… whew!

I’m notgoing to underestimate this team. The Hawks have made a habit of making those who underestimate them look foolish. The Turco signing does mean they could add a significant player (probably at the trade deadline) to fill a void where the young players aren’t quite there, adding to what is an excellent core both in talent and leadership.

Despite Niemi leaving (not my preference) I think Bowman has done an outstanding job this summer and if Turco plays as well as Niemi, a brilliant job. (We’ll see on that final point).

My hope was that Bowman could keep the Hawks in a position to be a legitimate threat to do was hasn’t been done very often in recent years and that is repeat and looking at the roster I think he’s done that. Whether or not they are the favourites doesn’t matter at this stage of the season- they are in the mix and when the playoffs come they’ll have a decent shot at it. If some of these young guys can contribute in a significant way they might even pull off the repeat.

Whatever happens it’ll be exciting – can’t wait for the season to start.

You have followed the trail and can make your own objective conclusions.

As I stated in the blog Niemi gave a great insight although this quote wasn’t brought up in many blogs and comments I read upon his departure.

The word objective is key…

Niemi may have given everyone with an objective stance the best understanding of his situation.

“It seemed like they already had a plan without me,” Niemi said without any hint of bitterness. “I don’t think I had another choice.”

I got the same vibe when I doubted Havlat was coming back.

I didn’t want it to happen and people were pissed when I wrote it but…

A decision was made to go down a different path and hopefully the results will be very good.

THe young Hawks will be very motivated and so will Turco.

Fans are passionate about their teams and their opinions, and very few writers try to get beyond the passion to examine different and often conflicting perspectives.

You have done an excellent job of providing all of us with the information you have been able to discover.

Whatever happened with Antti Niemi, this episode reminds us hockey is a business.

In the NHL, the balance sheet, thanks to the salary cap, determines how GMs must shape and reshape their teams.

Thanks to Stan Bowman, the possible ‘cap crisis’ he faced a year ago has been managed…and the Blackhawks can get with defending their title, with a pretty good team.

And to think a year ago, the ‘experts’ said “the Hawks won’t win because their goaltending will let them down”.

Shows you what the experts know.

Will Marty Turco be as good, or better than Antti was? Will the Bickells, Dowells, Stalbergs, Skilles et al replace the departed (many of whom were often criticized, particularly Versteeg and Byfuglien, for careless or even lazy play)? Will some new face surprise with exceptional performances?

That’s what will make this coming season exciting.

Although I have been a Hawks fans all my life I don’t write a fan blog. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just not for me and hasn’t been for the past four seasons.

I try to write an informed objective opinion, hopefully you will stop by again.

You might not agree but maybe my thoughts will show another side to an issue you might not have considered.

People see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear…including myself. That’s not an indictment of Hawk fans…it is part of human nature to have a bias.

Original Post: “My energy won’t be spent on figuring out who is to blame for Niemi not staying in Chicago. My gut feeling from the outset was that for whatever reason the Hawks front offce didn’t value Niemi enough.”

Sure sounds to me like you’re laying the groundwork to blame Bowman if the Hawks don’t repeat (or at least if Turco does not perform up to your standards). Sorry.

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I have no idea of your past writings, I got here via Puck Daddy linking your piece. Mostly my objection was your (I believe mistaken) indictment of Hawks fans for.. actually, you didn’t address that part of my reply. Anyhow, it sort of came off like you’re the level head in the room, and most all the rest of Hawk fandom are unaware that the team probably isn’t the hands-down best in the Western Conference anymore? (I’m sure that wasn’t your intention, just the vibe I got from it.)

That point aside, I’m not sure there ever was a time when there was a $2m offer from the Hawks to Niemi – they could have just managed it after Hjammer’s offer sheet was accepted, but CapGeek is telling me that the $700,000 difference means that we’d be playing a man short on team depth all year.

The Hawks are currently at 21 players, $1.5m cap space left not counting Huet. So that extra money you’d pay Niemi means carrying 22 instead of 23 all year. (I’m not in a position to say how important it is to carry the extra players for matchups, last minute injuries and as practice bodies.) Even with Turco in goal, I imagine the team will carry 22 and leave a million or so of cap space free for injury/trade contingencies.

Guess what it comes down to, if you’re really trying to say you don’t blame anyone.. well, the fans know that the salary cap (and big raises due Toews, Kane and Keith) meant that players had to leave. If you’re saying Niemi will be missed, I didn’t hear a lot of people clamoring to get rid of him. Or Steeger, or Ladd. (Buff, I think there was a fair number who thought he was going to remain inconsistent, no great loss.)

Maybe the thing was that Puck Daddy linking to you, I was looking for more than “stuff happens, bummer”. I hope Turco and the Hawks have a great season, too.

Exactly

But Niemi was only offered $1.5M (if two pretty credible writers Al and Tim Sassone are believed) which is really the same money that Turco got at $1.3M.

So the thinking must have been from the Hawks that Turco is basically Niemi’s equal and in that case it’s a no brainer to take the extra cap space that Turco’s contract offered, what with the Hawks so tightly sqeezed.

As this year unfolds we’ll see if Turco is in fact Niemi’s equal. I’ll give the Bowmans with their superior hockey knowledge the benefit of the doubt for now but I for one will watching this closely. After all nobody’s perfect.

He was offered a deal in the neighborhood of 7-million for three years for Antti and he thought Antti was worth 4-million a year.

Don’t feel sorry for Bill Zito. He is a mean person to everyone in the world except for his clients. He treats his employees as if they were the biggest dirt on the earth and treats everyone in the world like crap except for his small client list.

