So Long, Krugs

Well, part two of the Expansion Draft deal that was cooked up between The Hawks and The Las Vegas Goldenrods finally went off today, with Marcus Kruger's $3 Mil salary departing to Nevada in exchange for "Future Considerations" (read: nothing).

                                   No, kids, it only looks like Al Secord.

So, where are we at? Currently, $600K below cap but with only 21 of 23 roster spots filled, although the Hossa cap-relief story is still being plotted.
I was right on a couple of predictions in the past week or two and ridiculously wrong on some others (like Joe Thornton being had for $4 Mil or less...and he got $8 Mil today!) but that's not slowing me down!  
Stan is done with the defense and will staff from within, beginning with Rutta and Forsling and a side of Ville Pokka.
I expect Rozsie to retire.
Stan will be looking for an affordable center, one that can win a damn faceoff now and again.  The pickings are slim to say the least with a host of old and/or undesirable "options".  Best bet, just spitballin' here, is perhaps Mikhail Grigorenko, who totaled 23 points for the dismal Avalanche and won 57% of his draws.  Grigorenko earned $1.3 Mil last season, however, and was probably not tendered an offer by The Avs because he wants/needs a raise.  His teammate, John Mitchell, wouldn't be an awful stop-gap checking center, but possesses virtually no offensive upside.
The list of available centers is dotted with names that make me nervous, though.  What if Ryan White is the best The Hawks can attract and afford?
Somebody get Dennis Rasmussen on the line and tell him we made a mistake.

Postscript: Oh well, it was an idea.

Free Agentry: Hawks add Sharp, Guys

Hawks GM Stan Bowman WASTED NO TIME going out and TAKING WHAT HE WANTED, signing five UFAs today, one of which may or may not actually be of use.

Patrick Sharp
One of my favourite Hawks returns to the fold but, no matter how much I like the guy and hope for the best, there are huge asterisks all over this deal.  After a poor season, interrupted by two concussion-related time outs and hampered by a nagging hip injury, Sharpie was had for a relative song ($800K + $200K bonus for being able to walk without assistance at season's end).  Whether this pans out will depend on how serious this hip injury was and how well it was repaired, 'cos Sharpie without at least some speed just won't cut it.  There's also the risk of a stern look or a loud noise causing another concussion.  And how to deploy the prodigal?  If any fuel remains in the tank Sharp might be a pretty good addition to the third line, adding some opportunistic scoring vs. weaker opponents, with spot duty on the power play, perhaps.  BUT you know Q is gonna try him in Panarin's spot...just wait...

                 Manky hip or not there's ONE Hawk I can always outskate.

Lance Bouma and Tommy Wingels
Not the same guy but both most definitely Guys, and a pair of fellows that each had a single promising season 2-4 years ago and have been backsliding offensively ever since.  

These signings are mystifying to me.  With some potential holes down the center Stan goes out and signs one Guy who is indicated as a center...but never plays there (Bouma), and another who is listed as a wing but will occasionally do mediocre spot-duty down the middle (Wingels).  I get it, we're gonna need some Guys, as it appears that neither Desjardins nor Rasmussen will be asked to return but, holy shit, is no one available that can win a faceoff or knows how to play center?

At this rate I would not be shocked if Vik Stalberg is signed in the next 24 hours and, now that I've thunk about it, he would be preferable to either of these players.

Jordan Oesterle and Jean-Francois Berubé
Well, one is a defenseman who struggled to stay in The Oilers' lineup and the other is a pretty good AHL-calibre goaltender who sported a 3.57 GAA with Brooklyn last season.  I won't even bother telling you which is which because it doesn't matter.

Marcus Kruger
Wasn't he supposed to be traded by now?  As much as I'll hate to see Krugs go...he simply has to at this point.  The Hawks are now $2 Mil over the cap not including Bouma & Wingels (salary details not yet known but count on $1 Mil give or take) or the one or two defensemen who will need to be added to the roster.  AND the word is that The NHL is giving Stan some jipp about burying Hossa's cap hit on the LTIR.  I guess he's handling it.  He'd better be handling it.

Stan Wasn't Kidding: Saad Returns, Panarin becomes latest Blue-watchamacallit

A day or two ago, Stan Bowman said something to the tune of "you don't just go out and get another Marian Hossa".  Well, this is about as close to doing that as one can imagine.
No need to drone on about what Saad brings to a team...any team, as he's a known quantity.  His trade to Columbus was easily the most regrettable of the spate of necessary deals made over the last couple of years.
Along with Saad, The Hawks get a potential backup for Corey Crawford, one Anton Forsberg. Forsberg, 24, has had only a handful of NHL starts with Columbus but posted good numbers in the AHL, and will presumably duke it with Jeff Glass (right...) and Lars Johansson for that gig.

