Friday, July 31, 2009

Wow, Dale, Really? You Got Us In MORE Trouble?

It's coming out now that the NHL is investigating the contract that the Blackhawks signed with Marian Hossa. As you may recall, the Blackhawks signed Hossa to a 12-year/$62.8M deal. The NHL has found that Hossa will be making $3.5M/year towards the end of the contract as opposed to the normal $5M-something/year he will be making otherwise.

The league is looking to see if the Blackhawks discussed Hossa's retirement during the contract negotiations. This is apparently against the collective bargaining rules of the league. Apparently this has also pissed off other owners around the league, becuase they're backing the league on this one.

If the NHL finds the Blackhawks to be guilty, they can face a fine of up to $5M, and could lose future draft picks.

Way to go, Dale! Looks like we got one good year, and now we'll be mired down at the bottom of the Central Division again, thanks to your antics.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Dale Tallon, You Officially Suck

Okay, I can understand not wanting to pay the big bucks for players who have been injury-prone in past years. We dealt James Wisniewski--a great young defenseman--at the trade deedline in order to obtain a good face-off man in Sami Pahlsson. I can deal with that, I guess.

Then, this offseason, we waved goodbye to Nikolai Khabibulin--easily our best goaltender--because his high price tage and annual injuries just didn't jive well. I can understand that from a financial standpoint, even though I realize how badly that hurts us at the goalie position.

Also, this offseason, we gave up contract talks with our points leader from last season, Martin Havlat. This last season was the first time in a long time that the veteran forward didn't suffer an injury that kept him out for any extended time.

What did we do instead? We signed an injured player. WHAT?!

Granted, Marian Hossa is a great talent. I mean, he led a team of all-stars in goals scored last year for the Detroit Red Wings. Some reports say that the Blackhawks never made Hossa pass a physical. Others say that we knew about his torn rotator cuff when we signed him. Both these stories could be true, but why would we do this?

Hossa underwent surgery last Friday and will be recovering for four months. This means he will miss the first two months of the season. I know you're all thinking, "Yeah, but when he's healthy, he's gonna be killer!" But the fact still remains, he will miss two months of the year that the Blackhawks need to make it to the Stanley Cup before they lose their young players. Why would they be losing their young players?

Because Tallon's an idiot. If the huge 12-year deal didn't tie up enough money in a player, then Tallon's next blunder definitely did. Tallon failed to send 6 restricted free agents qualifying offers before the deadline. Why? Because he decided to mail them during the July 4th weekend, instead of faxing them like he was supposed to. The result? The Blackhawks had to scramble to re-sign several of their integral parts (i.e. Cam Barker and Calder Trophy finalist Kris Versteeg) costing them more money.

Now, the Blackhawks face an off-season next summer where three great, young talents' contracts come due: Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Duncan Keith. The Blackhawks have already promised big money to two disappointments--Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet--and made the biggest off-season move this summer by signing Hossa. With this added blunder, how will we ever fit under the cap?

Either all three are going to have to take huge hometown discounts, or we're going to have to let go of one of our better players in order to pay for one of our gambles.

Duncan Keith makes up one of the best young defensive pairings in the league. How can we afford to give up yet another defenseman? Keep in mind, we failed to re-sign Matt Walker this off-season, and we let go of James Wisniewski last season.

Patrick Kane was the first overall pick of the 2007 draft and won the Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) that season. Kane is small, maybe a little quiet, but he's an assist machine, and a scoring Houdini, not to mention my favorite Blackhawk.

I consider Jonathan Toews to be least likely to lose his job. This is because the Blackhawks named him captain of the team last summer. I doubt that they will part with him after two seasons as captain. Although Toews may not score quite as much as Kane, but he does carry some innate leadership qualities.

So, as I was saying before, the Blackhawks need to make their move this season, before they lose one of these young phenoms. Tallon has just made it more difficult for this year, and even more difficult in the years following. Great work.

One final note. Blackhaws, what are you thinking? Sure, you demoted him, but why not just get rid of him? I can see why you kept Savard around after you fired him as coach--he was a Blackhawk legend. But Tallon? Really? Maybe there's something I'm missing here.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Mr. Favre

Recent reports indicate that Brett Favre, former Packer great, will most likely be playing for the Minnesota Vikings this coming season. If this happens, all of my Brett Favre memorabilia will be boxed up for 10 years, except for the NFL Authentic jersey that Spencer got me. ESPN quotes Football Outsiders as projecting Favre for 25 TD's and 18 INT's. I doubt that. Anyway, mark my words, I'll put away all my Favre stuff for 10 years as a punishment, maybe longer if he does well.

Go Pack.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Some Corrections...


Okay, hideously bad error. Nikolai Khabibulin was signed to a FOUR-year deal for $15M. I thought that $15M was a little steep for one year. However, this makes the Blackhawks inability to sign him seem quite a bit more unacceptable as well.
Also, I was very down on the ownership yesterday. I think after I've had a day to soak it all in, I feel a little bit better. I also think that I understand the moves they made a little better too.