I have done business with Bill Zito and I can tell you – He is a selfish piece of crap who deserves everything bad that the press has to say about him. He is a compulsive liar and not a good human being.

Why so many players stick with him is because they don’t see how he is such a bad guy. This guy should be in jail not praised for what he did to guys like Antti Niemi this summer.

but…

The Blackhawk main line Kool Aiders always seem to blame the agent when a player isn’t kept.

I also pointed out the Bowman’s are not to be blamed..and the point of this piece was to lay out what happend and my opinion as to why.

There was no intent to give Bowman any suggestions.

If you wanted to spend the time…

Go back and read my blogs…I was in the minority as I thought the multi year $3.5-4 million deals other were writing about were lunacy.

My gues was Niemi would get a $2.3 mill award.

As I stated in the blog…Zito wasn’t in agreat position.

The arbitration could only work against him in this situation…and he would have been naive to think otherwise. Only a really low award would have been matched by the Hawks.

The Hawks weren’t going to pay Niemi $2 mill or more…

So as I say blame who you want….They made a calaculated decision to go with Turco…And I hope he has a great season.

This sitaution played out as I though it would…

Bowman had a choice he just didn’t choose to keep Niemi.

I’m writing an opinion as to what I think happened and why…I DID NOT SET OUT TO BLAME ANYONE.

….My energy won’t be spent on figuring out who is to blame for Niemi not staying in Chicago. My gut feeling from the outset was that for whatever reason the Hawks front offce didn’t value Niemi enough….

The Hawks chose to not re-sign Niemi because they are comfortable with a cheaper alternative.

Hawk fans will need to hope the new additions are adequate replacements for those that are gone….We all should agree..I just pointed it out, so don’t shoot the messenger…lol.

On a side note….I would rather have Niemi for $2 mill than Turco for $1.3..but the blog was not to provide my roster choices.

And I would agree with JS, that you seem to offer no suggestion as to how Bowman could have kept Niemi without losing a core player. As it is, the Hawks have arguably two of the best forward lines in the league (those being Toews/Kane/anyone else and Sharp/Hossa/anyone else) and two of the best defensive pairings in Keith/Seabrook and Hjalmarsson/Campbell (Campbell is admittedly not a great D-Man, but as a puck-moving D-Man, he’s one of the best). Add to that, Bolland who came of age during the playoffs and Brouwer who was a 20-goal scorer last season, both of whom are cap-friendly contracts. So who else do you move?

Bowman is clearly following the Detroit pattern which is that goal-tending doesn’t matter as long as you have solid team defense. The offer sheet hurt this process more than anything, but Zito could have worked out a deal with the Hawks anyway. The Hawks were the cash-strapped ones–Zito knew that. (Even worse than losing Niemi was losing Ladd–that’s the one that knowledgeable hockey fans understood as the real blow to the team.)

Who knows how it all really played out with Zito and Bowman but my feeling is that the Hawks would have been a better team with Niemi at $2M than Turco at $1.3M and then they would have also been in a position to keep Niemi longer term. But I’m not the GM and maybe that was never a real option and I could be wrong about the Hawks with/without Niemi. In fact I hope I am wrong and that Turco plays as well or better than Niemi did last year IN THE PLAYOFFS and the Hawks repeat.

But I wouldn’t look forward to playing San Jose in the playoffs – Niemi was a difference maker in that series IMO although if the Hawks were to beat SJ in the playoffs I would tip my hat to Stan and say ‘you were right’.

You start out saying:

“There are many Blackhawk fans which believe every salary shedding roster move made this summer will work out just fine. Some find reasons to justify why certain players won’t be missed. Maybe all will be fine in the upcoming season but at some point almost everyone who has departed will be missed.”

I don’t know if you directed that at the casual fan (in which case you’d be wrong because those fans are freaking out at ‘losing half the team’).. or at the hardcore fan who picks over every roster move (in which case you’d be wrong because you act like Bowman somehow had a choice not to shed players).

The Capocalypse happened, and most all of the serious fans came to terms with what had to happen within a month of the parade. It’s not that people are happy about losing Ladd, Versteeg, Niemi, Buff, etc. – the team remains tight against the cap despite Rocky agreeing to eat $11.2m of Huet’s contract.

The serious fans are satisfied because (generally) they think that Bowman did the best that could be done under the circumstances. Both in keeping the core players, and for getting useful prospects and draft picks while trading away players any GM who reads CapGeek knew we had to shed.

“Some believe everyone can be replaced. Blackhawk fans are hoping so.”

What would you have Bowman do different?

All true…

Maybe it is just part of the Scotty effect of not needing a top goalie to have succcess. That’s a popular reason..

But I don’t know what the actually tipping point was…But the point of the blog, and you seem to have gotten it, was the money/cap space was not an impossible obstacle to overcome.

Thanks for the comment.

Yes, he’s short on NHL experience, but he’s young and, assuming he continues to improve (given the work ethic he supposedly has, I feel like that potential is definitely there), could have several exceptional years in front of him still.

I’m excited to see what Turco will bring. But this situation leaves a strange taste in my mouth.

Forced austerity has found its way to the NHL.

Also not 26 yrs. old, and wasn’t an arb. decision and Khabby wanted way more dollars.

But you are correct in saying he was gone after the Cup.

How did that turn out for Tampa Bay?

The salad days of the salary cap era are over and there’s apt to be much more fiscal restraint shown with player salaries as many teams have painted themselves into a corner.