The Beginning of Free Reign

Free agency in the NHL is just a mere hours away from opening up and there has already been some considerable drama leading up to it. 

• Montreal decided having all this cap space was silly so they decided to take Scott Gomez and his 7.357 cap hit, along with Tom Pyatt, and Mike Busto from the New York Rangers.  The Canadiens sent back Chris Higgins, last year’s first round pick Ryan McDonagh, Doug Janik, and Pavel Valentenko.  How or why Bob Gainey agreed to something like this is beyond me.  Striking out on Vincent Lecavalier must have really left a sour taste in his mouth. 
• Jay Bouwmeester came to an agreement with the Calgary Flames signing off on a deal paying him $6.6 million for the next five years.  Now, Calgary has plenty of contracts to clear out without having much of a farm system to support them.  It really doesn’t make sense to have Dion Phaneuf anymore as he and Bouwmeester are basically the same player.
• The Great Dany Heatley Chase may have reached it’s conclusion.  As long as Heatley waives his no-trade clause, Ottawa will send him to Edmonton for Andrew Cogliano, Dustin Penner, and Ladislav Smid.  This is an unbelievable package Ottawa will be receiving for a guy who basically blindsided them with a trade demand. 

All that excitement and the rest of the league hasn’t even gotten in on the action yet. 

Don’t expect much from the Blackhawks tomorrow, though.  I know there’s been some considerable noise about re-signing Nikolai Khabibulin and Martin Havlat, but I’m hardly going out out on a limb when I say they will probably be playing somewhere else next season. 

In fact, don’t be at all shocked tomorrow if Bob Gainey makes his second big splash by landing Havlat in a free agent deal.  Long before Havlat twittered his way into your hearts, he spent a good deal of time telling anyone who would listen that Montreal is his favorite Canadian city.  There’s a very good chance that Gomez and Havlat are the first two steps in putting the Canadiens back to respectability.

–Tying up a loose end from yesterday, the Hawks formally announced the signing of Dave Bolland, along with Antii Niemi and Jake Dowell.  The terms of Bolland’s contract were the same as TSN reported, a 3.375 cap hit for the next five years.  Dowell was signed to a two-year deal and will have every opportunity to be the fourth line center next season.  Niemi signed a one-year contract.

Niemi’s re-signing probably signals the end of Corey Crawford’s time in the Blackhawks organization.  Whether or not the Hawks see Niemi as the back-up to Huet remains to be seen.

Stay tuned tomorrow for any significant moves.

USA Hockey Seals Olympic Fate, Passes on Wiz

In what can be described only as America’s worst mistake since the country’s lack of financial regulation crumbled the world’s economy, USA Hockey General Manager Brian Burke passed on inviting former Hawk great James Wisniewski to the Olympic orientation camp scheduled for this summer.

The man affectionately known as Wiz was passed up for the likes of Tim Gleason and Ron Hainsey, while Blackhawks Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien will be in attendance, each hoping to make his first USA Olympic team – unless you count the brief action Big Buff saw on the track and field team during the ‘96 Games in Atlanta.

Bolland Signing Official?

TSN is now reporting that Dave Bolland has agreed to a five year deal with an annual cap hit of 3.375.  This is lower than the intial report that had an annual hit of 3.6.  I suppose we’ll just have to wait for the Blackhawks to officially announce this signing before we know for 100% certainty. 

My best guess is they’re waiting to announce the signings of their restricted free agents together, which should probably come within the next 24 hours or so.

One quick more note about the Bolland contract- Make no mistake, this is NOT a fair market contract.  The Hawks paid for Bolland’s potential, not his past performance.  It will be interesting to see what the fan (and media) reaction to Bolland next year will be.  It’s one thing to be a pleasant surprise scoring a goal once a week while playing on a rookie contract.  It’s another to be doing that with $3.375 million next to his name.  Just ask Dustin Byfuglien how that went for him.

Byfuglien was a pleasant surprise in the 2007-08 campaign, bouncing back and forth between wing and defense.  He notched 19 goals and 17 assists in 67 games after being called up shortly after the season started.  His best game was on November 30th against the Coyotes when he had a hat trick and an assist in a 6-1 drubbing of the Coyotes. 

Going into last summer, there were significant worries that some team was going to send Byfuglien an offer sheet the Hawks couldn’t afford to match.  So instead, they gave Byfuglien a significant raise (a 3 year, $9 million contract) and to go with it, a huge bullseye on his back.  

