I wrote a few weeks ago about the culmination of the NHL playoffs and how it was likely the champion Chicago Blackhawks were likely to be broken up this coming summer. Today saw probably the last moves to fit themselves under next year's salary cap; the changes have been far more widespread than any Chicago fan would have thought about two months ago.
Here's last season's playoff lineup:
Forwards:
Kane-Toews-Byfuglien
Kopecky-Sharp-Hossa
Ladd-Bolland-Versteeg
Eager-Madden-Brouwer
Defence:
Keith-Seabrook
Hjalmarsson-Campbell
Hendry-Sopel
Goal:
Niemi
Huet
Lots of goalscoring depth, role players, grit, old heads. You name it, this team had it. Except a reliable goalie, perhaps. It became obvious not long into last season they'd be the team to beat. But winning has created a number of problems. First of all, a bit of history. Chicago last made the Stanley Cup final in 1992. There then followed a long spell of finishing among the also rans in the league as owner Bill Wirtz refused to play top dollar for players. The crowds stayed away and so he had to keep the salary at a minimum to minimise the debt, and so the vicious circle went around again. Eventually, such a prolonged period of failure reaped rewards in the draft. Teams pick in reverse order according to their final position in the regular season. Along came, among others, Patrick Kane (1st overall, 2007), Jonathan Toews (3rd overall 2006), Duncan Keith (54th overall, 2002), Brent Seabrook (12th overall, 2003) and others. Entry level contracts can only be signed up to a league maximum. Bonuses for performance can be added, but count against the salary cap if they have to be paid out. So it comes to pass that Chicago must pay $4.1m out in bonuses against a salary cap of $59.4m this season. That's comparable to a couple of third line forwards, a top 6 forward or, a top 4 defenceman. There's problem number 1.
Problem number two came as the entry level contracts of Kane, Toews, and Keith expired this season. Entry level contracts can only be three years long; after such time the player and team must re-negotiate with the protection of draft picks if they move to another team if agreement can't be reached. Kane's average cap salary went from $3.7 to $6.3m, Toews from $2.8m to $6.3m, and Keith's from $1.48m to $5.5m almost $10m more. Room would have to be made against the salary cap. In Chicago's case, they had a number of the supporting cast that would be attractive to other sides. They also had a pair of contractual albatrosses; French goalie Cristobal Huet ($5.6m a year), and defenceman Brian Campbell ($7.1m a year, roughly $2m more than he's worth). Both were 'shopped' among the other 29 sides. No takers. Chicago will bury Huet in the minor league AHL team, on full salary but not counting against the salary cap of the senior team. That's $5m of the $10m back. Campbell also has a no move clause in his contract, so they're stuck with him. It can't be reiterated enough just how much trouble those contracts are causing.
Instead, they had to move the supporting cast. Kris Versteeg and a prospect were traded to Toronto for Viktor Stalberg and two prospects; this was a net salary dump of $2.2m. Versteeg's contract is somewhat inflated seeing as there was an administrative bungle by the Blackhawks with his (and other) qualifying offers last season which essentially meant he was an unrestricted, rather than restricted free agent and so he had to be tendered a second, higher offer lest he sign for another team. As we'll see, every $250,000 here and there would become so very important. In the same week, playoff warhorse Dustin Byfuglien (11 goals in the playoffs), Ben Eager and Brent Sopel were traded to the useless Atlanta Thrashers (I mean, what sort of a reward is that?!) for fourth line forward Marty Reasoner and a prospect. That was a net salary dump of about $4.2m. Andrew Ladd was then traded to Atlanta for prospect defenceman Ivan Vishnevskiy and a draft pick that worked out as a further $1.5m salary dump after Ladd agreed a contract with Atlanta. Fourth line centre John Madden's $2.75m a year contract was not renewed. So far, so bad for the third and fourth lines.