And of course, off to CMB is Artemi Panarin.  I wondered if Panarin might be vulnerable after his utterly indifferent effort in The Hawks' rather short playoffs.  One could argue that the bad press Panarin generated after a video from his KHL days surfaced with the young Rus chuckling through some racist remarks might have had some bearing on this...but I doubt it, and the less said about that the better.  More likely, and back to the first sentence in this post, Stan identified what The Hawks need and went out and got it.  Tyler Motte, who began last season with The Hawks but found himself behind Schmaltz, Kero and even Hinostroza before too long, joins Panarin in CMB.

We're not giving up much in the goal-scoring department with this move and, while Saad isn't the passer that Panarin is, he is the more complete player, able to kill penalties and win puck battles rather than skate around them.

And maybe, just maybe, if The Hawks feel he's ready for prime time, you just parachute wee Alex DeBrincat into Panarin's slot and see what happens.

Maybe I'll just hold off on posting again until after the weekend rather than running to the typer every time Stan dials his phone.  Fun times, fun times, indeed.

First To Fall: Hjalmarsson Traded to Phoenix

Well, Stan promised changes and here we go.  Niklas Hjalmarsson is the first of the Old Guard to be sent off in exchange for someone younger and presumably not yet pummeled half-to-death from blocking shots.  Hjammer has been the most consistent d-man on The Hawks for years.  Perhaps not the best but, with rare exception, you knew what you would get from him.  He's always been a favourite of mine and I'm sad to see him go.

                                               GodDAMMIT, Stan....

Coming Chicago's way are Connor Murphy, who is thankfully slightly less weird looking than his dad, Gord, along with AHL/NHL guy Laurent Dauphin.  The net salary implications are basically a push, although we get another guy, for whatever that's worth.

                                              Ha haaa....so long, AZ.

I know almost nothing about either player, simply because they're from the largely irrelevant Phoenix system. Murphy, a d-man, sports decent size and pretty average numbers compared to his co-Coyotes, which can mean a lot of things considering The Coyotes are a match away from being an out-of-control skip-fire.  I guess what he is, most of all, is a big young guy with NHL experience.  In three full seasons in the show he's missed only 18 games, some of which we can presume were healthy scratches, so let's assume he's somewhat durable, as well.

          This is a photo of the other guy.  Now imagine him in an IceHogs jersey.

I dunno.  My first reaction was that The Hawks traded the wrong guy, but we know Keith isn't going anywhere and Seabrook's salary is a big ask.  This is probably a good value, even it sucks to see Hjammer leave....

Post-Expansion Draft Catch Up, Hoss, Lineup Building

We've got three things to cover, today.  First, Marian Hossa, unbeknownst to the general public, has been suffering with a painful skin disorder for who knows how long and has decided to not play hockey this season.  Evidently, Hoss has had a poor reaction to the treatment he's been receiving for this condition and it's been determined that it's actually risky to continue.  I had been joking around recently that I wouldn't be surprised if Hoss developed some pesky injury that kept him out of action until mid-winter, next season, just long enough to get some salary cap relief with the big man on LTIR.  Well, this doesn't sound or feel like The Hawks being gamey, at all, and it's quite likely that Hoss' pro hockey days are over.  
Hossa has played eighteen seasons in The NHL and was paid well enough that one has to believe that he's continued this long because he wanted to and not because he had to, so a sudden retirement announcement would certainly seem against his character.  That said, having hit a pair of impressive career milestones this season and the fact that he'll be earning only a token percentage of his heavily front-loaded contract, the timing is probably right to call it a day, even if Hoss isn't ready to admit it.  
More about the implications of Hoss' setback a little ways down the page.

I stayed up last night only until I was assured that Trevor van Riemsdyk was no longer a Blackhawk AND I SLEPT WELL.  For all his good points Coach Joel Quenneville has always had a frustrating penchant for keeping one or two guys around that Just Don't Make Sense, and TVR is the most irritating example of Q's bizarre devotion to substandard hockey players.  Say what you will about those who came before, like Burish, Scott, Bollig or even Jordin "Two great games does not a career make" Tootoo, but those guys and their five-to-seven minutes per night never had the profound impact that TVR has had.  The man is a pylon, who cannot skate, cannot make a decision at NHL-speed, appears to have little idea how to play his position and has never laid a bodycheck on anything that wasn't stationary.  Yet, he got his 20-ish minutes per game, which is infinitely more than a borderline AHL-quality player should ever receive.  It's not as if he accomplished this on a weak team with few options, either.  The Hawks just became a better team simply by not having this goof around.  The morning rumour mill has Las Vegas dispatching TVR to Carolina in short order.  I couldn't care less, as long as he doesn't end up back in Chicago.
Anyway, so long, jackass.  It's not your fault you're bad at hockey.