Now, Bolland will have to deal with the same inflated expectations based on his contract.  If he becomes a point-per-game player and shutdown center like Steve Konroyd tells everyone he is, then this will be one of the best contracts in the league.  But if Bolland is the same player as this past season, then it will be very interesting to see how quick people will throw dirt on him.  

It’s taken awhile, but the Hawks off-season is finally starting to kick into gear.

Day 2 Diary

9:15 am: Well, I slept in a little and missed the first few picks so here we go.  First let’s cover some of the big stuff from yesterday.  Philadelphia put all their eggs into the Pronger basket yesterday early on when they acquired him for Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa, and two first round picks.  No one can deny Tim Sassone’s erection for Pronger but that was a HUGE price the Flyers paid.  If they don’t win the Cup next year, the trade is a failure.  Plain and simple.  For that, I have no problem with the Hawks passing on him.

Dave Bolland reportedly re-signed with the Hawks for 5 years, $18 million and a cap hit of $3.6 million.  I’m no Steve Konroyd so I don’t see Bolland as a point per game player and a shutdown center.  That being said, this deal is just pure evil.  It can either be a huge steal or a massive log jam in the cap.  I still wish the Hawks would have the guts to play chicken with some of these guys on the open market.  I have a hard time believing anyone would be willing to pay that kind of money for Bolland on the open market.  This also officially kills my Andrew Cogliano-Sam Gagner fantasy.

The Hawks picked Dylan Olsen with the 28th pick.  Whatever.  I have no idea if this was the right guy or if they reached.  It’s hard to reach at 28.

9:25 am- Here’s my number one pet peeve with the draft now and this happens in every sport.  Whenever someone is selected, some dope on the network puts a comparable player next to the guy.  95% of the time, the guy they are compared to is either a current All-Star or a Hall-of-Famer. 

This is patently ridiculous in every way.  Did you know the St. Louis Blues got Mike Green with the 19th pick?  Or the Vancouver Canucks got a young Steve Yzerman late in the first round?  If Jordan Schroeder really is a young Yzerman, why the hell is he lasting so long on the board?  He should have been the first overall pick.  These comparisons put ridiculous expectations on guys who will bust out at a 60% rate.

9:33 am-  Calgary Flames acquired the rights to Jay Bouwmeester for Jordan Leopold and a third round pick.  Whoa.  They’re going to chew up a lot of that $9 million in cap space pretty quickly.  We’ll see what he ends up signing for but Darryl Sutter is quickly becoming one of the gutsiest GM’s around.  Now if we can only get him a chin job, he’ll stop breaking my television.

9:37 am-  Toronto breaks Josh’s heart and takes Jesse Blacker right before the Hawks at 58.  The Hawks respond at 59 by taking center Brandon Pirri from the tier 2 Ontario Hockey League.  This is right up Fork’s alley as he sounds like a project type player who won’t be ready for a couple years.

9:44 am- We’re into the third round.  Hawks just have one pick in this round and it doesn’t come until the end.  So cinch it up and hunker down.

I must say, the coverage of the draft by the NHL Network is sub-par.  I have no idea who is picking, who is being selected, who is next on the clock.  Is it so hard to copy the NFL and have a running ticker?  This isn’t rocket science.  I feel like I’m watching a draft from 1988.

9:52 am- If the NHL Network were smart, they’d have a camera on Brian Burke the entire time.  I can’t get enough of this guy.  He looks like he’s been at a happy hour since last Thursday.  He’s wearing a shirt with a tie that’s loosened up at the top.  You can’t tell if he’s ready to kiss the guy sitting next to him or knock his lights out.  What more could Toronto want out of it’s General Manager?

9:56 am-  It’s been 12 minutes and we’re already half way through the third round.  This is a like a fantasy draft where guys are just pointing to names on a board.  “Yeah, we’re not sure how to pronounce it, but we’re going to take this guy Heesketh.  Oh, I mean Hesketh.  He sounds good.”

9:58 am- Kudos to one of the suits that’s not Bob McKenzie for stomping on one guy’s comparison of Nashville’s pick Michael Latta to Mike Richards.  I would know your name if the NHL Network flashed an ID up every once in a while.  I’ll call him the Canadian Kiper.