We've just touched on the RFA Ladd being moved because a new contract would be too high. So we came to RFAs Niklas Hjalmarsson and Antti Niemi. Hjalmarsson earned $0.8m last season as a player who could play long minutes and keep the door shut as Campbell wandered up the ice in attack. He was due a hefty raise. At this point, enter stage left, the General Manager of the San Jose Sharks, Doug Wilson. Wilson submitted an offer sheet to Hjalmarsson of $3.5m a year. Chicago had a week to either match the offer, or accept the draft picks (a 1st and a 3rd, determined by the contract value) as compensation. Chicago matched the offer, thus swallowing up some of their hard won cap space into the bargain. A very very sneaky thing for Wilson to do to hobble one of their main rivals, but he is paid to make SJ the best team in the conference and get them to their first cup final. As a result, the only just acquired Reasoner (he was there about two weeks!) was then traded to Florida for AHL/NHL inbetweener Jeff Taffe in another net salary dump of $0.7m.
Negotiations then turned to Niemi. He also earned $0.8m last season. The two sides couldn't agree a contract, and the arbitrator set a value of $2.75m a year for one year. Chicago balked at this and said 'on your way, then' and signed the erratic former Dallas goalie Marty Turco on a one year deal at $1.3m. They now have just short of $3m to fill four or five roster spots with youngsters in the system to have a squad of 23 on opening night. In the meantime, it would surprise no-one at all if Niemi surfaced in San Jose to former a goalie tandem there with fellow Finn Antero Niittymaki .They had let Evgeni Nabokov go following the shellacking he got against Canada in the Olympics, after which he was not the same. Very very clever on Wilson's part if that was the reason he made the offer sheet to Hjalmarsson.
So the Chicago Blackhawks of 2010-11 then, with slightly speculative line combinations:
Forward:
Kane-Toews-Brouwer
Sharp-Kopecky-Hossa
Stalberg-Bolland-Beach
Skille-Dowell-Bickell
Defence:
Keith-Seabrook
Hjalmarsson-Campbell
Hendry-Vishnevskiy
Goal:
Turco
Crawford
They have two good forward lines, two good defensive pairs and yet at the same time huge question marks in goal. A first championship in 49 years followed by complete destruction of their forward corps. They are still a useful looking team on paper, but are much much weakened as compared to this time last year, thus ensuring the Western Conference is a bit more spread out this year. Lesson to other teams: Calgary GM Darryl Sutter may be a bit of laughing stock at present for some, er, interesting moves in the last year, but he almost never gets involved in free agent frenzy on July 1st for fear of ending up with a Huet or a Campbell on the books for several years. Others should take note!
Here's last season's playoff lineup:
Forwards:
Kane-Toews-Byfuglien
Kopecky-Sharp-Hossa
Ladd-Bolland-Versteeg
Eager-Madden-Brouwer
Defence:
Keith-Seabrook
Hjalmarsson-Campbell
Hendry-Sopel
Goal:
Niemi
Huet
Lots of goalscoring depth, role players, grit, old heads. You name it, this team had it. Except a reliable goalie, perhaps. It became obvious not long into last season they'd be the team to beat. But winning has created a number of problems. First of all, a bit of history. Chicago last made the Stanley Cup final in 1992. There then followed a long spell of finishing among the also rans in the league as owner Bill Wirtz refused to play top dollar for players. The crowds stayed away and so he had to keep the salary at a minimum to minimise the debt, and so the vicious circle went around again. Eventually, such a prolonged period of failure reaped rewards in the draft. Teams pick in reverse order according to their final position in the regular season. Along came, among others, Patrick Kane (1st overall, 2007), Jonathan Toews (3rd overall 2006), Duncan Keith (54th overall, 2002), Brent Seabrook (12th overall, 2003) and others. Entry level contracts can only be signed up to a league maximum. Bonuses for performance can be added, but count against the salary cap if they have to be paid out. So it comes to pass that Chicago must pay $4.1m out in bonuses against a salary cap of $59.4m this season. That's comparable to a couple of third line forwards, a top 6 forward or, a top 4 defenceman. There's problem number 1.
