2010-2011 NHL thread

[pktmotion]

kinda surprised they didn't sign-and-trade. Niemi is a young goalie who just won the cup, you couldn't find a suitor? I agree we'll be fine with Turco and I hope this means Crawf gets more time between the pipes. A couple of young guys(Bickell, Skille, Beach) need to take a big step next season. I also hope Stalberg gets a shot on the 3rd or 4th line. Will be interesting to watch. At least this'll filter all the bandwagoner fans out.

[Controlled Chaos]

THat's kind of what I was thinking. he really screwed himself by pushing this so far

Really bad advice from his agent who I think is a douche trying to line his own pockets instead of looking out for his player. IMO Niemi would have been much better served to take a reasonable one year contract and play for a strong Hawks team that makes him look good. He would cash in next off season as a UFA.

 

Welcome Turco. Thanks for turning down Philly to come to a winner!

[LittleHurt05]

In Detroit the Bowmans always preferred to spend on defense, not on goaltenders and they stuck to that again. Chose to sign Hammer and lose Niemi for nothing, instead of signing Niemi and getting a few draft picks from SJ for Hammer.

 

Thanks for the Cup Antti.

[Controlled Chaos]

Reports are Turco signed at 1.3 mil. That's a very friendly cap hit.

Thanks for the Cup Niemi!

 

Some bowman quotes:

Bowman on Niemi: "We'll always walk together as Stanley Cup champions. There's no bitterness."

Bowman: Made several contract offers to Niemi, including a multiyear offer, but couldn't come to agreement.

Bowman on Turco: "I know he's hungry for a Stanley Cup and we're hungry to defend."

 

[Sonik22]

I'm quite pleased with this move. Thanks for the cup Nemo!

[LittleHurt05]

This salary cap s*** sucked, but the fact of the matter is the Hawks still return 8 of their 9 top regular season points leaders and their top four defensemen. Their lack of depth may cost them a few games, especially early, but its still a damn good hockey team thats not gonna give up the Cup without a good fight.

[Controlled Chaos]

Also, San Jose is a possible destination for Niemi. I said that was a slick move when they extended the rarely used offer sheet to Hammer. It pissed me off, but was smart by them. No doubt that caught the Hawks off guard: “[Offer sheets] don’t concern me. These guys are going to remain with the Blackhawks. We have plenty of flexibility to make things work.” — Hawks general manager Stan Bowman, June 30, 2010. Because of that 'lack of concern' they spent more on Hammer than they were planning on. If that money was available, it would have went to Niemi. I hate to give San Jose and Doug Wilson so much credit, but is it possible the Hammer offer sheet was a calculated move from the start?

[whitesoxfan101]

The only reason I couldn't really make the case that this would be a wise move even if not financially necessary (and obviously it was) is how much younger Niemi is. Besides that, I would expect Turco to put up very similar numbers to what Niemi would next year, and for not even half of the cap hit if that 1.3 report a few posts back is true. This move bothers me the least of any move made this offseason because the cap casualties should be done for the summer now, and we actually got a capable replacement right now for the guy we lost in this case.

 

Also, San Jose is a possible destination for Niemi. I said that was a slick move when they extended the rarely used offer sheet to Hammer. It pissed me off, but was smart by them. No doubt that caught the Hawks off guard: “[Offer sheets] don’t concern me. These guys are going to remain with the Blackhawks. We have plenty of flexibility to make things work.” — Hawks general manager Stan Bowman, June 30, 2010. Because of that 'lack of concern' they spent more on Hammer than they were planning on. If that money was available, it would have went to Niemi. I hate to give San Jose and Doug Wilson so much credit, but is it possible the Hammer offer sheet was a calculated move from the start?

 

I don't think there is any doubt it was. The Hawks made the right move keeping Hammer and letting Niemi go though.

 

Edited August 2, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[maggsmaggs]

This salary cap s*** sucked, but the fact of the matter is the Hawks still return 8 of their 9 top regular season points leaders and their top four defensemen. Their lack of depth may cost them a few games, especially early, but its still a damn good hockey team thats not gonna give up the Cup without a good fight.

 

Yeah, but we have some good young players that should step up and provide solid minutes. We were return basically 80% of ice time to the team, which is huge, and add a goalie whose abilities are roughly the same as Niemi's. I think we will be fine, but we won't be able to survive injuries all that well.

