I was planning to type something about The Hawks' wants & needs early next week but, with the dominoes beginning to fall already, maybe I'll get after it now. Before I get started allow me to state:
1) I'm winging this, so it might veer off occasionally
2) I have only the most vague notion of how much cap space The Hawks possess and have almost no understanding of the byzantine manipulations that Hawks GM Stan Bowman has employed to save / spend / create / destroy said cap space
3) I'm not convinced that The Hawks require much, if anything, so I'll talk about other stuff, mostly
The first shoe dropped earlier this week when The Penguins scooped veteran D Ron Hainsey out of Carolina for some guy who has to go play in Carolina. This was presumably because Olli Maata is hurt again and Kris Letang is always a stern look away from being injured, so it's an insurance/depth move. They sure didn't rush to snag Hainsey because of his vast playoff experience as he has, rather unbelievably, managed to never play a playoff game in his 14-year career.
Then today, The Ducks and The Stars cut to the chase, with Dallas dispatching one of the most talked-about pending free agents and coveted playoff rental , Patrick Eaves. More about Dallas, shortly.
Was hoping to go to San Jose to get bulk pricing on beard wax or whisker juice or what have you.
The Hawks got in on the fun today, as well. Sort of. Inbound is one Tomas Jurco, formerly a top prospect for Detroit who has yet to get it together in parts of four seasons, in exchange for a third-rounder and bus ticket to Rockford for Vinnie Hinostroza. This doesn't feel like an upgrade, as this move really just swaps in a fourth-liner, as Jurco has managed only 16 games this season due to off-season surgery and has not registered a point. Apparently he's got some speed and, at 6'2" 190 lbs, provides a little extra size should a playoff series require that sort of thing.
What I find more interesting than who is Buying is which teams will be Selling, as the hunt for the Wild Card spots are as hotly contested as I can recall. In the East there is really only one spot up for grabs, but there are currently five or six teams on the outside but within spitting distance of the eighth seed. Right now, the easiest route to a playoff berth is to simply win the Atlantic Division, and there are up to five clubs in position to pull that off. Carolina might be the first Eastern team to have identified as sellers but, then again, it's just Ron Hainsey, so far. It's chaos over there, I tells ya, and because of all this uncertainty and the already rather thin pool of presumably available pending UFAs, this Trade Deadline Day is shaping up to a sellers' market, with a few teams possibly overpaying vastly for second-tier players. When reports state that "teams" are inquiring about the likes of Kyle Quincey and Brendan Smith, well, the pool is shallow to say the least.
I've been enjoying some of the more lurid headlines on the sports news websites:
If the Habs don’t make deadline moves they’re in big trouble
Well, here's a theory: The Habs are probably in big trouble even if they make a move or two. First, they have almost nothing to offer in exchange apart from draft picks. Markov and Beaulieu are the only pending UFAs on the team right now and Montréal seem to like them, for some reason. Even if they were up for grabs, what could they possibly expect that would upgrade them? As Carey Price goes, so go Les Canadiens and, while it's not yet a death spiral, it's conceivable almost certain that they will be battling for that aforementioned Wild Card spot in four or five weeks.
It will be interesting to see what The Maple Leafs get up to, or choose not to get up to.
TSN and SportsNet have entire teams of freaks devoted solely to writing wildly speculative pieces on what The Leafs (and to a lesser extent, the other Canadian teams) need to do in order to ensure a playoff berth. Sticking with The Leafs, what can they afford to give up that will actually be an upgrade? There are nearly-daily articles pitching James Van Riemsdyk as trade bait....but for what? JVR is a fine, if inconsistent player but, are any of the very few quality players thought to be available any better? Even William Nylander's name keeps being brought up. What? Are they aware at all of Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello's general directive? This is a franchise that tinkered endlessly, have been awful for years and now, with a bucket of bona-fide future superstars just starting to come on-song, by all means, keep doing that tinkering, 'cos it's been working great so far. It's clear that Lamoriello, team president Brendan Shanahan and head coach Mike Babcock have studied the rise of The Blackhawks over the last decade and find their team in a remarkably similar position to that of The Hawks in 2008-on. They're going to add players as they can while retaining what will constitute their Core for the next 5-10 seasons, just as The Hawks did. They'll even have the benefit of hindsight, should they identify any flaws in The Hawks' franchise-building. These guys are not dummies, and I fully expect them to take a patient approach, hope to make the playoffs with what they have, but not kick themselves over any short-term deal they didn't make. JVR can stay put, at least until The Leafs' young guns get new contracts and salary cap becomes an issue.
As fun as it is to mock The Leafs, I think they'll be the next Canadian powerhouse franchise, providing they exercise that patience and resist rising to the prodding of the fans and media. Marc Bergevin, in Montréal, hasn't the confidence to resist and will, I think, continue to keep The Habs simmering in mediocrity for the duration of his tenure.
The Canadian sports media have also been chirping about teams such as Phoenix and Buffalo being in remedial rebuilding phases, yet they're also droning on about these same teams using their young prospects - we're talking Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Evander Kane - as chips to assist these rebuilds. Talking out of both sides of their mouths.
Things are a little more clear in The West, with only LA and Winnipeg within reasonable proximity of Nashville and Calgary, who are holding the seventh and eighth seeds at the moment. Even then, Winnipeg are in tough, having played 2-3 more games than the teams immediately ahead of them. Vancouver isn't necessarily out of the picture, points-wise, but are on a downward trajectory right now, with a dash of a mumps epidemic on the side.
This just in: Canucks GM Jim Benning has folded his hand. He's canvassing his players with No-Trade clauses for lists of teams they would accept a trade to.
Next in line is Dallas who, in dealing pending UFA Eaves, have cashed in their chips for this year, so look for them to continue to sell off what the can, what they figure they don't need, and perhaps parlay those assets into a young goalie who might be less awful than the screen doors they have working there now.
SO, what about The Hawks? What do they need? Who is out there to fill that need? Well, not much and even less, respectively and, given the tight confines of The Hawks' salary cap position, they probably cannot do much, anyway. At most, The Hawks could use one more forward and possibly one more defenceman. But who is actually up for grabs that could be slotted into the existing lineup that would improve the team, and can they afford them, anyway?
Dallas is selling and they possess a couple of pending UFAs that are known quantities in Patrick Sharp and Johnny Oduya. Neither are the worst idea, but Sharpie's $5.9 mil, even pro-rata'd, might be too much to bear and Oduya is currently on the DL. There also might be some reluctance to again be raked over the coals by that particular team.
Vancouver, suddenly, appears to be selling and Jannik Hansen might be a good fit, being roughly along the lines of Richard Panik but with considerably more sense in his head. One risks contaminating the team with mumps, however...
My totally-spitballing-make-a-wish acquisition would be Paul Byron from Montréal. He's versatile, among the fastest skaters in the show and, with a salary of $1.6 mil, completely affordable. He is not a UFA, however, for another year, and Montréal seem to like and trust him...
Of course, I'm the idiot who pitched for Dale Weise last year, and that was awesome.
I hope that wasn't too incoherent. Catch ya on Sunday.
