BLACKHAWKS WALK AWAY FROM NIEMI; SIGN TURCO TO ONE-YEAR DEAL
The Chicago Blackhawks have walked away from the $2.75 million contract that was awarded to Antti Niemi in arbitration, which makes the Stanley Cup-winning goalie an unrestricted free agent.
Instead, the Blackhawks have signed veteran netminder Marty Turco to a one-year, $1.3 million contract.
The Aftermath In Chicago : An Alternative To The FiresaleWhat a difference a month makes. Four weeks ago, the Blackhawks were the most stacked team in the league, boasting elite talent in every position, and every role. Now, they have lost toughness from the bottom half of the roster in the form of Ben Eager and Adam Burrish. They've lost hard-nosed warriors and checking line heroes in John Madden and Andrew Ladd. They lost top six scoring in Kris Versteeg, and one of the better role-players in the West in Dustin Byfuglien. They even lost depth in the form of Colin Fraser, and Brent Sopel. And yet still, there is more loss to come
Blackhawks GM: Sharp isn't going anywhere Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said Monday that there's still work to be done to solve the team's salary-cap troubles and admitted "as of right now we don't have a solution."
Whatever Bowman comes up with as he continues negotiations with goaltender Antti Niemi, it won't include trading veteran forward Patrick Sharp.
"I told (Sharp) he can relax, he's not going anywhere," Bowman said before the premiere of "Chicago Blackhawks 2010 Stanley Cup Championship" DVD at Navy Pier. "He's a big part of this. He means a lot to us on the ice and off the ice."
Hawks match Sharks' offer sheet for HjalmarssonNiklas Hjalmarsson is a Blackhawk and will be for some time.
General manager Stan Bowman wasn't about to let the San Jose Sharks -- perennial contenders in the Western Conference -- steal the Hawks' promising young defenseman.
So Bowman announced Monday the Hawks are matching the Sharks' four-year, $14 million offer sheet that Hjalmarsson, a restricted free agent, signed last week.
Congrats To The Chicago Blackhawks....Now The Vultures Circle Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, Chicago's in quite a bind. They have a huge bullseye on their back, and not just because they'll skate next season with the "defending Cup champ" tag on them. Thanks to some mis-management and foolish free agent signings the Blackhawks are in quite the pickle. They have about $57.6 million on the salary cap next season accounting for just 15 players, with the expected salary cap at the $58.8 million range, give or take a little.
Warning: Vultures about to circle Just hours before the Blackhawks took on the Flyers in Game 3 here Wednesday night, the league's general managers met in a downtown hotel and then raced to the Wachovia Center to watch the Stanley Cup Finals.
They discussed, of course, toughening penalties on head shots, and pondered other rules like the idiotic trapezoid, and the popular shootout that's become much more prevalent than they imagined.
"We never thought there would be this many," said Toronto GM Brian Burke. "The fans like it and we're glad the fans like it, but it's a skill game not a hockey game.
Hossa a controversial hero It looked for a while on Saturday like Chicago forward
Marian Hossa might be the biggest reason the Blackhawks lost a critical Game 5 in their Western Conference playoff series.
Instead, it was
Hossa who wound up getting mobbed by teammates after his goal 4:07 into overtime produced the Blackhawks' 5-4 victory over the Predators at United Center.
Hossa leaves game with injury in 2nd period Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said he was worried the Blues, freshly eliminated from the playoffs, would play with reckless abandon and potentially cause problems for the Blackhawks.
There was no need for such concern — at least for half the game.
