Odds and Ends

(c) Getty Images

Over the last week, the Hawks made a couple of rumored signings official. As mentioned below, the Hawks signed Jack Skille to a 1 year, $600K contract. It appears that Skille will get his opportunity to make a name for himself in the NHL this upcoming season. While many Hawks fans would rather have Buff, Versteeg or Ladd in that spot, some of the Rockford kids are going to get their shot in 2010-11 to prove their worth and that might have some value in itself. This is probably Skille’s last chance with the Hawks, so hopefully he takes advantage of it.

The Hawks also announced the signing of Brian Bickell to a 3 year, $1.625M deal ($541K cap hit). Good job again by Stan on this contract as Bickell has been a contributor in each of the opportunities he’s been up with Chicago. Queneville is a fan of Bickell as well as he’s mentioned many times in the press, and even rewarded him with a few games up on the Toews and Kane line during the season. Most likely we’re going to see Bickell manning the LW on the 4th line in 2010-11.

The Blackhawks also signed former New York Rangers first round pick Hugh Jessiman. Jessiman has some size as he measures in at 6’6” and 231 pounds. He’s bounced around the AHL the last couple of years and it’s most likely that this is a signing for Rockford. Power forwards take a longer time to develop and I’m probably reaching, but maybe he’s a late bloomer. At 1 year at $500K on a two-way contract, it’s definitely worth the risk in finding out.

Nick Leddy, the 16th overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft (by Minnesota) also has come to terms with the Blackhawks on a 3 year entry level contract. Leddy was acquired in the mid-season trade that saw Cam Barker traded to Minnesota for Leddy and Kim Johnsson. During his freshman year, Leddy played in all situations at the University of Minnesota. During Prospect Camp a couple weeks ago, Leddy turned some heads with his effortless skating and overall solid play.

Why pull Leddy from college early if you’re the Hawks? That seems to be the million dollar question. For the last couple of years those in the know have speculated that NHL GMs haven’t been too impressed with prospect development at the University of Minnesota. This could be a factor into the signing. Perhaps the Hawks feel it’s better for Leddy’s development to be in the AHL, or perhaps play one year in the WHL (Tri-Cities holds his WHL rights and he has the option to play there). Most likely, Leddy will play 2010-11 in Rockford and probably another year after that. But it is possible that Leddy will be on the Hawks roster sooner than a lot of people thought.

Finally, today is the day that Antii Niemi’s arbitration hearing took place. It appeared that Niemi’s camp was not going to budge on their rumored demands of $4M so no deal was agreed to before the hearing. The arbitrator has 48 hours to make their decision, and then from that point the Hawks will have 48 hours to decide whether they accept the deal, or walk away. Another option the Hawks have is to accept the deal and then trade Niemi if there is interest. That remains to be seen.

With all of the minor tweaking done by the Hawks, they can probably stomach a cap hit of close to $3M for Niemi if they so choose. This might mean starting with 20 skaters on the opening night roster, but it is an option. Anything more than that, and the Hawks will walk away and sign either Marty Turco or Jose Theodore as a one year stop gap. My personal plan would be to sign either of those two to a $1.5-2M contract, save the additional cap space and if whomever you sign craps the bed during the year, you have a little bit of wiggle room at the trade deadline to acquire a better goaltender.

The Hawks have done well here to not give in to Niemi’s (or his agent Bill Zito’s demands). Bowman has done everything he reasonably could to free up more dollars to give to Niemi. It appears that wasn’t enough for Zito. Bottom line, if to create more room so Niemi can make $4M you have to trade Patrick Sharp or David Bolland, the correct response is thank you Antii for your performance last year, but we can’t do that and best of luck to you. That, and to tell Bill Zito to go F himself too.

We’ll see what the arbitrator decides here in the next day or two.

A precursor?

(c) Getty Images
Could a deal with Niemi be close?