 

Also, San Jose is a possible destination for Niemi. I said that was a slick move when they extended the rarely used offer sheet to Hammer. It pissed me off, but was smart by them. No doubt that caught the Hawks off guard: “[Offer sheets] don’t concern me. These guys are going to remain with the Blackhawks. We have plenty of flexibility to make things work.” — Hawks general manager Stan Bowman, June 30, 2010. Because of that 'lack of concern' they spent more on Hammer than they were planning on. If that money was available, it would have went to Niemi. I hate to give San Jose and Doug Wilson so much credit, but is it possible the Hammer offer sheet was a calculated move from the start?

 

Oh yeah, in the NHL, signing guys to offer sheets is pretty rare, so the Sharks were clearly trying to hurt the Hawks. They knew the Hawks were going to keep Hammer, so they figured, they offer a front-loaded deal, they can kill the Hawks ability to sign Niemi. Can't say I blame them as the Sharks had no shot at a Cup with the Hawks depth and talent.

[Controlled Chaos]

Yeah, but we have some good young players that should step up and provide solid minutes. We were return basically 80% of ice time to the team, which is huge, and add a goalie whose abilities are roughly the same as Niemi's. I think we will be fine, but we won't be able to survive injuries all that well.

 

 

 

Oh yeah, in the NHL, signing guys to offer sheets is pretty rare, so the Sharks were clearly trying to hurt the Hawks. They knew the Hawks were going to keep Hammer, so they figured, they offer a front-loaded deal, they can kill the Hawks ability to sign Niemi. Can't say I blame them as the Sharks had no shot at a Cup with the Hawks depth and talent.

I know they were trying to hurt the Hawks financially, but if the real reason deep down was to actually get Niemi out of the move...that would be some Machiavellian s***.

 

I actually think this is a great opportunity for Crawford to be paired with a veteran and also to not have the language barrier that would exist with Antti. Crawford has the tools and I fully expect him to be the long term guy for this franchise.

 

The other + about Turco is his puckhandling. He can actually make the Hawks even faster out of their zone.

[southsider2k5]

Yeah, but we have some good young players that should step up and provide solid minutes. We were return basically 80% of ice time to the team, which is huge, and add a goalie whose abilities are roughly the same as Niemi's. I think we will be fine, but we won't be able to survive injuries all that well.

 

 

 

Oh yeah, in the NHL, signing guys to offer sheets is pretty rare, so the Sharks were clearly trying to hurt the Hawks. They knew the Hawks were going to keep Hammer, so they figured, they offer a front-loaded deal, they can kill the Hawks ability to sign Niemi. Can't say I blame them as the Sharks had no shot at a Cup with the Hawks depth and talent.

 

Front loaded deals don't matter in the NHL. The average his is spread out through the life on the contract. This is why the Hossa contract was controversial.

[maggsmaggs]

Front loaded deals don't matter in the NHL. The average his is spread out through the life on the contract. This is why the Hossa contract was controversial.

Yeah, forgot about that. Cap hit and salary are different in the NHL.

[WhiteSoxfan1986]

I think Bowman did the right thing here. Turco is just as good as Niemi, but he's cheaper. He may very well put up better numbers with the Hawks.

[SoxAce]

I wonder if this could be another situation as last year. Young unproven goalie (Crawford which Niemi did) takes over mid-season for struggling veteran (Turco, what Huet did) and helps lead us all the way all over again. I've read Turco with his puck movement ability (the best goalie in the NHL at that) is almost gonna be teams impossible to fore check on Hawks defenseman and will help stretch long passes to the very fast Hawks forwards (Stalberg, Skille, Kane, Sharp, etc..) on odd man rushes.

[whitesoxfan101]

Yeah the Hawks were a bit shaky at times against good forechecking teams last year because the goalies just couldn't come out and handle the puck, so the opposition had free reign to dump and chase, which caused Hawks players (mainly, the defense) to take a great deal of punishment, and turn the puck over in bad spots on occasion. Turco should help out A LOT with that.

Edited August 3, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[bmags]

Depending on the D-man Bowman will bring in to play the 5th/6th spot, I give Stan a B+ on the off-season. He was faced with a terrible situation, and was able to keep the core almost all intact by keeping 19-88-81-10-36-2-7-4. The only move I was actually upset about this off-season was letting Ladd go.

