Teh Blackhawks

[WaukeeBlues]

For a lack of anything else to talk about...

Anyone see the 'Hawks had to shed even MORE salary? I guess the whopping $1.2 million that Marty Reasoner commanded was too much and they swapped for Jeff Taffe. Ah yes- the good old days.

The funniest part is that some Hawks fans commentators on TSN are calling Taffe a prospect and a good pickup. I almost blew lucky charms out my nose with that one.

Are the Hawks even going to be able to field a team!? I knew it was going to be bad for them this summer but my GOD!! This is hilarious. This is twice as bad as I thought it would be and I'm loving every second of it.

The way their team is looking in their efforts to re-sign Niemi by shedding even MORE salary, their entire bottom 6 forwards are going to be league-minimum contracts!

[dmiles2186]

It's beautiful. Just beautiful. Hooray for them winning the Cup. The team deserved it, they were a heckuva team.

But good god, I'm enjoying this.

[Leedog]

A swap of former Blues first round draft choices. Good drafting!!

[ViPeRx007]

We can all laugh but they just won a cup, something the Blues haven't ever done.

At this point I'd probably trade the whole team away if it meant we win one effin' cup. But alas, we're destined to toil in mediocrity into the eternities it seems.

[Winning Unlimited]

Teh Blackwahks

Are GHEY!!!

[the knob]

We can all laugh but they just won a cup, something the Blues haven't ever done.

Plusity plus-plus. I'm sure there are Hawks fans disappointed in the team being torn apart, but I'm betting they are waaaay outnumbered by those happy their team won the Cup.

[glen a richter]

I wouldn't care if the Blues disbanded as long as they'd won a damn cup before it happened.

[cprice12]

I wouldn't care if the Blues disbanded as long as they'd won a damn cup before it happened.

If the Blues ever win a cup, the members of that team will be Gods/heroes/worshiped here in St. Louis.
It would definitely take something away from the afterglow of winning a cup to see half of the team leave just weeks later.

[Winning Unlimited]

Name as many 1999 Rams as you can. The starters at least?

Name as many 2006 Cardinals as you can. The starters?

When the Blues win one, I bet we will list the roster.

[Ruutu15]

Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hjalmarsson, Seabrook, Keith, and Hossa.

Star players on any team in the league, and we still have 8 of them. That's not counting Campbell because I don't like him. And we'll have our starting goalie back. If the Blues made an offer for any of those guys, it would start with half of your roster.

Yeah, it does suck that a lot of the guys are gone. I think the Hawks will still take a hit, but the top-6 forwards are still there, as are the top 4 defensemen and the starting goalie.

[Nayrb]

Sharp, Bolland, Hjalmarsson

Star players on any team in the league. If the Blues made an offer for any of those guys, it would start with half of your roster.

That's a reach. And I like Sharp.

[JWatt (formerly PMS)]

Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hjalmarsson, Seabrook, Keith, and Hossa.

Star players on any team in the league, and we still have 8 of them. That's not counting Campbell because I don't like him. And we'll have our starting goalie back. If the Blues made an offer for any of those guys, it would start with half of your roster.

Now, list your bottom 6 forwards, you bottom 2 defensemen and your goaltenders and tell me how many would make our roster.

The Hawks have absolutely no depth whatsoever anymore. You are a 10 player team. The reason you won the Cup was not because your top 2 lines were better than SJ or PHI but because your 3rd and maybe even 4th lines were better than theirs. Now they are much, much worse.

[WaukeeBlues]

Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hjalmarsson, Seabrook, Keith, and Hossa.

Star players on any team in the league, and we still have 8 of them. That's not counting Campbell because I don't like him. And we'll have our starting goalie back. If the Blues made an offer for any of those guys, it would start with half of your roster.

Now, list your bottom 6 forwards, you bottom 2 defensemen and your goaltenders and tell me how many would make our roster.

The Hawks have absolutely no depth whatsoever anymore. You are a 10 player team. The reason you won the Cup was not because your top 2 lines were better than SJ or PHI but because your 3rd and maybe even 4th lines were better than theirs. Now they are much, much worse.

This. Many of my Hawks friends are making this argument too and I don't understand it. You were there all last season right?

Look- nobody is taking away from the Stanley Cup you won. The Hawks won. We know. congratulations- especially to you Ruutu. Cherish it forever.

But I don't think they have a prayer in hell of repeating. JWatt said it perfectly. The Hawks were STACKED last season. Their 3rd line was better than some teams' 2nd line and even the 4th line was reliable. Having said that, I wanna puke, but it doesn't make it less true.

Like I said in my original post- the Hawks are trading MARTY REASONER because he's getting paid too much. MARTY REASONER. Bring up the minor leaguers and their league-minimum contracts? I don't think the Hawks have any more options unless Niemi walks.

I'll put it this way. The Hawks may only get scored on one more time every other game than they did last year when they normally wouldn't have when their 3rd or 4th lines were out there. And I think it'll be worse than that. In the playoffs, that's the difference of one or two games- which makes or breaks a series.

I rest my case.

[WaukeeBlues]

Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hjalmarsson, Seabrook, Keith, and Hossa...

If the Blues made an offer for any of those guys, it would start with half of your roster.

Now that's just mean

[cprice12]

Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hjalmarsson, Seabrook, Keith, and Hossa...

