Let’s look at a few basic facts:

1. The Wirtz family has the majority ownership of the United Center. (Bulls’ owner Reinsdorf has the rest.) The United Center holds over 22,000 with SRO tickets.

2. The primary alcoholic beverage distributor in Illinois just happens to be Wirtz Beverage Group – Illinois. They are able to “double dip” on concessions, even when the Hawks aren’t playing.

3. The Hawks’ local t.v. deal was negotiated in 2007-2008 dollars. The Hawks were one of the wealthiest franchises WITHOUT a t.v. deal.

The Blackhawks aren’t the ONLY rich ream, but they are obviously on par with the Leafs and Rangers, who enjoy similar vertical monopolies.

The truth is the author isn’t “100% right.” The deadline fiasco has nothing to do with Huet’s contract, just for example.

Chicago fans aren’t “sore winners,” but we are sick of all of the “sore losers.” After decades of printing money, the Wirtz family finally broke out the checkbook, and the result was the Cup. Sounds like a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The simple truth is that the team could easily afford a $63 million payroll.

I agree that blaming the salary cap is a fairly bush league move in light of the team’s history. I don’t agree that there is any logical connection between the cap and the draft in this case. It’s a logical fallacy. It’s like saying: “Sure Carbon 14 is bad, but look at all of the benefits of x-rays!” There’s no causal connection.

Of course not. The new system is going to reward teams that spend wisely, and keep their young players….again…what’s the problem?

We have parity. Its a good thing. Need we remind you arrogant folk that your team sucked under the old system, with all these $$$ to spend? It can’t all be placed on Dollar Bill.

The truth is, this writer is 100% right. Your team would not have problems if they could have read a calendar last year.

They benefited from the CBC to get a #1 overall when they should have had the 5th.

Quit being sore winners.

As the previous poster commented, Chicago is one of the wealthiest teams in the NHL. If not for the salary cap, they would have simply paid most of these salaries. No doubt, a few of their players were destined to leave, such as Eager and Madden, but the vast majority of the players would have been back. The late qualifying offers were irrelevant without a cap; Chicago could afford to eat that mistake. The same argument holds true for the Huet contract.

There is no logical or causal connection between the salary cap situation and the draft lottery. Yes, Chicago benefitted from the draft. Several other teams who have drafted high in recent years have not, because their GMs are incompetent at evaluating talent.

What does this have to do with the salary cap? If not for the cap, other wealthy teams like the Leafs and Rangers would be competitive, despite mismanagement at the highest levels. They could just go out and buy a team of proven FAs.

A team built through the draft costs less in the short to medium run. Yes, eventually top talent commands top dollars, but this has not been the Hawks’ problem thus far. The root of the problem was overpaying for FAs back when the team was not competitive and had to “sell” itself to potential FAs. There’s no correlation between the fact that the team benefitted from the draft lottery and its current salary cap situation.