Havlat got hurt all the time.

Two years ago, we were all wondering where Havlat was. He never seemed to be around long enough to make any considerable goal production. And when he was around, he just wasn't always at his A game. You'd always hear Blackhawks fans say, "Havlat would be good if he wasn't hurt all the time." This is why the Blackhawks considered dealing him at the trade deadline two years ago.

Last year was the first time in a long time that he actually stayed healthy for a large part of the season. He was only out for a few games, and BOOM! look what happened, he was an awesome player. I don't really blame Dale Tallon for not wanting to offer Havlat more than a one-year deal. He was too risky.

Marian Hossa--on the other hand--has been a pretty solid player who seems to stay healthy. Here's to you, buddy! Hope things work out better.(Havlat was signed by the Wild to a six-year $30M deal today.)

In other news...

The Blackhawks didn't really try too hard to re-sign their trade deadline acquisition, Sami Pahlsson. This is because they have now picked up two decent centers in free agency--Tomas Kopecky and John Madden (formerly of the Devils, not the former football coach/announcer). I'm good with this. Pahlsson was a decent face-off winner, which is what the Hawks wanted, but otherwise wasn't too flashy. These guys aren't either, but they're decent enough that I've heard of them before. So, kudos.

The Blackhawks let Matt Walker slip through their fingers. I don't like that. He was a pretty good defenseman who didn't get very much credit. Plus, he could kick ass if needed. Who's our enforcer now? Adam Burish? I don't know. I thought trading James Wisniewski was a bad idea too. We need good defensemen. Plus, he was like a discount player since no one had really heard of him. Tampa Bay signed him to a four-year deal for $6.8M.

We re-signed Dave Bolland. I thought that was a good move. He was selected to play in the Young-Stars game this last year--which is the equivalent of the All-Star Game for rookies. Bolland wasn't really all that flashy, but he seems to be somewhat promising.



We re-signed Antti Niemi. He's a goalie we drafted last year. He turned out to be pretty decent and apparently Tallon has decided that he wants him to be Huet's back-up. I might bet that he becomes the new starter. We'll see.

That's really about all for now. We'll stay tuned to the free agency, though.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Grass is Always Greener?

I have a service that sends me score updates after every period of the Blackhawk's games. They also send me little news tidbits every afternoon. It's the way I found out about the Blackhawks signing Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet last summer. This year, I used it to confirm a friend's question through a text message that the Blackhawks had acquired Marian Hossa.

When I first found out about it, I was ecstatic. Here's a guy who was a huge acquisition for the Penguins two years ago at the trade deadline to help them make a Stanley Cup run that ended with the Red Wings squashing those hopes. Last summer, Hossa was a huge signing for the Red Wings as they set themselves up to return to the Stanley Cup Finals. This time, Pittsburgh squashed Hossa's hopes. Despite the lack of a championship, the man was an incredible help to the teams he was a part of.

Howver...
And I hope you knew this was coming, because I'm a huge pessimist--I don't know that this was our best move. I know you're thinking: "Spencer, what are you talking about? You just said that this guy was awesome." I know, but here's why I'm not so sure ownership did such a great job today.

We might lose Havlat.
I have to say might because we hasn't been signed by anyone yet, but according to ESPN, the Blackhawks only offered Havlat a one-year deal before contract talks broke down. Suddenly, the Blackhawks ditch negotiating with their most clutch player, not to mention their points leader--yes, the man who saved them again and again throught the playoffs--Martin Havlat and instantly sign Marian Hossa. I don't think I really need to explain why we can't afford to lose Havlat. He's younger, he scored more points last year, and he had great chemistry with Andrew Ladd and Dave Bolland. The man was an assist machine, and went on wicked point streaks. The Blackhawks won't be the same if they don't get him back.
You can always be hopeful and say there's still time to re-sign him, but the Blackhawks signed Hossa to a 12-year $62.8 million deal. So, I think the Hawks have spent their money. Oh, and I just saw a note on Havlat's profile on ESPN.com that the Chicago Tribune reported that Havlat won't be coming back because they signed Hossa. So, yeah, mistake.
Aaaaand....I now need to get a new Blackhawks jersey.
Hossa's 30
And Havlat was 28. Okay, I'm done with the Havlat thing. Anyway, we just signed him to a 12-year deal. That means he's a Blackhawk until he's 42. I know that hockey players last longer than football, baseball, and basketball players, but still, come on. I think Hossa's still got some great years in him and I'm excited to have him, but I don't think we should have signed him to such a long deal.
Khabi...
A good offense isn't worth that much when you have no goaltender. Khabi was snatched up by the Oilers for a one-year deal at $15M. Nik was an important part of our success this year. Huet was a nice goalie to switch with, but he showed us that he was not that great. Constantly, Huet let leads slip away and let goals by that any NHL goalie should have been able to stop. I'm very scared about heading into the next season with Huet starting. Then again, I can't really blame the Blackhawks for spending $2.75M/year on Huet rather than $15M on Khabibulin. Still, sad to see him go.