10:04 am- Whoever just interviewed Minnesota third round pick Matthew Hackett didn’t get the memo that Jacques Lemaire was replaced behind the bench.  He asked him how he’ll like playing behind the Wild’s defensive trap.  If I hear the words ‘Wild’ and ‘trap’ one time next year, I’m going to turn into Ben Eager going after Drew Stafford.

10:22 am- With the 89th pick, the Hawks take 6′4″ center/left wing Daniel Delisle from Minnesota.  That’s another big boy.  Dylan Olsen was rather large and this guy is no Napoleon either.  So it appears the biggest (pun intended) thing the Hawks are going after is size. 

Now allow me to ask another question: If anyone can give me a good reason why the Hawks decided to have their Prospects Camp at Johnny’s Ice House, feel free to let me know.  Johnny’s has some of the worst ice around and when it gets warmer, it only gets worse.  I had a game there last night and the puck was bouncing like a tennis ball.  How can the Hawks properly evaluate their prospects when the ice has scores of divets and its softer than Christian Ruutu?  What was wrong with the Edge?  I’ll hang up and wait for your answer.

10:42 am-  The fourth round is really dragging.  We’re twenty minutes in and just barely half way through.  There must be a long line for the bathroom or something.  Notable picks so far are Buffalo taking Marcus Foligno, son of former NHL’er Mike Foligno and brother of current NHL’er Nick Foligno, and Edmonton grabbing Toni Rajala.  The Canadian Kiper could barely contain himself when talking about Rajala.  Apparently he broke some scoring record of Alex Ovechkin’s and the CK called him, ‘possibly the steal of the draft’.  I won’t argue against that.

10:51 am-  Fantastic interview with my newest mancrush Brian Burke.  Highlights included him still being disappointed he couldn’t snag Tavares but wasn’t going to give up Luke Schenn for him, said Pronger was born to wear orange, and the Leafs are still in their crawling stage of development which is why they passed on Pronger.  He also said anyone who makes a move just to get their face on TV is an idiot.  You hear that, Darryl Sutter?

10:55 am-  With the 119th pick, the Hawks select 5′11″ center Byron Froese from Everett of the Western Hockey League.  He was a teammate of Kyle Beach’s before Beach got shipped to Lethbridge.  Froese was third on the team in scoring with 19 goals and 38 assists.  Looks good to me.  We’ll see you in 2013 Byron.

11:01 am- For those keeping score at home, the Hawks have selected three centers and one defenseman thus far.  No big shock there.  They are the two biggest needs right now in the Hawks system.  I’m expecting them to go defensive the rest of the way in with a couple of forwards sprinkled in.

11:05 am- Riveting interview with Darryl Sutter.  What he lacks in personality, he makes up for with his giant balls.  There’s no truth to the rumor that TSN is planning a reality show next year called, “One Sutter, Two Sutters” following the trials and tribulations of Brent and Darryl. 

On that note, I’m going to call it a morning.  The Hawks have one pick in the fifth, none in the sixth, and two in the seventh.  Enjoy the rest of the day.  And if anyone knows anything about Brandon Pirri or Daniel Delisle, feel free to share your expertise.

Updated: 1:53 pm- So the draft concluded with the Hawks taking only centers and defensemen.  They also picked up a sixth round pick from the San Jose Sharks.  Here’s a more in-depth look at all the players they selected on Day 2. 

Draft Day Shakedown

I’ll be around tomorrow with much more but for now, the big news is the Hawks selected defenseman Dylan Olsen with the 28th pick and have reportedly reached an agreement with Dave Bolland for 5 years, $18 million.  I’ll have much more tomorrow during the draft.  You can probably expect a live updated diary at some point with extended thoughts on everything. 

For now, I don’t really have much of a problem with the Hawks selection.  The difference between Olsen and whoever else you thought the Hawks should have taken is mostly arbitrary.  At 28, there’s no gimme picks.  It’s whoever management identifies as their guy and I think they’ve earned our trust.

Is it Drafty in here?

Tonight’s the night.  I’m more excited to see what happens with the top two picks than anything else.  What do you want to see?  Who do you want the Hawks to take? 

I personally don’t feel that strong about anybody.  Certainly with the 28th pick, it’s basically a crapshoot anyways and anybody who tells you the Hawks screwed up the pick is jerking you around.  Unless they pick Denis Savard’s daughter to make up for the way they treated him this year.

Babcock Coaching Team Canada; Road for Toews paved?