Here's where I start to feel a little dirty, like a guy who just found out some rich aunt died & left him a load of money and doesn't know whether to be happy or sad and that it's hard to be both those things at the same time.
With TVR gone and Hoss about to be LTIR'd off the books, The Hawks have gone from being $2+ million OVER the salary cap to roughly $4mil UNDER.  I see two paths, here.

PATH ONE: Marcus Kruger remains in Chicago?
The alleged deal done between Chicago & LV to make TVR available in exchange for taking Kruger in a subsequent trade *might* not be as necessary now as it was a couple of days ago.  Can The Hawks now afford the luxury of a $3 mil center who rarely scores?  Perhaps not, as keeping Kruger gives The Hawks only about $1 mil remaining with which to make any significant changes to a team that underachieved mightily this season, which would kinda fly in the face of the press conference promises made by GM Stan Bowman after The Hawks ouster from the playoffs.  Stranger things have happened, though.
PATH TWO: Kruger leaves and The Hawks have approx. $7 mil with which to retool.  
The first task is to identify what The Hawks require in order to change their fortunes.  
Some will say that they need a puck-moving defenceman, as the reunion with Brian Campbell was underwhelming and he will not likely be invited back.  I'm just not sure if there's much out there to be had that The Hawks can afford.   Marc Streit, maybe, as he is firmly into the hired gun phase of his career and could likely be had for an affordable price.The Islanders have an embarrassment of riches on D but are said to be on the hunt for a top-six forward, which The Hawks are not in a position to provide.  Staffing from within is a possibility if Q is prepared to give Goose Forsling an actual chance to succeed, but I think Stan knows better than to count on that happening. 
Besides that, The Hawks need at least one or two quality forwards, not just to fill the gap left by Hossa, but also to fill a hole that existed all of last season.
Again, filling these spots from within is possible but is not likely to alter The Hawks' fortunes a great deal.  One expects Hartman, Schmaltz and possibly even Hayden to step up their contributions but, if they don't, The Hawks risk standing in place, at best, but more likely backsliding.  I don't hold out any expectation that the remaining peripheral players will be anything more than that, not this season and probably not ever.
And Kruger would still need to replaced.  Anyone pressed into this duty has big shoes to fill as, even with Kruger's anemic offense, he remains one of only a handful of players who are able to move the puck north on a consistent basis, as well as having been The Hawks' go-to PK guy.  Nearby, weaker options are available in Dennis Rasmussen and/or Tanner Kero, both okay foot soldiers but almost certainly not up to the level of responsibility that Kruger shouldered.

The possibilities are nearly endless, but let me toss a few names out there, bearing in mind that Silly Season will begin in earnest this afternoon.
Justin Williams - oldish, arrogant & unlikable, but he remains a steady performer, a playoff beast and would earn ~$3 mil or less.  Stick him with Toews & Panik for something resembling a second scoring line.
Joe Thornton - not as out there as it seems.  Jumbo Joe earned ~$7 mil in recent years but I cannot see him commanding that kind of coin at age 37 and coming off any number of surgeries. Thornton could slot in as 1C, 2C or 3C but I would love to see him between Kane & Panarin.  Maybe Thornton assumes Toews' spot and The Captain takes over 3C in Kruger's role.  We could do a lot worse than that, although then there will be louts jawing about The Hawks' $10 mil checking center...
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - not gonna fully replace Kruger but the guy is a checking machine, good on the PK and "okay" at the dot.  A straight-up trade for Kruger saves $1.5 mil with a serviceable replacement.
Patrick Sharp - It's a risk with his dizzies and all, and who knows how much to believe about rumours of conflict between him and Keith or others.  If all parties are comfortable with a reunion, though, I bet he'd sign for $2mil or less.  Stan may be leery of signing old favourites on a victory lap contract after Campbell, though.

Aw, who knows?  Let's see what happens this week.

Oh No...

So, Chris Neil will soon be available, unfortunately.  Here's the news: Senators to cut Neil loose, says he still wants to play.  Why is this bad?  Because Quenneville.

                                                   "Hmmmm...."

Sometimes You Have to Give Up To Really Give Up

This:
Yay! Wait! What??

To summarize, The Hawks are pledging to make Trevor van Riemsdyk available in the upcoming expansion draft on the proviso that Las Vegas also obtains Marcus Kruger through a trade.

Ok, fine.  Evidently, there is so little cap space available that this has become necessary.
What feels really weird to me, though, is that LV might want TVR badly enough to lead to the conception of this deal.  I mean, has no one watched TVR play?