Problem number two came as the entry level contracts of Kane, Toews, and Keith expired this season. Entry level contracts can only be three years long; after such time the player and team must re-negotiate with the protection of draft picks if they move to another team if agreement can't be reached. Kane's average cap salary went from $3.7 to $6.3m, Toews from $2.8m to $6.3m, and Keith's from $1.48m to $5.5m almost $10m more. Room would have to be made against the salary cap. In Chicago's case, they had a number of the supporting cast that would be attractive to other sides. They also had a pair of contractual albatrosses; French goalie Cristobal Huet ($5.6m a year), and defenceman Brian Campbell ($7.1m a year, roughly $2m more than he's worth). Both were 'shopped' among the other 29 sides. No takers. Chicago will bury Huet in the minor league AHL team, on full salary but not counting against the salary cap of the senior team. That's $5m of the $10m back. Campbell also has a no move clause in his contract, so they're stuck with him. It can't be reiterated enough just how much trouble those contracts are causing.
Instead, they had to move the supporting cast. Kris Versteeg and a prospect were traded to Toronto for Viktor Stalberg and two prospects; this was a net salary dump of $2.2m. Versteeg's contract is somewhat inflated seeing as there was an administrative bungle by the Blackhawks with his (and other) qualifying offers last season which essentially meant he was an unrestricted, rather than restricted free agent and so he had to be tendered a second, higher offer lest he sign for another team. As we'll see, every $250,000 here and there would become so very important. In the same week, playoff warhorse Dustin Byfuglien (11 goals in the playoffs), Ben Eager and Brent Sopel were traded to the useless Atlanta Thrashers (I mean, what sort of a reward is that?!) for fourth line forward Marty Reasoner and a prospect. That was a net salary dump of about $4.2m. Andrew Ladd was then traded to Atlanta for prospect defenceman Ivan Vishnevskiy and a draft pick that worked out as a further $1.5m salary dump after Ladd agreed a contract with Atlanta. Fourth line centre John Madden's $2.75m a year contract was not renewed. So far, so bad for the third and fourth lines.
We've just touched on the RFA Ladd being moved because a new contract would be too high. So we came to RFAs Niklas Hjalmarsson and Antti Niemi. Hjalmarsson earned $0.8m last season as a player who could play long minutes and keep the door shut as Campbell wandered up the ice in attack. He was due a hefty raise. At this point, enter stage left, the General Manager of the San Jose Sharks, Doug Wilson. Wilson submitted an offer sheet to Hjalmarsson of $3.5m a year. Chicago had a week to either match the offer, or accept the draft picks (a 1st and a 3rd, determined by the contract value) as compensation. Chicago matched the offer, thus swallowing up some of their hard won cap space into the bargain. A very very sneaky thing for Wilson to do to hobble one of their main rivals, but he is paid to make SJ the best team in the conference and get them to their first cup final. As a result, the only just acquired Reasoner (he was there about two weeks!) was then traded to Florida for AHL/NHL inbetweener Jeff Taffe in another net salary dump of $0.7m.
Negotiations then turned to Niemi. He also earned $0.8m last season. The two sides couldn't agree a contract, and the arbitrator set a value of $2.75m a year for one year. Chicago balked at this and said 'on your way, then' and signed the erratic former Dallas goalie Marty Turco on a one year deal at $1.3m. They now have just short of $3m to fill four or five roster spots with youngsters in the system to have a squad of 23 on opening night. In the meantime, it would surprise no-one at all if Niemi surfaced in San Jose to former a goalie tandem there with fellow Finn Antero Niittymaki .They had let Evgeni Nabokov go following the shellacking he got against Canada in the Olympics, after which he was not the same. Very very clever on Wilson's part if that was the reason he made the offer sheet to Hjalmarsson.
So the Chicago Blackhawks of 2010-11 then, with slightly speculative line combinations:
Forward:
Kane-Toews-Brouwer
Sharp-Kopecky-Hossa
Stalberg-Bolland-Beach
Skille-Dowell-Bickell
Defence:
Keith-Seabrook
Hjalmarsson-Campbell
Hendry-Vishnevskiy
Goal:
Turco
Crawford
They have two good forward lines, two good defensive pairs and yet at the same time huge question marks in goal. A first championship in 49 years followed by complete destruction of their forward corps. They are still a useful looking team on paper, but are much much weakened as compared to this time last year, thus ensuring the Western Conference is a bit more spread out this year. Lesson to other teams: Calgary GM Darryl Sutter may be a bit of laughing stock at present for some, er, interesting moves in the last year, but he almost never gets involved in free agent frenzy on July 1st for fear of ending up with a Huet or a Campbell on the books for several years. Others should take note!
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