On Thursday afternoon the Chicago Blackhawks sent Marty Reasoner to Florida for Jeffrey Taffe. Reasoner, acquired in the Dustin Byfuglien deal, ended his short time as a Blackhawk within a month of arriving in Chicago.

I’m sure that when the trade for Reasoner was made, Stan Bowman envisioned that Reasoner would be a poor-man’s version of John Madden for the 4th line, but at a bargain price of $1.15M. However, with other developments this offseason, it has become apparent that the Hawks do not have the luxury of paying $1.15M to a 4th line center this year due to their salary cap constraints.

I’d be lying if I said I knew a lot about Taffe. He’s bounced between a number of AHL teams and the big league in the Blues, Coyotes and Panthers organizations. His cap hit is $550K and he did play 21 games for the Panthers last year, so he may be a candidate for a 4th line job in Chicago next year. He’ll probably compete against Jake Dowell for the 4th line center spot. Should he lose the battle to Dowell the Hawks will waive Taffe and if he clears waivers he’d be assigned to Rockford.

So why make this deal today if you’re Bowman? Well, looking at the calendar we’re one week away from Antii Niemi’s arbitration date of July 29th. As outlined already on this blog, a way that the Hawks could free up some extra cap space for their 2010-11 roster is by getting rid of Reasoner’s $1.15M cap hit and replacing him with someone making $500K or so.

Am I of the opinion that this extra $600K saved is all going to Niemi? Not entirely, as this money could represent the extra cushion the Hawks need to carry for injuries next year, or for signing another Dman, etc. But given the timing of this deal, I think it’s more than likely that this deal has a lot to do with Niemi’s upcoming arbitration.

As outlined before on this blog, $2.75M was the magic number for Niemi. With the trade of Reasoner , the Hawks could potentially go to $3M or so on Niemi. Perhaps the Hawks can get Niemi signed for more than one year given the extra cap room. I’m sure Bowman would like to avoid the headache of trying to re-sign Niemi after next season if he could.

It remains to be seen whether Bowman elects to go to arbitration and use this extra cap space as a bit of a “cushion” in terms of how high the Hawks can go on the arbitrator's amount, or he uses this space to get a deal done before July 29th. Personally, I believe that the Reasoner trade indicates that there may be a solution to getting Niemi signed before July 29th. The next couple of days should be pretty interesting on the Niemi front.

More Skille Sightings in 2010-11?

(c) Julie Rubes
Perhaps you'll stay in Chicago for more than 4 games this time Jack..

The Blackhawks continue making minor moves as they re-signed restricted free agent Jack Skille to a one-year, $600K contract per the Chicago Sun-Times. I characterize this as another shrewd move by Bowman as he continues to try to find talented, cheap (the operative word) options to fill out the 2010-11 Blackhawks roster.

Skille was the Blackhawks first round selection in 2005. While his career to this point has not been what many Hawks fans have hoped for, Skille has made strides in the last couple of years while playing for the Hawks’ AHL affiliate in Rockford and a few call up games these last few years for the Hawks. In fact, he earned the nickname “I-Pass” this last season as early in the year the Hawks would bring Jack up for a game and then send him back to Rockford the next day in order to save a little money against the cap.

While on his entry-level contract, Skille’s cap hit was around $1.2M. With the Blackhawks operating close to the salary cap limit in the last couple of years, it can be said that having such a high cap number didn’t help his chances to make the big squad. I would not say this is the reason Skille wasn’t a regular in the Hawks lineup. He has had opportunities in the past to make impressions, but did not take advantage of them either. So it’s a little bit of missed opportunities on his part, and his high cap number that contributed to him playing in Rockford.

