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Chicago Blackhawks Offseason Bonanza Thread


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-Berard not offered a contract/qualifying offer. He's gonna be a free agent.

 

-Thibault offered a qualifying offer. Seems like he's the goal-keep for another year, with Andy/Leighton taking the backup.

 

-Travis Moen traded to Anahiem for Mikael Holmqvist.

 

-Robidas not offered a contract/qualifying offer.

 

 

So, our defense is, currently -- Cullimore, Mac, Vandermeer. I'm starting to believe that Seabrook has a real good chance to make the roster. The Admiral fans over at BHZ said that Seabrook easily became the best defenseman on the roster once he was called up from juniors. They'll grab a FA defenseman, but I don't know about two -- leaving the last spot open to Duncan Keith/Anton Babchuk/Cam Barker/.... (Matt, Michael?) Barinka. Maybe even James Wisniewski (sp?) and Lasse Kukkonen.

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I'm perfectly fine with letting Berard go. There are a bunch of guys out on the market that can run the power play, and play better in our end. Berard was a terrible guy in our own zone. I realize he's an offensive defenseman, but if we can get a guy like aucoin or rafalski who's better in the defensive end and still has the offensive spark, that'd be great.

 

Keith, i don't know about having Seabrook AND another rookie in the lineup. Here's the problem, though. Assuming we sign an offensive defenseman, Tallon has to decide pretty quickly if he wants to leave that 6th spot open for a camp battle, or sign a FA to take that spot. It'd be nice if we could see if any of the guys you mentioned are ready, but we won't know that for a while here.

 

Hawks sure as hell have enough money to sign 2 defenseman and a few forwards, considering we aren't going to sign Khabibulin to the 7.8 million dollar contract he would have demanded on the open market.

 

FA's can start signing at 11:00am tomorrow. Should be fun to watch the next few days.

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QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Jul 31, 2005 -> 10:23 PM)
I'm perfectly fine with letting Berard go. There are a bunch of guys out on the market that can run the power play, and play better in our end. Berard was a terrible guy in our own zone. I realize he's an offensive defenseman, but if we can get a guy like aucoin or rafalski who's better in the defensive end and still has the offensive spark, that'd be great.

 

Guys like Aucoin or Rafalski are coveted players and it's not like the Hawks can say, well lets just go get a top tier defenseman with great offensive skills. Berard is what he is, and if paired with the right type of D-man (Vandermeer), he would probably thrive.

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I don't know what you mean by 'coveted' players.

 

It's not like the Rangers can go to one of them and say, "i'll give you 10 million per year to sign with us"

 

There's a cap. Hawks have as good a chance as anyone at signing top free agents. Chicago is still a great city, and the Hawks are in a good position franchise-wise if players evaluate it fairly.

 

We'll sign a top offensive defenseman, just watch.

 

And i don't care who Berard's paired with, he still sucks defensively. No pairing can change that.

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QUOTE(Pauly8509CWS @ Aug 1, 2005 -> 02:39 PM)
Guys like Aucoin or Rafalski are coveted players and it's not like the Hawks can say, well lets just go get a top tier defenseman with great offensive skills.  Berard is what he is, and if paired with the right type of D-man (Vandermeer), he would probably thrive.

Not as much as other defenseman on the market like Niedermeyer, Pronger etc. The Hawks have targeted Aucoin, and I think they'll get him.

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QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Aug 1, 2005 -> 04:53 AM)
Not as much as other defenseman on the market like Niedermeyer, Pronger etc. The Hawks have targeted Aucoin, and I think they'll get him.

 

I don't know much about Aucoin. Is he an offensive defenseman? Where did he play, and how old is he?

 

Brian, I'm just not sure. Obviously, Cullimore-Vandermeer-Mac are all but locks to make the team. I can buy the 'Hawks getting one top flight defenseman. Two? I dunno about that.

 

Assume they get Aucoin. That means there's four with Aucoin (what'd'ya know, I can do math! :headbang ). Then they still need to fill two spots on the forward lines:

 

Calder-???-Ruutu

Daze-Arny-???

Bell-Brown-Barnaby

Borque-Nichol-Thorton

 

So, that's four guys they need to sign -- unless they want to promote Bell to the second line, and have someone like Vorobiev make the team along with Borque. I can't see them getting four FA's, two of which being top-notch forwards, the other being two above average defensemen.

 

I think they'll go one defenseman, two forwards. Seabrook makes the team, and Babchuk/Keith (gotta buy a Keith jersey) battle for the last spot.

 

I'm gonna miss Berard. Like Tom says, he is what he is -- not a great defenseman, but he still did a real nice job for us while he was here. I don't have strong feelings on it, but he was fun to watch.

 

BTW -- Tom = Pauly8509. He knows more than hockey about I do, his dad has had season tickets for -- a long time. Great seats. Center ice, 300 level, row one or two.

 

Thanks for the link, Brian.

Edited by CWSGuy406
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QUOTE(EvilJester99 @ Aug 1, 2005 -> 04:57 PM)
They should have offered Berard and not offered TBlow....thats just me though...

The problem is who replaces T-Bo in that situation, plus you can easily sign a defenseman to replace Berard.

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QUOTE(EvilJester99 @ Aug 1, 2005 -> 08:45 PM)
I would have Anderson or Leighton replace him...yes not great but TBo gets a lot weaker as the season goes on. Either that or find a goalie in FA market to replace him.

Anderson or Leighton haven't shown they can handle being "the man", the fulltime goalie if you will. And there's not many good FA goalies out there, besides the Bulin Wall who's gonna get a max offer from someone.

 

At least now by keeping T-Bo, if he does go down, we've got 2 very capable backups.

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I absolutely loved to watch Brian skate, puck handle and shelf the puck on opposing goalies.... but the guy really wasnt a good all around hockey player. He was consistently beat on plays, and i dont care how good of a Defensive "D" man you put him with.... his play will result in alot of goals against for his team.

 

I' would kept his ass, taught him to win faceoffs and made him a center.... the guy has alot of offensive talent.

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I've backed off on wanting Satan.

 

People who've seen him a ton more than I've seen him have said that he's pretty soft and is out of place defensively.

 

If they can get him real cheap, that's fine, because he's a real good scorer, and I think the Hawks can use a pure scorer like him. But, I'd rather they put their attention on getting Auccoin and ( :pray ) someone like Peter Forsberg.

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QUOTE(YahtzeeSox @ Aug 1, 2005 -> 03:55 PM)
Can we get Pavel Datsyuk? I remember him tearing the league apart in 2003.

 

He's not a FA, but supposedly he's going to be a part of the deal to get Joe Thorton from the Boston Bruins and get him on the Wings.

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I'll tell you, everything has died down on who gets what - because no one knows how the playing field is going to shape up yet. Someone needs to get some balls and make a big breakthrough signing so the pieces can start coming together.

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