Black Armband Time is Over: Black Hawks Update

As soon as the season ended (that is, the second The Hawks were eliminated) I resolved to write an exhaustive To-do List, a Wish List of sorts, outlining the off-season tasks that must be made before next October.

Well, I forgot.  Or I was too lazy.  Or both, plus some other stuff.  Anyway, since a lot of tinkering has been done since I last weighed in this kind of thing AND it's all been written to death in the last few weeks...this To-do list will be mercifully short. 

I cannot really argue with the work that has already been done.  Pretty much all of these things would have been on my List:
- Re-sign Ben Smith, Jeremy Morin and Peter Regin.  I had concerns that Morin and Regin would be jettisoned so it pleased me to end that I was right all along.  I think.
- Pack Brandon Bollig into a space capsule and send it rocketing toward the sun.  Or Calgary.  Either way, he won't bother anyone ever again.
- Decline to re-up Michal Handzus.
- Obtain a second line center, who turned out to be Brad Richards.  Not a terrible option, although one that could boom or bust depending on how he is deployed and on what kind of chemistry he develops with whichever wingers he ends up with.  I had my heart set on Paul Stastny and it pisses me off to end that he ended up in St. Louis, but I also realize that landing Stastny would necessitate getting rid of at least one highly paid asset in order to stay under the salary cap.  At $2Mil on a low-risk one year deal Richards is a very good risk.

The Hawks remain approximately $2.2Mil over the salary cap, however, so someone will have to go.  The names that keep coming up are Johnny Oduya ($3.5Mil) and Kris Versteeg ($2.2Mil), both of whom make perfect sense.  Versteeg was a failed experiment in that merely being back in the 312 Area Code failed to make him smarter or more willing to pass the puck.  The challenge with this will be finding someone, anyone, who will take him.  If a taker is found I suppose the best we can expect would be a mid-round draft pick...if that.  Every GM in the league knows it's a salary dump and they will set the terms.
As for Oduya, my view is that his ship has sailed.  Too often he was The Hawks' weakest defender yet, until late in the playoffs, continued to hold down that middle pairing, shut-down role, even when he was floundering.  For what he's earning The Hawks are far better off promoting Stephen Johns, Klas Dahlbeck or Adam Clendenning.  Or better yet, give Nick Leddy a crack at second pairing minutes.  I fully expect all three of these youngsters to appear in a Hawks uniform at some point this season, if not as a regular then at least in a rotation with Michal Rozsival, who will celebrate his 63rd birthday soon.  There's a good chance that David Rundblad or the newly-obtained Kyle Cumiskey will be handed the 6b/7th man position, but I don't see either of these fellows being a reasonable long term solution.  We can only hope that when Rundblad and/or Cumiskey fail to deliver the mail that the three youngsters are inserted decisively and given every chance to screw up as much as those other two ersatz veterans.
Edit: The other important point where Oduya is concerned is that he has one year remaining on his contract.  Is he necessary?  If not, best to trade him now while The Hawks can get something in return rather than retain him for 2014-2015 and see him become a free agent at season's end.

That's all.  Projected 2014-2015 lines and pairings will follow once the smoke clears.