It appears that Skille and his agent were determined not to let a high cap number be an impediment to Skille reaching his NHL dreams. As a restricted free agent, the Hawks qualified Skille this offseason at a 10% raise of his base salary which would be close to $900K for the season. Skille could have signed this offer. However, with money tight in the Windy City this year, this $900K cap number might have worked against him in his efforts to make the Hawks. Recognizing that there are job opportunities for the Hawks and that money would be a factor, Skille was faced with the following decision:

a) Sign the qualifying offer, higher NHL money if he makes the NHL, but if he doesn’t, he gets paid an AHL salary of anywhere between $65-100K

b) Sign a cheaper NHL contract at $600K, thus increasing his chances to make the NHL as he’s a cheaper option now.

Skille obviously chose option B with the idea that making the NHL at $600K is better than not making the NHL (not getting the $900K then) and getting paid $60K in the AHL. He wants to get his NHL career started which probably leads to higher paydays in the future. I commend him for recognizing this.

This helps the Hawks as well obviously, as every couple hundred thousand saved is going to help, and could be used to help pay netminder Antii Niemi. I won’t go into another lineup projection today, but assuming both Skille and Makarov are ready to contribute at the NHL level, it gives the Hawks 2 kids making $1.1M combined who have some upside in addition to having a little more financial flexibility.

From Russia with Love? Some minor moves made in the last 24 Hours

(c) DailyMe
Brian Bickell isn't Russian, but he'll be in the Opening Night lineup



I know that I said I was going to hold out on projecting a lineup until we found out the result of the Niemi arbitration and a couple of the other minor signings. In the last day or two there has been a minor move and some news that has caught my attention.

First, Andy Strickland reports that the Hawks are closing in on a deal with Brian Bickell. This makes sense on a lot of levels, as Bickell has been serviceable everytime the Hawks have called him up including a couple of games in the Nashville series. He has skated with Toews and Kane before, but for next year’s team I see him on the 4th line with Jake Dowell. I do not foresee a high cap number for Bickell.

To go off on a tangent here, with the Hawks having the following combination: a) cap problems, b) a lot of job openings and c) a lot of prospects, some of these prospects are realizing that if they take slightly less money this year, it might improve their chances of making the NHL.

Following this logic, the Blackhawks made a very interesting signing either late last night or early today. The Blackhawks agreed to terms with 2006 second round selection Igor Makarov on a 2 year deal worth $552,500 per year. The contract has an European escape clause as well, which would most likely indicate if Makarov doesn’t make the Hawks he’d head back to Russia for a year.

It’s been a while since most Hawks fans have seen Makarov, as he’s spent the last couple of years in the KHL. He’s played on 3rd and 4th lines on his team as he was buried behind older, more experienced players. Whether or not this has stunted his development is unknown. Most Hawk fans (on message boards this writer frequents) who saw Makarov at earlier prospect camps came away very impressed and to some he looked like “a man amongst boys”. Keep in mind these were prospect camps that former Blackhawks such as Kris Versteeg attended.

For a better talent analysis on what Makarov brings to the table, Hockeys Future has a breakdown here.

What does this all mean? I think Makarov is going to have every chance to make the Hawks next year. He’s ahead of most Hawk prospects in the fact that he’s already spent a couple years playing against men 10 years older than him. From all accounts, he’s not like most Russian players and can play a 2 way game, is gritty, has good hands and can provide a little offence. Sound like someone who played on the third line last year who now plays for Toronto? I am by no means saying that Makarov will replace Versteeg because that would be crazy, but let’s just say I would not be surprised to see him slotted on that 3rd line come October. Plus there’s the great $553K cap hit that improves his chances even more.

Without getting into a detailed number crunch, assuming a cap number of close to $2.75M for Niemi from the arbitrator, and Makarov being able to contribute, this lineup would be very close to the cap (thanks to Hawkscap.com for a number breakdown and a base for which to work with):

Brouwer ($1.03M)-Toews ($6.3M)-Kane ($6.3M)
Stalberg ($0.85M)-Sharp ($3.9M)-Hossa ($5.28M)
Kopecky ($1.2M)-Bolland($3.38M)-Makarov ($0.53M)
Bickell ($0.6M*)- Reasoner ($1.15M)-Dowell ($0.53M)

Keith ($5.54M) – Seabrook ($3.5M)
Campbell ($7.14M) – Hjalmarsson ($3.5M)
D5 ($0.8M) – UFA Veteran D6 ($0.8M)
Scott ($0.51M)

Niemi ($2.75M)
Toivenen ($0.55M)

Forwards total: $31.0M
Defencemen total: $21.8M
Goaltenders total: $3.3M

Hawks Cap after $4.2M bonus penalty: $55.2M
Total of this lineup: $56.1M

D5 will be one of Lalonde or Visnevskiy.

