I give him a solid A to this point.

That said, Fred Shero probably does the best job of masking his intentions while managing expectations.

At the other end of the spectrum, one has Brian Burke.

Stan may have stumbled (in your eyes) with the way he expressed himself, but he’s getting the job done so far…and he has, after all, helped bring the Cup to Chicago…so IMO he earns a pass.

Since I live outside the WGN Chicago broadcast area, I am somewhat limited by the number of games I watched this season. However, it seemed to me that whenever the defense had a bad night, Niemi got shelled. He can win the occasional game on his own, but like virtually all NHL goalies in the current scoring environment, he can’t do it consistently. With all of the rule changes and the current cap ceiling, I’m not sure if any goalie in the league right now is worth much more than $3 million.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Toronto had anything better to offer than Stalberg when we’re talking in terms of “value for money.” Toronto has a few “bad” contracts on the book as well. I am not privy to Burke’s status with ownership, but the Leafs’ fans have virtually no patience left for the man. Considering all of these relevant factors, it wasn’t a bad trade, but it wasn’t in the same league as the Byfuglien deal.

I’m all for “managing” negotiations, but not when it falls in the category of peeing in my ear and telling me it’s raining. For an analagous situation, please consult Al “I invented the internet” Gore.

Seabrook won’t expect to make more than Keith..they will work things out as he is already earning $3.5…Seabrook will get about $1.5 million raise.

Bowman is a good speaker but in the case you brought up he should have dodged the question a bit more…he usually doesn’t get caught saying too much.

I think the Hawks got a lot for Versteeg…considering Stalberg will make the team out of camp. Despite what Burke or the Toronto media says that was 3 for 1 trade.

Sweatt wasn’t anyone the Hawks wanted to keep…he could have been signed to a post collogiate contract for small money and not ever been a cap consequuence next year.

The next trade…if there has to be one, will be much more difficult.

Would you rather have Dale “heart on my sleeve, and I’ll spend whatever it takes” Tallon?

From the standpoint of player personnel/cap management, I don’t really see how Bowman could do much better. The Byfugien trade was a real masterpiece. The Versteeg trade, not so much. However, Burke is under much more scrutiny than Dudley. In other words, Burke didn’t have the luxury of overpaying for Versteeg in terms of talent or trading away picks, given some of his previous trades. Furthermore, the Leafs weren’t exactly stocked with players that the Hawks would even want.

Matching the Sharks’ offer to Hjalmarsson may prove to be a mistake, but Wilson appears to have set the price right at the “magic” number. That is, Wilson’s offer was low enough to force Bowman to match, but high enough to compund the team’s cap problems. The real consequence of the Hjalmarsson signing will likely be felt in the contract that Seabrook will demand (and deserve) in twelve months.

From a public relations standpoint, Bowman bugs me a little. Bluntly, Bowman lies. They may be lies that he thinks have some strategic value in negotiations, but only a fool would believe some of them. For example, Bowman stated after the Byfuglien trade that he had straightened out the cap issues. Anyone who knew the first thing about the team and its payroll could see right through that one. Perhaps Bowman was only concerned with addressing the ire of the hockey illiterates (i.e. the entire Chicago sports media), but it still rankles.

Bowman is also anticipating a hard-fought battle between the NHLPA led by Fehr, and the owners…

By reducing the Hawks salary mass now, and loading up on first and second rounders he may be positioning the Hawks to be competitive even if the salary cap gets lowered.

The Avs’ Greg Sherman is setting the new trend. As Colorado has shown–and will show–young guns can get it done.

Bowman is in that mould of New Wave GMs who are cost-conscious and value-conscious.

And winning a Cup in his rookie year isn’t too bad.

Is if it was from a team he didn’t want to play for….usually the team making the offer knows ahaed of time if the player doesn’t want to play there.

The other instance would be if the player feels he can do better than the proposed offer sheet.

The Hawks weren’t going to pay Hammer $3.5 mill per year for three years without being forced to…Hammer and his agent were praying for an offer sheet and they couldn’t hesitate to sign such a huge increase.

I can’t recall a case where a player didn’t sign the offer sheet presented to him.