On Tuesday morning, it was annouced through a source that, this Thursday, Detroit Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock will be named head coach of Team Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Team Canada’s Executive Director is Steve Yzerman so this appointment shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone.  

What it does mean, though, is Jonathan Toews will have every opportunity to represent Canada when the Olympics roll around.  While Team Canada’s list of potential centers is a murderer’s row, Yzerman has never been shy about his boy-crush on Toews.  After the Western Conference Finals concluded, Babcock went out of his way to say that Toews is the franchise player of the Blackhawks. 

Earlier in the year, Toews’ name was nowhere near the list of players being considered.  Joe Thornton, Mike Richards, Sidney Crosby, and Ryan Getzlaf were all considered locks.  Now, only Getzlaf and Crosby look for certain like they will be wearing the black and red in Vancouver. 

With Babcock and Yzerman having the biggest say on who makes the team, I would be shocked if Toews isn’t named to the team.  Assuming of course, that a) he’s healthy and b) having a productive season next year.  

Toews would join teammate Patrick Kane in Vancouver.  Kane is about as close to a lock for Team USA as there can be.  USA General Manager Brian Burke has already singled out Kane along with Zach Parise of the New Jersey Devils saying they represent the next wave of great young talent to come out of the States. 

At this point, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith look like extreme long shots to make Team Canada.  Not that this is a bad thing, though.  I still don’t know how I feel about the NHL stopping its season for two weeks; letting all their best players risk injury and fatigue in, essentially, a meaningless tournament (to the NHL); then expecting them to come back and gear back up for the rest of the regular season and playoffs. 

It does make for some excellent theater, however.

The Fifth Feather/HockeeNight Draft Preview Bonanza

The guys from HockeeNight were once again gracious enough to have us on their PuckCast.  A great time was had by all as we discussed Martin Havlat, the draft, July 1st, Martin Havlat, the Blackhawks solution to goalie prospects, the New York Jets, Martin Havlat, and Fork talked dirty to us explaining the difference of a hard and soft cap.  As always, we thank them and love them.  Until we meet again….

The Havlat Conundrum

With free agency set to open up across the NHL in less than 10 days, the most important free agent on the Hawks is set to be turned loose to the rest of the league.  Unless the Blackhawks and Martin Havlat have agreed upon a deal and are waiting for the perfect time to announce it, it appears as though Havlat will take his equipment and play somewhere else next year. 

Well, before you get ready to set yourself on fire, think about the following things:

1. During the extent of his three-year contract with Chicago, Havlat played in more than 60 games during a season only once.  While people love to call him a point-per-game player, the reality is, when he only plays 56 games during the season and notches 50 points, he’s not exactly helping in the grand scheme of things, especially when he’s taking home $5 million+ per season.
2. As late as November of this year, the media (and some fans) were still under the impression that he wasn’t very good at hockey.  Of course, in a matter of just seven months, we’re now told by the same people that re-signing Havlat is worth the risk.  Not to mention, they should sign him to a lifetime contract. 
3. Havlat will be 28 years old when he suits up next season.  At this point in his career, what you see is what you get.  Unless he magically appears on a line with Alex Ovechkin or Evegeni Malkin next year, Havlat will max out at about 75-80 points in a season.  Assuming, of course, that he can stay healthy enough to play in 80 games. 
4. The Hawks have Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews who are just starting to scratch the surface of their offensive talent.  In two years, Kane has amassed point totals of 72 and 70 with considerable room for improvement.  Toews has seen seasons of 54 points and 69, but keep in mind, he hurt his knee his rookie year missing 18 games in the process and dealt with the weight of shouldering the captaincy at the beginning of this past season.  Both players are more than capable of filling his scoring void.  

The hard part is finding the elite offensive players.  Just ask any of the Blackhawk teams from 1998 to 2004.  They have two of them already, losing the third will not be the reason the Hawks don’t win the Cup next summer.  

It would behoove the Hawks to follow the same formula the Penguins used at the trade deadline in March.  Find plenty of secondary scoring threats (Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz, etc.) who don’t commit first degree murder to your salary cap, plug them in with your elite talent, and reap the benefits. 

It took Pittsburgh more than half the season to realize that losing Marian Hossa in the off-season to the Red Wings wasn’t the end of the world.  Hopefully, it won’t take the Hawks just as long next year to realize the same.