This lineup is close, and works under the cap if Reasoner is waived, or if the Hawks decide to go with 20 players as opposed to 21 players (Scott moves up to the 4th line in this scenario). Money can also be saved on the UFA veteran D6 is signed for less than $0.8M.

So there’s a rough guess of the lineup as of July 14th, 2010. We continue to wait for other dominos to fall.

Mid-July Summary

(c) Getty Images
The Hammer will be in Chicago for a while

The first couple of weeks of July haven't been too crazy when it comes to the Hawks, but there have been a couple things going on.

Hawks match offer for Hjalmarsson

Late last week the San Jose Sharks decided to adopt the mantra of “if we can’t beat them on the ice we’ll beat them in the boardroom” and signed Niklas Hjalmsarsson to a 4 year $14 million offer sheet. All sarcasm aside, the move was understandable from the perspective of San Jose GM Doug Wilson as they are high on Hjalmarsson and it put the screws to the Hawks in terms of their well-documented cap problems.

Earlier today Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman announced that the Blackhawks will in fact match the offer to Hjalmarsson. I’ve stated many times on this blog that Hjalmarsson is a key part of this team going forward and should be kept around. It’s obvious that the Family Bowman feels the same way.

While the $3.5M cap hit really puts the Hawks in a bad spot for 2010-11, having Hammer locked up for 4 years is definitely a good thing. His game continues to progress leaps and bounds. Considering the fact that he’s only played around 100 games in the NHL and is a top 4 defenceman on the Stanley Cup champs says a lot about the kid’s potential. The Hawks were trying to get Hjalmarsson in at around $2.75M/$3M and I can’t blame him or his agent for trying to get a longer term deal for more money. At the end of the day this is a business. So while for year 1 and year 2 of this deal the $3.5M might be a slight overpayment, I’m of the opinion that by year 3 and 4 this deal will be a bargain.

Hjalmarsson is an important cog of the penalty kill and is sound defensively. The minutes he plays are also of the high-risk variety as he’s often paired with Brian Campbell who isn’t exactly known for his defensive prowess (although Soup did show improvement there this year). I still think Hammer has untapped offensive potential, and will grow in the physicality department as his frame fills out.

So bottom line, I’m happy Hammer is a Hawk for a long time. In a summer where every dollar counts however, this extra $750K or so that went to Niklas could force the Hawks into a tough decision.

Niemi heads to arbitration

The Hawks continue to negotiate with Antii Niemi on a contract that would keep the Finnish netminder in Chicago. Niemi, a restricted free agent, filed for arbitration and the hearing is set for July 29th.

The arbitrator will hear both sides and come to a decision on a one-year or two-year contract for Niemi. The Blackhawks at this time will have the option of accepting the arbitrator’s ruling or walking away, thus allowing Niemi to become an unrestricted free agent.

As things stand right now for the Hawks, they will continue to negotiate with Antii in the time leading up until the arbitration hearing and then will take their chances on the arbitrator ruling for a contract that the Hawks can stomach this season.

I’ve set that number in the $2.5-$2.75M range after some number crunching. In other words, if the arbitrator rules in that range or less, accept the deal and bring in Niemi for the year or two. If the arbitrator rules for an amount over that range, then you walk away if you’re the Hawks and Niemi becomes a free agent.