If the Blues made an offer for any of those guys, it would start with half of your roster.

Now that's just mean

Mean...and not true.

[Ruutu15]

Yeah, I'm obviously bitter about the whole thing. Not just about losing a lot of the guys that made the team what it was, but going further than that. Losing Tallon left a bad taste in my mouth. This team is putting the control in the wrong hands, and I've seen it coming for 3 years.

Do I think that losing all of the depth will hurt? Of course it will. But I still think that the Hawks top 6 is better than any other team in the Western Conference. Having Keith and Seabrook on the ice for 30 minutes per game doesn't hurt, and then Hjalmarsson and (ugh) Campbell to round out the remaining majority doesn't hurt either. I'd be a real homer to come out and say that they're going to win it again next season, but they're the champions until someone else skates the cup around the ice at the end of next season. They haven't lost anything yet. Huet will be sent down or to Europe as soon as they can, which will free up more than 4 million dollars.

People are writing them off as dead, and that's a mistake. The Blackhawks lost a lot, but they were also extremely deep. They're still going to come out and be VERY competitive. People also said that we couldn't with with Huet and Niemi. I mean, there was no way that the Hawks would beat someone like Luongo or Nabokov with those guys.

Either way it goes, I'll never forget this past season. Even if they never win again in my lifetime, I'll die happy. It's a salary cap world, you guys will be in this position someday too, and you'll understand my frustration.

P.S.- I HATE Stan Bowman. That smug bastard owes everything from this past season to Tallon. He was born on 3rd base and thought he hit a triple.

[dmiles2186]

From Puck Daddy---even with The Cup, the Hawks did not profit in '09-'10, will jack ticket prices 20%

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_d ... nhl-259192

It's been a good time to be a Chicago Blackhawks fan. The renaissance of the franchise culminated in a Stanley Cup championship in June and despite being cap-strapped and having to say goodbye to some beloved players, there's still a good core on the roster for fans to expect Chicago to compete over the next several years.

Even with all the success on the ice and in the community, the business side of the Blackhawks is still slowly, make that very slowly, rebounding from the disastrous days of "Dollar" Bill Wirtz.

Melissa Harris of the Chicago Tribune has a fascinating read Friday about the business side of the Blackhawks. In the article, she details how ticket prices will jump 20 percent next season and move Chicago from second-cheapest in the NHL to top 10 most expensive. She also points out how a Stanley Cup, a sold out United Center and a fan base eating up as much Blackhawks merchandise as possible still hasn't stopped the franchise from losing money.

In fact, the Blackhawks ran out of cash last season. Several times.

"In a follow-up interview this week, Wirtz said that the Blackhawks ran out of cash several times last season. Each time, he received a memo, known as an internal capital call, in which the team requested money from Wirtz Corp., the Blackhawks' parent company, to cover operating expenses. And at the end of the season, Wirtz said he double-checked that the playoffs did not cover those losses; the franchise remained in the red, the team's accountant told him.

"We have multiple businesses and obviously we want every one to stand on its own," Wirtz said. "And what you don't want to do is manage one business from the profit of the other one."

But Wirtz pledged he would never revert to the penny-pinching ways of his father."

There's definitely no penny-pinching going on. Among those set to receive Stanley Cup rings next season include the team's interns. Expect to see some on eBay to help pay off college loans this fall.

The hole that Chicago was in before Bill Wirtz passed away in 2007 was deep. Wirtz told the Toronto Star that between 1997 and 2007 he lost $191 million, and $31 million during the 2006-07 season. Guess that idea of "not putting games on television" plan wasn't such a good one after all.

Even with two straight playoff runs, the revenue generated still wasn't enough and the Blackhawks continued losing money, but according to Rocky Wirtz, it's getting less and less. A Stanley Cup championship and the monstrous revenue that it brings in certainly helps put a small dent in their losses.

Revenue sharing is something that's hurt the Blackhawks. As Harris notes, regular season ticket revenue is Chicago's to keep, but for playoff games, the team has to give the NHL at least 50 percent of what a regular-season sellout would bring in, thus the need to raise prices come April.

Because the Blackhawks are privately owned, financial records cannot be accessed so it's unknown exactly how much the losses were, but Wirtz told Harris with the success of the team now, getting out of the red and into the black is a goal that can be reached and the franchise is closer to getting it's head above water.

[Leedog]

This tells me they ain't gonna bury Huett in the minors to circumvent the cap.

[Ruutu15]

They will bury Huet, they don't have a choice. His cap hit is over 5 million.

The article was good, and thanks for posting that, but it's a bit misleading. The Blackhawks are probably the smallest thing the Wirtz family owns, and while they don't like to mix funds between companies, they certainly have the cash. I wouldn't worry too much about them. If you've ever bought a beer or a mixed drink at a bar or liquor store in Chicago, 70% chance you got that from the Wirtz family. Ever looked at any of the buildings in Chicago? It's a good chance that they're leasing that space to the companies that work there. Bought nachos or a pretzel at any sporting event in Chicago? The Wirtz family owns the foodservice company that supplies every major pro sport in Chicago.

[WaukeeBlues]

According to a report ESPN Chicago, Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Antti Niemi has been awarded a one-year deal worth $2.75 million by an arbitrator. The Chicago Blackhawk have 48 hours to decide to accept the award or walk away from it.

Uh-ohz!!!