No More Dudley

In a kind of shocking turn of events, assistant general manager of the Blackhawks Rick Dudley resigned today to pursue other opportunities.  The other opportunity turned up rather quickly as Dudley has reportedly signed on with Atlanta Thrashers in the same position. 

Dudley had been with the Blackhawks since 2004 when he was hired as a hockey operations consultant.  Then, prior to the 2005-06 season, he was named director of player personnel.  Following that season, he took the position of assistant general manager which he held until today.

He has experience as a general manager with the Ottawa Senators (1998-99), Tampa Bay Lightning (2000-2002), and the Florida Panthers (2002-2004). 

Dudley has been the forgotten assistant of late with the rampant speculation that Stan Bowman is waiting to take over for Tallon.  From all accounts, Dudley did a superb job with the Hawks – the Nikita Alexeev trade not withstanding.  He was instrumental in the scouting of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and was a major contributor to the Hawks acquiring Martin Havlat. 

There are a few reasons why Dudley would make a lateral move like this and we’ll probably find out soon enough.  Until then, I’ll dabble into reasons why he may have left.  I’ll start with the most logical and work my way to the most preposterous.  

• Dudley is a hockey rebuilding nomad.  Take one look at his resume and you’ll notice that Dudley is constantly changing venues.  Whether it’s to keep himself fresh or because he enjoys the challenge of rebuilding projects, he never stays in one spot for more than two and half years.  Every one of his stops thus far, other than Ottawa to get his foot in the door, has been at a team who is in the process of rebuilding.  Atlanta fits right into his protocol. 
• Dudley realizes this could be his best chance at becoming a general manager again.  In case you don’t follow hockey south of St. Louis, things haven’t gone so well for Thrashers GM Don Waddell lately.  He botched the Hossa trade last year, is on the verge of giving away the franchise, Kovalchuk, and throws money at anyone who will give him the time of day.  He hired former Chicago Wolves coach John Anderson this year and that didn’t go so well either.  This might be Waddell’s last stand and if he does get the boot, Dudley will probably have first crack at getting the job.
• Dudley wanted to be closer to his family.  Dudley and his wife, Ja-Hee, reside in Florida.  I’m no geographical expert, but Atlanta is a whole lot closer to Florida than Chicago.
• Dudley knows Dale Tallon’s days are numbered and he has a better chance of scoring a nicer weave than nabbing the Hawks GM position.  With Tallon going into this season as a lame duck and Stan Bowman anxiously awaiting his turn, Dudley knows he’s the odd man out.  Stan’s dad has been whispering sweet nothings into John McDonough’s ear for the past two years so the chances that Dudley would even get a sniff of general manager are, in a couple words, not good.  Why stay somewhere when the chances for promotion are zero to none?
• In a power play move, John McDonough forced him out leaving Dale Tallon to stand alone.  Obviously fairly ridiculous but I’m sure someone thinks this is the main reason he left.  Dudley and Tallon worked very closely together his first couple years with the organization.   Dudley would even do a decent amount of interviews for the media.  Since McDonough took over, Dudley’s name has been heard less and less.  With Tallon now alone, McDonough can strike his final blow.  Again, this is mostly ridiculous and has zero credence to fact, but don’t be surprised if you see someone trying to use this as the reason Dudley resigned.

So there you have it.  I’m more inclined to think it’s one of the first two reasons.  They seem to make the most sense. 

Now, time for the bad news.  Martin Havlat was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 1999 when Dudley was the general manager.  Havlat was acquired by the Blackhawks two weeks prior to Dudley being named assistant general manager.  This summer, Atlanta has a ton of cap space.

If Dudley’s front office history has taught us anything, it’s that whenever Havlat is available, Dudley’s team will do what they can to acquire him.  July 1st should be interesting.

–First off, let me give the proverbial tip of the cap to Matthew Dirt’s girlfriend for finding this article naming Adam Burish one of Chicago’s Top 20 ’Singles’.  What I found interesting, though, was this quote from darling Adam:

 “Growing up, I went to Greek Orthodox Church every Sunday. I was an altar boy. The only regret I have is that I wish I would have learned to speak Greek better. All I wanted to learn was ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and a few swear words.”   

As one of the heads of the Greek community, let me say it is wonderful news that we can now embrace Adam Burish as our number one son and officially kick Chris Chelios to the curb.  A beautiful day, indeed.