They traded the players they knew they must and had an easy time doing so it appears…After the Niemi saga comes to a close the next move could be one they didn’t want to make or would have a difficult time putting together.

If Campbell goes anywhere from here it probably would be east not west.

Personally, I give Bowman a B+ so far this off season. I think he has done an exceptional job bringing in prospects to develop.

The one issue I have is if Campbell does indeed get traded, I’d bring that grade down just slightly because Buff or Ladd might have been saved.

Maybe that is hindsight though

I was thinking of a trade scenerio for Campbell the other day with Edmonton involving Sheldon Souray. The two obvious issues is that Campbell may be willing to goto Florida over Edmonton lol.. and as you say McCabe’ contract ends after this season where Souray has two more years

Career NHL games regular season
Quick – 119
Halak – 99
Niemi – 42

09/10 SV PCT and 09/10 playoffs SV PCT
Quick – .907 (in 72 games) and .880 (in 6 games)
Halak – .924 (in 45 games) and .920 (in 18 games)
Niemi – .912 (in 39 games) and .910 (in 22 games)

09/10 GAA and Won/Lost/Tie
Quick – 2.54 and 39-24-7
Halak – 2.40 and 26-13-5
Niemi – 2.25 and 26-7-4

Clearly Niemi has an edge in W/L record and GAA but the argument can be made that those stats as much or more a team stat as individual

SV PCT on the other hand is a better measure of a goalie’s individual performance and there Halak has a significant edge over the other two including last year’s playoffs.

Considering that Halak’s first year of his new contract pays him 2.75 and Quick 1.9 (his salary actually goes down in each subsequent contract year) Niemi should fall in the middle, arguably closer to Quick based on SV PCT.

However let’s give Niemi his due for winning the Cup and just split the difference between 1.9 and 2.75 and you get 2.325.

My guess is Zito is knows all this and is bluffing hoping the Hawks will blink and give his client 3M or such but Stan will hold the line and on July 28 Zito will relent (knowing the arbitration could easily go against Niemi) and Niemi will sign for 2.35 or 2.4 for 2 years.

What do you think?

The problem is there aren’t any comparables for a Cup winning RFA with less than 50 NHL games.

I’m wondering if Anderson signed as a UFA last summer when he went from Fla. to Colorado. I can’t recall – it could have been a trade.

As an RFA, are players supposed to notify their current team before, or only after, they sign an offer sheet? Based on the reactions we saw, it seemed like the offer sheet took the Hawks completely by surprise – thus forcing the Hawks to match or give him up as a player.

So Quick would be a comparable.

$7 mill for two years is a cap hit of $3.5…same as if he was awarded $3.5 for one season.

The problem is who can Niemi be compared to…If the arbitrator looks at Anderson and Quick the Hawks will get lucky.

If he compares him to someone like Halak or Leclaire then the arbitartor is discounting the fact Niemi has a shorter track record.

If I’m Nimei I wouldn’t want to take the chance on arbitration….His agent keeps talking like he is $4 mill player..
At this point that is a bloated number.

$2.5 mill is a huge raise and almost 40% more than Anderson and Quick… both have longer track records than Niemi.

If I’m Bowman….I go to arbitration and shoot for 2 yrs….If it comes in too high then you have to trade Niemi or someone else.

I can’t see giving him a long term deal for over $ 3 mill per yr.

It’ll be interesting – what if Niemi wins big say 3M or over do the Hawks walk away or accept it and trade Niemi (it would be hard to get good value at that point you’d think) or trade someone else?

Also Niemi and Zito have to wonder if the Hawks walk away who will sign Niemi at 3M plus?- he may not have an NHL team next year under that scenario. It may suit all parties to get a deal done before arbitration – I’m hoping Niemi gives a little now to get more down the road. If he stays with the Hawks for 2 – 3 more years his stats will look pretty darn good at the end of that time I would think. Then he could really cash in.

If Niemi plays well for 2 more years he will deserve a big raise..and will get it one way or the other.

Next year they’ll have the 4M in bonuses removed and probably another 2M in an elevated cap limit to sign not only Niemi (providing he has a good year) but also Seabrook and Brouwer.