The facts are thus:
-
Nick Leddy (and minor-league goaltender Kent Simpson) were traded to The Islanders for three prospects not even worth mentioning at this time.
- On the strength of one pre-season game in which he was punched out by Tanner Glass,
Daniel Carcillo has been signed to a one-year contract.
Regarding Leddy, sure, something had to give, it just seems weird that it was Leddy to be sent packing and not
Johnny Oduya. This does solve the Cap Crisis but still only leaves $500K cap space. Perhaps there were no takers for Oduya, or maybe Coach Quenneville made it clear he wanted Oduya to remain; Q had not shown much confidence in Leddy during the last two playoff runs and there certainly some merit in keeping the Oduya/Hjalmarsson pair intact, if only to soak up the hardest minutes and therefore allow Duncan Keith to worry about other things. I had kind of hoped that Leddy would someday be paired up with Hjalmarsson, which would have allowed Leddy a little more rope to move the puck and, maybe, just maybe, some of Hjalmarsson's good habits would rub off on Leddy. All academic now, I'm afraid.
Of immediate concern is what now becomes of the third defense pairing? This move practically forces The Hawks to carry eight defenseman; does anyone think that
Michal Rozsival is up to playing any more than 50 games? Three candidates remain in camp;
Kyle Cumiskey, David Rundblad and
Trevor Van Riemsdyk. TVR has been, apparently, the surprise of training camp, and that he's still around whilst the likes of Clendenning, Dahlbeck and Johns have been reassigned to Rockford speaks volumes. Probably. It appears that GM Stan Bowman is convinced that Rundblad is a sure thing, while Cumiskey is a player known to Coach Q from their days in Colorado. As good as he has reportedly been, TVR may well be on the outside looking in. Any way it shakes out (and I picture the coaching staff having a hotel room-key raffle to decide which two suckers will make up the third pairing) the opening night third pairing will be a nightmare. On the road, in Dallas, The Stars have last change and will have their way with whoever draws this assignment.
Until Rundblad or TVR (the Cumiskey experiment will fail, one hopes) emerges as the go-to guy and the other adopts the role of propping up Rozsie The Hawks are committed to an eight-man rotation.
(EDIT: what the hell was I thinking about eight defensemen? That'll teach me to write these when I'm tired and/or drunk. Seven. Seven defensemen.)
As for Carcillo...how stupid is this? I'm not prepared to condemn Brandon Mashinter as he's done nothing to disgrace himself, yet, and I cannot hold him responsible for sucking up a roster spot, but I was prepared for him to get a chance to fail, at least. Parachuting Carcillo in, ostensibly to fill the role Mashinter had presumably squared away makes absolutely no sense to me. If one takes Mashinter and Carcillo out of the equation, and The Hawks instead ice the best lineup hey have available, they would easily have the best fourth line in the entire NHL.
Marcus Kruger and
Ben Smith are givens, of course, and whether they're trotted out with
Jeremy Morin or
Peter Regin it's an undeniable winning combination. Morin has above average hands and an almost reckless willingness toward physical play, while Regin lacks the scoring touch that Morin possesses he does have excellent defensive instincts and never, ever takes a shift off. Inserting slow, out-of-position and on his way to the penalty box Carcillo is a colossal step backward.
Worst of all, they have to pay this idiot. Details of Carcillo's contract have not yet been revealed, but chances are good that he'll earn enough to still push The Hawks above the salary cap. Is another move necessary? Will Morin and/or Regin be criminally assigned to Rockford?
However it shakes out, GM Stan Bowman had the solution to his cap issues within his grasp, and then let it slip away. One can only hope there's a Part II to this misadventure.