Before people start telling me I’m crazy, let’s take some perspective here. Based on the Hawks’ cap issues for 2010-11 it’s very likely that the Hawks will have a difficult time repeating anyways. You have to think about the long-term picture (namely 2011-12). If keeping Niemi leads to paying a price of losing a player like Patrick Sharp, then walk away from Niemi. The reasons for this are as follows:

a)This is not exactly a great market for UFA goaltenders. There really aren’t really a lot of starting goaltending gigs available out there, and after seeing goaltenders like Niemi and Michael Leighton in the Stanley Cup Finals, teams are starting to adopt the philosophy of spending less on goaltending. There are still notable names out there on the market such as Marty Turco and Jose Theodore who could fill in for the Hawks as a one-year stopgap. Whether Niemi gets the same amount of money the arbitrator set out from another team remains to be seen. But there are options out there for the Hawks who would come in at close to $2M or less for one year.

b)As mentioned, if you’re the Hawks, you have to think more towards 2011-12 in my mind. First, you get to spend the same as everyone else in the NHL instead of having this $4.2M in bonus penalty carrying over. Second, all the young prospects who will be filling out the roster this year are going to be one year older and one year wiser. The future is still bright for the Hawks despite their issues for 2010-11. You could always go with the stop gap for next year in net, and then in 2011-12 the following goaltenders are available in UFA: JS Gigure, Tomas Vokoun, Ilya Bryzgalov, Craig Anderson and Jimmy Howard.

I guess in a worse case scenario you can go with Hannu Toivenen and Corey Crawford in net for a combined $1.3M, keep $1M in cap space and then acquire a goaltender at the deadline. I wouldn’t recommend this however.

So to summarize, if the Hawks do not get a favorable ruling on the arbitrator they have to walk away from Niemi, allow him to become a UFA and then find a goaltender this year in UFA for cheaper (Niemi is still an option here as outlined above). I prefer this option as compared to keeping Niemi over Patrick Sharp.

Who knows, maybe the arbitrator’s ruling is a good one for the Hawks. It’ll be the first thing that’s gone right this summer for the Hawks since June 9th.

Prospect Camp

The Hawks held their annual prospect camp and from all accounts the kids were working hard and trying to impress the Blackhawks brass. There is a realistic possibility that 3-4 of the kids there this weekend will be on the Hawks roster next year due to the aforementioned cap problems.

From most accounts, a couple players that stood out were defencemen Shaun Lalonde and Nick Leddy, as well as Swedish center Marcus Kruger. Lalonde has a chance to make the squad next year while Leddy and Kruger are still most likely a year or two away.

For a better summary of prospect camp, this writeup at committedindians.com gives a rundown of what happened this weekend.


So, the summer drags on. As more smaller signings are made (Bickell, Skille, Hendry?), etc, it’ll be easier to project a lineup. The most important domino is Niemi now. We’ll have to see how it plays out.

The Final Cut is the Deepest

(c)Getty Images
The Sedins and Ryan Kesler won't miss you Andrew, but us Hawks fans sure will.

Two years ago pretty much to the day, the Blackhawks decided to make a splash in free agency signing Cristobal Huet and Brian Campbell to huge contracts. Knowledgeable Hawks fans realized that in two years, when the contracts for Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith were up that the Hawks were going to have to lose some pieces of their team.

Fast forward to the present and that’s exactly what has happened. The Blackhawks completed (for the most part) making moves to get under the 2010-11 salary cap with the trades of Kris Versteeg to Toronto and Andrew Ladd to Atlanta. Both players will be missed without question. Versteeg, while extremely frustrating at times, is gritty and a very solid NHL player capable of slotting in on a 2nd or 3rd line for a team. Ladd is the type of player that winning teams have. A player whose contributions are rarely noticed on a boxscore, but contributions that are always noticed by teammates and coaches. The guy is a winner plain and simple.

