Latest Sens/Hawks Rumour: solid or smokescreen?

So, here's next year's roster for Chicago and cap hit with only signed players and adding Kane ($6.5M), Toews ($6.5M) and Keith ($6M)...



Hmmmm...

I think that's a little generous for Toews, and Keith's might be lower if it's a really long-term deal.

Still, they need to add 5 or 6 more players to the roster, plus have some money to spare in the case of injuries.

I was just going with the rumoured $19M cap hit combined for those three. But, even if you drop it a few million, it ain't helping much... and they have to sign 5-6 more guys, including a goalie...

Pretty easy to figure out, there's one 1 D and 2F at 3 million each that are gonna leave garanteed there, at least.

Ok, so let's take off Barker, Sopel and Versteeg as their names have been the ones tossed around... that leaves 13 signed and $3M to sign 7 or 8 more guys.



Unless the guesses on the salaries are way off... how does it work?

NOt enough, 2 forwards making 3M have to go, not just one.

Heh. Buf may be the one...

Still, then that leaves $6M to sign 8-9 guys...

shabbs wrote:Heh. Buf may be the one...

Still, then that leaves $6M to sign 8-9 guys...

They will waive Huet if they can't trade him, then probably sign some dude for 1 Million.

Moving Huet would be good and help them a lot.

trading campbell seems like the only solution.

and if they want to make it work they have to do it this season and get guys that will be UFA...

Flo The Action wrote:trading campbell seems like the only solution.

Not in season.

shabbs wrote:Moving Huet would be good and help them a lot.

With who to come in? Truth be told Huet has been pretty solid for them as of late but if they cant add a legit number 1 guy, Huet is their best option.

I honestly think, in a year or two, their starting goaltender will be Brian Elliott.

rooneypoo wrote:Haha. Nice to see the consensus emerging on this one right about where I left it a week or so ago.

1) This rumour is BS. CHI will not be trading anything by way of core players (i.e., Barker, etc.) this year IN SEASON. If the tagging thing forces their hand, it will be Sopel they move.

2) OTT is a brutal fit for CHI in any event. Brutal.

3) Brian Campbell is the odd man out -- DURING THE OFF-SEASON. All cap problems solved there with that one move.

Maybe I should write these things in all-caps so they don't get skipped over...

Mmmm, I dunno about that... I think there are a couple things that could happen with Ottawa but things have to play out in both cities.

Moving Cambell will clear a lot of space and help them out for sure. If they move Huet, then they'll be starting all over again in net, which can be dangerous. Lots of tough decisions to make for the Hawks.

Their current roster certainly has the makings for a deep cup run so I don't expect many changes during the season, if any as they'll want to keep a good thing going.

They sure lit up the Sharks last night. Welcome back Hossa.

Doesn't that "tagging" issue force them to make a move though?

SeawaySensFan wrote:Doesn't that "tagging" issue force them to make a move though?

I would think that if that is the case then they'll hold off on the new contracts until the summer.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:Doesn't that "tagging" issue force them to make a move though?

I would think that if that is the case then they'll hold off on the new contracts until the summer.

As Mike Eastwood said, the players might want to force the issue to protect themselves now in the event of a career-ending injury.

rooneypoo wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:Doesn't that "tagging" issue force them to make a move though?

Sounds like that issue has been exaggerated. It looks like a small move, ala trading / waiving Sopel, would be enough to get CHI's books OK for this year. I don't know about you, but I think I eat $1.5 mil or whatever Sopel has left in salary owed this year rather than tinker with a team that is a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Interesting stuff. So I guess all that's left to do is sit and wait for this trade to go through the league office?

If they don't make a move this season, they'll have to wait to announce those big contract extensions at the end of the season.

And next year, well, we all know how that looks now.

shabbs wrote:If they don't make a move this season, they'll have to wait to announce those big contract extensions at the end of the season.

And next year, well, we all know how that looks now.

Which brings us back to Mike "Easty" Eastwood's point.

Personally I wouldn't mnd being in the Hawks position right now... We are the hottest team in the league who just got better by adding our big offseason UFA to the lineup and have all this fantastic young talent that has committed to signing with us long term. Now we just need to figure out how to work around the cumbersome CBA to announce it?!

Not too bad.

Yeah, a nice problem to have this year. And I fully expect them to challenge for the Cup this year.

After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

You mean the game that Dany Heatley was a -4 in?

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

Well, as we've seen, a goalie only has to play good enough to help their team keep going (ie: Emery) and they can go deep. They have all the pieces... this may be their best chance... in a while.

shabbs wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

Well, as we've seen, a goalie only has to play good enough to help their team keep going (ie: Emery) and they can go deep. They have all the pieces... this may be their best chance... in a while.

So the rumour is solid then? Or is it a smokescreen... Hmmm.

It's a solid smokescreen.



That's DTR-speak for you.

shabbs wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

Well, as we've seen, a goalie only has to play good enough to help their team keep going (ie: Emery) and they can go deep. They have all the pieces... this may be their best chance... in a while.