 

It terms of Niemi, I said on the first page of this thread Niemi wasn't as large of a priority that others were(Hjalmarsson), and if Tucro was actually signed at the 1.3 figure, and they bring in another capable body into the mix because of it, I'm 100% fine with the decision.

 

Ladd was a great player, but I'm very happy we got to keep sharp, which I was not expecting.

[bulokis]

Its a good thing we won because it will be a lot more harder to accept these changes if we did not win the Cup.

[southsider2k5]

Its a good thing we won because it will be a lot more harder to accept these changes if we did not win the Cup.

 

It would have been four million dollars better if we didn't win the cup.

[LittleHurt05]

Modano to sign with the Wings, 1-year, $1.25 million

[MurcieOne]

I wonder if this could be another situation as last year. Young unproven goalie (Crawford which Niemi did) takes over mid-season for struggling veteran (Turco, what Huet did) and helps lead us all the way all over again. I've read Turco with his puck movement ability (the best goalie in the NHL at that) is almost gonna be teams impossible to fore check on Hawks defenseman and will help stretch long passes to the very fast Hawks forwards (Stalberg, Skille, Kane, Sharp, etc..) on odd man rushes.

 

I might have said this about Niemi before the beginning of last year (perhaps not because I hated Huet and would have started Niemi over him earlier in the season) but I don't think Corey Crawford has enough talent to win a stanley cup. Crawford doesn't play out of the butterfly (at least that is what I remember) and I don't think a goalie can play the stand-up style in today's NHL. The players are too talented, too fast, and have too much skill to rely solely on positioning.

[whitesoxfan101]

Yeah, I'm not sure the situation is comparable. Turco is a lot better than Huet, and Crawford doesn't have nearly the potential that Niemi did IMO. As for Crawford's style, I think he's a little more of a hybrid than a true stand-up, but he definitely prefers the stand up style based on what I've seen, and i'm not a fan of that either.

[MurcieOne]

Ladd was a great player, but I'm very happy we got to keep sharp, which I was not expecting.

 

Ladd = a great player? I have a little bit of trouble signing on with that one. I enjoyed watching Ladd play because he seemed to bring some intensity to the ice on a pretty consistent basis. But I think you can find a number of guys who can provide what Ladd provided. Was Ladd Valuable? Yes. Physical? Mostly. Interchangable? In my opinion, yes.

 

I think the team will ultimately miss Byfuglien the most, only because he seemed to have a second-gear come playoff time. Buff was somewhat forgettable during the regular season, but he brought something special come playoff time.

 

Letting Niemi go is somewhat risky, because I think he flashed the potential to be a great goalie. Like top 5-10 in the league good. He outplayed the other team's goalie in all but a few games during our cup run. I will account great Defense for some of that, but an equal share was Niemi on his own. That being said, this is a Bowman run team and Bowman run teams don't invest in goalies the way other teams do. That is why we matched Hjalmersson and let Niemi walk. Good defense makes good goalies, not the other way around.

[EvilJester99]

I think looking at the #'s the Hawks made a lateral move with Turco... however Turco is one of the best if not the best puck handler as a goalie. He will help the transition game out big time.

Edited August 3, 2010 by EvilJester99

[MurcieOne]

I think looking at the #'s the Hawks made a lateral move with Turco... however Turco is one of the best if not the best puck handler as a goalie. He will help the transition game out big time.

 

It sucks that Niemi is gone. It really does. By all accounts, he seems like a great guy and he was absolutely a crucial element of the first Blackhawks team to win a cup since 1961.

 

However, I believe (as does the organization) that Turco for 1 year at +/- 1 million is a better option than locking up Niemi in a long term deal that will put the team in a similar cap situation year-to-year.

 

Unfortunately, this is the NHL Cap.

[whitesoxfan101]

I think Turco puts up very similar numbers to what Niemi would (with better puckhandling skills to boot) next year at less than half the rate, so it seems like a good move short term. (although Marty will likely be judged by his postseason performance, not his regular season one). Long term, goalie is a question mark obviously, but if you accept the Niemi arbirtation ruling and he has a decent season, his price moves above 3 million dollars after 2010-2011, maybe even to 4 million. Would you want to pay Niemi that much? I wouldn't.

Edited August 4, 2010 by whitesoxfan101