It’s easy to sit here and blame Campbell and Huet’s contracts as the reason the Hawks have lost Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg in the last 2 weeks. It’s partially accurate too. Or we can blame the RFA fiasco last summer on forcing this upon the Hawks. This is also partially accurate. Some fault definitely lies with the Hawks for creating this mess they were in.

Before you completely lay the blame there however, remember that if Campbell doesn’t come back early from injury, the Hawks might have been out to Nashville in Round 1. Remember the fact that if certain players aren’t slightly overpaid on RFA contracts when they were signed (Bolland, Sharp, Versteeg, Buff, etc), the Hawks are not hoisting the Stanley Cup. The Hawks took some risks to try to win the Stanley Cup before the Cap Armegeddon hit, and they did it. As I've said many times before, I take the tradeoff of some cap problems down the road if it means we've hoisted the Cup any day of the week.

The salary cap is what it is. Every team has to play by the same rules and I can accept that. The invoking of the salary cap has allowed teams from all over the league to be competitive. This, coupled with certain on-ice rule changes and an influx of charismatic young stars has the NHL is the best position it’s been in for a very long time.

As I said at the top, we all knew this day was coming. Knowing that it’s coming doesn’t make it any easier to digest, but here we are. What’s funny is that Huet’s contract isn’t the main reason (because he’s going to Europe or the minors and will be off the books regardless) the Hawks had to dump Versteeg and Ladd in the last couple days. The knockout blow for the Hawks was the fact that roughly $4M in bonuses payable to Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane (for winning the Conn Smythe and finishing top 10 in points respectively) is deducted off next year’s cap for the Hawks, leaving them at $55.2M to work with when the rest of the league has $59.4M.

This is the only thing that irritates me about this situation. The Hawks are being punished for their players having success. I’m not going to get into an in depth salary cap and CBA discussion, but just think about that from a high level perspective there for a second. I understand how the bonus cushion works and if you use it in one year has to come off a future year’s cap. Fair enough. But the CBA should allow some sort of flexibility in how this penalty is applied. Maybe allowing teams to spread it out over two years (much like how buyouts work) is an idea to be explored. Because the Hawks players were successful, one of Buff or Versteeg and Ladd are not going to be on the Hawks roster next year. It’s a little frustrating to say the least.

Reality is though, that it is what it is (to steal a saying from my cousin) and the Hawks will have to move on. Who knows, maybe the NHL and NHLPA in the next round of CBA negotiations will look at what happened with the Hawks and how they had to dismantle their Stanley Cup team and figure out a way to minimize the penalty for being successful.

There’s no question that the Hawks will be a weaker team in 2010-11 than they were in 2009-10. Buff, Versteeg and Ladd were all contributors to the Hawks' success and will be missed. But I credit Stan Bowman for doing a pretty good job given a difficult situation. Bowman was able to accumulate a number of picks and solid prospects in return for these players, and in a manner of speaking sold high on each of his 3 assets.

The Hawks core is still one of the best in the league, if not the best. When your forwards consist of players like Toews, Kane, Sharp, Hossa, Bolland and your top 4 Dmen are Keith, Seabrook, Campbell and Hjalmarsson, you’re going to be alright. So it obviously isn’t all doom and gloom for Hawks fans. What the Hawks need is a couple of these kids to develop into solid contributors. They’re not going to be asked to be superstars for the Hawks. They are going to be asked to out there and do their job.

The Hawks do lose a bit of grit and toughness with the losses of Buff, Versteeg and Ladd, but this is where guys like Jake Dowell, Bryan Bickell and Kyle Beach will have an opportunity to contribute.

At the end of the day, there’s no sugar coating it. The Hawks will miss all three of those players next year and on behalf of Hawks fans everywhere we wish them nothing but the best. It’s important however not to lose sight of the fact that the Hawks will still be a good team and the future is still very bright. The next entry will be another stab at next year’s roster and the prospects that will be competing for jobs with the Hawks in the next year or two. I’m going to hold off a couple days on that to allow for additional chips to fall from the start of the unrestricted free agency period.