ll have to do the same kind of cap dance in late June as well as trying to find someone to play goalie.  The thing known as Hannu Toivonen is currently not a realistic option.

If Bowman declines the offer, then he’ll have more than enough room to re-sign Antti Niemi and there shouldn’t be as big of a crunch for next summer.  Of course, he’s also down a 3rd/4th defensemen with no one really waiting in the wings, organizationally-speaking, at least for this upcoming season.  So whatever money he ends up saving for Ham Sandwich, he’ll have to give out to someone who probably won’t be worth it.

Like I said, not really the easiest decision to make.

–While we’re discussing this Sandwich situation, now seems to be the perfect time to finally cut through the JWoww Kool-Aid crap.  Since he took over, the Hawks have made every effort to tell everyone how great their locker room is and how much everybody loves each other.  

Well, guess what, they may all like each other, but you know what they like more: Money.  If the Hawks were such a tremondous locker room and such a lovable place to be, why would anyone want to willingly leave and/or put his organization through the ringer? 

Because that’s exactly what Niklas Hjalmarsson did when he signed that offer sheet from San Jose.  

So next time you read a story about how Colin Fraser and Brent Sopel used to tickle fight each other while Adam Burish and Hjalmarsson played Mario Kart Wii, don’t read into it more than what it is. 

In the end, the mighty dollar controls us all.

Sharks Sign Sandwich to Offer Sheet

In what could be a fairly stunning turn of events, the San Jose Sharks have reportedly signed Ham Sandwich to a 4-year, $14 million offer sheet.  That’s a cap hit of 3.5 and the cost for the Sharks would be a 1st round and 3rd round pick.  The Hawks have a week to match or receive the compensation.  This is a fairly large decision.

I think you can cancel any Doug Wilson Heritage nights in the near future.

Have We All Gone Insane?

The Antti Niemi arbitration hearing is still a couple weeks away.  There’s no guarantee the case will even be heard as the Hawks and Niemi could settle before then.  However, there are few things that need to be said because there’s a lot of misinformation out there.

First of all, the confusion over the Jaroslav Halak contract has caused people to find the nearest rooftop and question the meaning of existence.  Halak’s cap hit of $3.75 million is utterly meaningless.  His contract escalates significantly the final two years of his contract because the Blues bought out his first two years of unrestricted free agency.  The more important numbers to look at are the $2.75 million he’s getting paid this year and the $3.5 million the following year.

Sparing everyone the comparison between the two players (mostly because whatever I say can be equally disputed by someone else.  Kind of why this is headed to an arbitrator to begin with.), the Hawks big decision before the hearing will be deciding whether to request a one-year or two-year contract for Niemi.  Since Niemi and his agent Bill Zito took the Hawks to arbitration, it’s on the the Hawks to choose whether they want the terms of the deal to be one or two years. 

It’s a fairly big decision for the Hawks. 

If they choose two years, Niemi wins the arbitration, and subsequently craps the bed this season, they’re stuck with two goalies making multi-millions for 2011-2012 season all while chewing up significant cap space.  If they choose one year and Niemi is superb, then they run the risk of losing him to next summer’s free agency as there will surely be a suitor for him.

As for the figures both parties are looking for, if Zito and Niemi are expecting to get paid upwards of $4 million as has been suggested, that is simply ludicrous.  I fail to see how an arbitrator could rule in their favor in that case.  Halak is currently the highest paid restricted free agent goalie at $2.75 million (I believe Hiller’s deal bought out the remainder of his restricted years.  Feel free to dispute that however.).  He has played in 50 more career games than Niemi, has better numbers…..oh here I go comparing the two when I promised I wouldn’t. 

They would be far more prudent to be looking for something around that 2.75 area code. 

The Hawks, on the other hand, are probably looking for a number hovering around the $2 million mark.  As stated above, the years are the bigger decision for the Hawks.  The salary they’ve probably already had in mind for some time. 

So there it is.  For now.

Niemi and the Hawks Head to Arbitration

Unlike in year’s past with their young players (excluding Toews and Kane obviously), the Hawks appear determined to no longer pay above-market contracts for their restricted free agents.  Not that the Hawks have choice in the matter.  This much is obvious as Antti Niemi and the Hawks are set to debate his next contract in front of an arbitrator.

The big news for the worrywarts among us is Niemi is almost 100% guaranteed to return to the Hawks next season.  Once the two sides agree to go to arbitration, opposing teams never send any kind of offer sheet.  Not like that was ever a threat anyways (Though his agent Bill Zito and Niemi held out hope until the final hour as they waited until the final day to file).   With established NHL goaltenders like Evgeni Nabokov and Marty Turco still looking for work, no one was going to give up something in return.

Assuming no agreement is reached between the two sides before the scheduled hearing, a neutral third party (the arbitrator) will listen to both sides and make his decision on what the contract should be.  Here’s a really nice breakdown of the rules for both sides: 

The evidence that can be used in arbitration cases:

The player’s “overall performance” including statistics in all previous seasons.

Injuries, illnesses and the number of games played.

The player’s length of service with the team and in the NHL.

The player’s “overall contribution” to the team’s success or failure.

The player’s “special qualities of leadership or public appeal.”

The performance and salary of any player alleged to be “comparable” to the player in the dispute.

Evidence that is not admissible:

The salary and performance of a “comparable” player who signed a contract as an unrestricted free agent.

Testimonials, video and media reports.

The financial state of the team.

The salary cap and the state of the team’s payroll.

As you can tell, the Hawks and Niemi both have quite a bit of evidence to draw from.  The Hawks will likely use Niemi’s limited track record and comparable players as their key points of evidence while his agent Bill Zito will likely use Niemi’s contribution to the Hawks “overall success” as his key point.

These hearings have a reputation for getting ugly as the team tries to keep the price down and the player tries to get as much as he can.  Hearing from your employer about all your negative qualities has the tendency to rub a lot of guys the wrong way.  I wonder why. 

Anywho, the Hawks should hold the upper hand in this hearing.  In case you were wondering, Ham Sandwich is not arbitration-eligible so his negotiations will continue to play out. 

–We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the death of former Hawk Bob Probert on Monday.  Probert came to the Hawks fresh off a year-long suspension from the NHL for substance abuse.  It’s not clear whether the demons he constantly battled were his eventual downfall but, nevertheless, our thoughts are with his family. 

My only request is to ease up on the hyperbole Ed Olczyk is serving.  Probert was a terrific player for what he was, but in no way did he ever change the way the game was played.