Mid-July Summary

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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.