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Hawks Finally Make a Move


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I love the deal.

 

Havlat can be a top 10 scorer in the league, if he can stay healthy and be set-up properly.

 

That's the challenge for the Hawks now, to get that #1 center to help set him up, otherwise it'll have to be Ruutu, and that's a lot of pressure to put on Tuomo at this stage of his career.

 

I would love to trade for Scott Gomez of New Jersey. Won't come cheaply though.

 

But the most important thing with this deal is that we signed Havlat to an extension, and he won't be here for just the 1 season.

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QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 9, 2006 -> 11:26 PM)
I love the deal.

 

Havlat can be a top 10 scorer in the league, if he can stay healthy and be set-up properly.

 

That's the challenge for the Hawks now, to get that #1 center to help set him up, otherwise it'll have to be Ruutu, and that's a lot of pressure to put on Tuomo at this stage of his career.

 

I would love to trade for Scott Gomez of New Jersey. Won't come cheaply though.

 

But the most important thing with this deal is that we signed Havlat to an extension, and he won't be here for just the 1 season.

 

 

SoxFanForever Posted Yesterday, 09:29 PM

Just posted this on talkbhawks.

 

Hawks traded Bell, Barinka and a 2nd traded for Havlat and Smolinski...

 

Also inked Havlat to a 3 year extension.

 

Thoughts from the big hockey fans here?

 

 

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=170991&hubname=nhl

 

The Hawks did sign him to an extension. :P

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QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 12:55 PM)
Havlat's stats may have been padded by playing on such a stacked team. We will see.

 

Bell is not a huge loss, imo.

I agree with both points.

Will Havlat pull a Khabibulin when he leaves a successful team?

Time will tell.

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QUOTE(The Critic @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 01:21 PM)
I agree with both points.

Will Havlat pull a Khabibulin when he leaves a successful team?

Time will tell.

 

Well, the difference between those two was Khabibulin was an aging goaltender coming off being out of hockey for an entire season... Havlat is young... but he was on such a powerhouse offense, who knows?

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QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 01:49 PM)
Well, the difference between those two was Khabibulin was an aging goaltender coming off being out of hockey for an entire season... Havlat is young... but he was on such a powerhouse offense, who knows?

Don't get me wrong, having a forward who has scored some goals at the NHL level is never a bad thing, unless he has a bad back, questionable work ethic and suspect defensive skills (thankfully, that guy is gone).

Just have to wonder if being almost the only scoring threat, and the defensive attention that goes along with it, will wear on him.

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QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 07:20 PM)
Bell will be a much better player now that he is not a Blackhawk.

 

True, but he'll never have anywhere near the scoring ability that Havlat has.

 

I like Bell. Solid, all-around player, seems like he could be a helluva captain. Tough, will stand up for his teammates. I think he could become a 60 point guy for San Jose.

 

However -- if you've watched the Hawks even one bit over the past couple years, you'd know that they don't have a pure scorer. Even with their latest drafts -- I'm talking Toews and Skille -- neither are 'pure scorers'. Getting Havlat was a brilliant move by Tallon.

 

Don't get me wrong, having a forward who has scored some goals at the NHL level is never a bad thing, unless he has a bad back, questionable work ethic and suspect defensive skills (thankfully, that guy is gone).

Just have to wonder if being almost the only scoring threat, and the defensive attention that goes along with it, will wear on him.

 

Maybe I just have the red-and-black tinted glasses on, but the Hawks first-line of Calder/Ruutu/Havlat has the potential to be really good (if Ruutu is healthy -- watch out). If the Hawks do go out and sign Sergei Samsonov -- while he's not a top-of-the-line forward -- that would make this team fairly deep. No great lines, but it'd push one guy down each line, and push a fringe guy down to Norfolk.

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Remember that Yawney thinks that Ruutu's best position is on the wing and not at center. Will be interesting to see if this stops Ruutu from being the #1 center.

 

What's our situation like cap - wise now? If we get a Carter or Samsonov for about 3-4M, how much will that put us back?

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QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 11, 2006 -> 12:10 AM)
Remember that Yawney thinks that Ruutu's best position is on the wing and not at center. Will be interesting to see if this stops Ruutu from being the #1 center.

 

What's our situation like cap - wise now? If we get a Carter or Samsonov for about 3-4M, how much will that put us back?

I did a little calculating. Not sure how accurate the numbers are but here goes.

 

Hawks current roster and payroll as far as I can find through tsn.ca and sportsnet.ca:

 

    Arkhipov, Denis        $700,000.00    Estimate?
    Aucoin, Adrian        $4,000,000.00    
    Bourque, Rene        $750,000.00    
    Calder, Kyle        $1,311,000    
    Cullimore, Jassen        $1,900,000.00    
    Havlat, Martin        $6,000,000.00    
    Holmqvist, Michael        $450,000.00    
    Keith, Duncan        $621,000.00    
    Khabibulin, Nikolai        $6,750,000.00    
    Lalime, Patrick        $700,000.00    
    Lapointe, Martin        $2,400,000.00    
    Ruutu, Tuomo        $858,800.00    
    Salmelainen, Tony        $750,000.00    Estimate
    Seabrook, Brent        $942,400.00    
    Sharp, Patrick        $725,000.00    
    Smolinski, Bryan        $1,520,000.00    
    Vandermeer, Jim        $570,000.00    
    Vrbata, Radim        $475,000.00    
    Total        $31,423,200.00

 

Toss in roughly 1.3 million each for Brown and Barnaby for their buyouts(estimated, not proven). That puts the Hawks at $34,023,200.00. The cap upper limit is $44,000,000.00. That leaves the Hawks with around $10 million in cap space. This is all a fairly conservative estimate in my estimation. I also read on HF boards from another poster that the Hawks payroll is at $27 million with 7 players left to sign. Therefore, we could still take on another contract such as Sammy at $4 million a year and have plenty of space to work with. Whether Wirtz goes anywhere near the upper cap limit is still up in the air. However, financially we can do it if the management decides to.

Edited by SoxFanForever
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Just my $.02, but a first line of Calder/Ruutu/Havlat scares me very little. Ruutu is unproven and Calder is clearly AT BEST a second liner. Havlat too, is basically a fringe first line player on a good team. This trade, IMO, while it's nice, it isn't gonna improve them too much. Those of you who think Calder and Ruutu are first liners right now are kidding yourselves.

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