I agree to an extent. A badly timed goal can kill you too... but in our case Emery was just good enough and we had a lot of things go our way.

TheAvatar wrote:Karlsson is not coming back to Ottawa this year. No way. No how.

Does anybody have some black crow I could eat?

TheAvatar wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:Karlsson is not coming back to Ottawa this year. No way. No how.

Does anybody have some black crow I could eat?

Not realy dude, I love him and I didnt think he should have been sent down period, but I thought that too. I think most people did.

Yep, Karlsson coming back was certainly less logical than him staying there.

Thats only true if you used faulty logic to justify his demotion in the first place. As per usual, most fans tried to read too much into it and figured it was all about the contract. It was more about growing a player than it was cheating the system. As much as Karlsson is talented, he also has some substantial holes in his game. More importantly, his play was deteriorating quickly during his final 3 games. He wasn't moving the puck much better than anyone else and his confidence was visibly diminished. Combine that with his defensive shortcomings and two-way contract, and the writing was on the wall---although I have to admit to being taken aback by it, simply because I agreed with asq that there wasn't much for him to learn in the AHL. I think what we overlooked was how much good playing there could do for his waining confidence...

Like I said when it first happened (and before it happened) it's best to try to stagger the contracts of Karlsson, Cowen, and Wiercioch. Imagine if both the other two were ready for next year (unlikely but a possibility still) then we would face having to re-sign all three (along with possibly Regin, Foligno, Smith, Lee, and several others) in the same off-season. That would be a massive cap-management blunder.

Gohan wrote:Thats only true if you used faulty logic to justify his demotion in the first place. As per usual, most fans tried to read too much into it and figured it was all about the contract. It was more about growing a player than it was cheating the system. As much as Karlsson is talented, he also has some substantial holes in his game. More importantly, his play was deteriorating quickly during his final 3 games. He wasn't moving the puck much better than anyone else and his confidence was visibly diminished. Combine that with his defensive shortcomings and two-way contract, and the writing was on the wall---although I have to admit to being taken aback by it, simply because I agreed with asq that there wasn't much for him to learn in the AHL. I think what we overlooked was how much good playing there could do for his waining confidence...

Like I said when it first happened (and before it happened) it's best to try to stagger the contracts of Karlsson, Cowen, and Wiercioch. Imagine if both the other two were ready for next year (unlikely but a possibility still) then we would face having to re-sign all three (along with possibly Regin, Foligno, Smith, Lee, and several others) in the same off-season. That would be a massive cap-management blunder.

I think a guy like Karlsson just needs some patience. We need to go the route of a team that isn't quite there yet and play these young guys and give them a chance to make mistakes and learn from them. No body ever learned anything by watching video or talking about it, you only learn by getting out there and doing whatever it is you need to do.

I'm pretty happy that Karlsson is back up and could end up with a decent defensive partner. However, I am quite unhappy with Lee's demotion. I feel it was unjustified and ridiculous, to be honest. He wasn't setting the world on fire up here, but as a point of comparison, he wasn't worse than Campoli.
Although I suppose the contract situation certainly played a role in this. Lee's NHL contract is twice the value of Campoli's, so I guess you can't justify sitting Campoli and paying him his salary while you also pay Lee's big salary too.

The whole thing is weird. Point is though, we need our 4,5 guys to be MUCH better, especially offensively.

well Picard and Kuba have been good offensively, Carkner and Phillips have been outstanding given the expectations of their offensive game, and Lee and Campoli have been underwhelming at best.

What we really need is one more player who can pass and put up points. Campoli has improved substantially since the early season, but is still nowhere near what we need. If Karlsson outplays him tonight and in any remaining games before Volchenkov returns, then we may have seen the last of Campoli. That's my expectation, although injuries will likely play a role that can't be forecast.

I agree that Karlsson needs time to make his mistakes and learn from, but it has to be balanced with some kind of output that justifies his presence in the lineup---If he were to continue down the path he was on in his final games here before the demotion, that wouldn't have been the case.

He now has something to prove and has hopefully gotten his confidence back. If he can be a little more dynamic with the puck, then I'm sure we can all live with his mistakes...

Does anyone know how well he played in Bingo?

His puck-movement was very good. He was also almost at a PPG, but he could have 17-18 points if the forwards were capable of finishing his plays in the earlier games. He'll have to make adjustments to the NHL level of speed, though.

The bigger problem is that his defence is still adventurous. If Clouston pairs him up with Campoli again, that duo is going to have problems.

Phillips seems to me the type that could give Campoli a chance to prosper. Although the Phillips-Kuba duo has been nice in the past two games, it hasn't been good enough Imo to justify pairing Campoli and Karlsson

I never did understand why Clouston would do that. Putting him in with Phillips, Kuba or Carkner would make more sense to me but hey; i'm sitting in my basement watching the games and not standing behind the player's bench ...