who gives a shit about niemi!

clicking on that link put up that the sharks are giving hammer an offer sheet...thats the worst thing imaginable for this team right now...that would leave us with 3 d-men

if we lose niemi - so what - go out and get dan ellis for cheaper

sorry if im getting worked up here but we cant lose hjalmarsson

http://www.secondcityhockey.com/

Concur with Nagode.

Oh, I'd love to keep them both ideally, but, yeah, this Sharks offer needs to be met and topped like, now.

the blogs seem to think well match the sheet...but keep in mind this really screws us next year when seabs contract is up

ugh - stan needs to work somemore magic

look at the sj cap situation - im sitting here thinking how the shit can they overpay for hammer?

they obly have 4 players at 6mm or more

the hawks have 6! at 5mm or more...and seabs will command just as much next year - brutal

Let's grossly underpay Turco for one year, while giving him the chance to reestablish himself as an elite goalie.

God, that dream ain't gonna happen at all.

this is what happens when you don't manage your cap

Great, great, great nickname.

We have to match, now, just so I can use this next season.

no this is what happens when you fail to sign your 2 RFA's after the season

stans done a good job of taking care of our cap issues this off season but not signing niemi and hammer these last two weeks has been an epic fail

According to their Facebook page, Hawks are matching San Jose's offer to Hammer.

yeah...thank god...

good write up on lines next year and scrimmages so far...my buddy was there and said beech was a beast

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/John-Jaecke...e-Egg/128/29307

http://www.secondcityhockey.com/2010/7/11/...ysis-for-all-70

This is what happens when someone who is not cap savvy runs your team (actually who no LONGER runs your team).

hawks close to resigning bickell to a long term deal...

apparently from what a buddy of mine told me who went to johnnys last weekend, is that kyle beech is a fucking psycho on the ice...looks like hes gonna fill in eager/burrish's role on that 4th line...and playing with john scott will only improve his worth on the ice (if he sees ice time)

and he also said anthony morrin and ludvig rensfeldt are the real deal

looks like we got some good pieces thru all these moves

hawks also ink igor makarov (long time prospect) to a deal...he said hed never play in the ahl and would only come over if he had a shot at the roster...that time is now

Did you see the Youtube video of him? Fellow Hawks prospect Mathias Olimb and Beach got into an earlier scrap. Then later Beach went after him again, pummeled the much smaller Olimb (Beach is 6'3", 210 lbs, Olimb is 5'9", 165) who fell awkwardly and wrecked his shoulder. The long and the short of it, is Olimb is expected to be out for over 4 months now. And that's what he did to a possible teammate!! Methinks this guy is going to see some lengthy suspensions in his career.

Ladder is quite literally on top of the world!

Ladd with Cup!

very nice

this kovy drama is hysterical

and tampa worked some serious magic getting gagne for matt fucking walker and his 1.7mm contract

good to hear sharpie is gonna remain a hawk...but well see how honest stan is once niemi's arbitration hearing is done next week

hawks trade reasoner freeing up approx 600k in cap space...hopefully this resigns niemi before aribitration and if not will be insurance that kyle beach is on this team next year

hawks resign bickell to a 3 year deal barely over the league min...i dont know how stan is doing it gettin all these guys to sign for less than they were paid last year but wish we could do that with beach at 1.2mm so we can get him on this lineup this year

The difference is Bickell took a discount to get a one-way deal. This means that if Chicago were to send him to the AHL, he would still make $500k+, rather than the usual AHL salary between $60 and 80k. Owners are usually reluctant to pay that much for an AHLer, so it gives him a little bit of an advantage to make the team full-time.

Also today the Blackhawks signed the NY Rangers 2003 first round pick Hugh Jessiman. Jessiman is HUGE (6'6", 231 lbs), but is best known for being the only player from the first round of the 2003 entry draft who has yet to play a game in the NHL, the same draft that produced Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal, Dion Phaneuf, Brent Seabrook, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlad and Corey Perry (among others!).

whether its a two way or one way i dont think matters that much

bickell, skille, makarov these are all guys who KNOW they are going to be on this team this year and are all taking paycuts from what they could probably receive from other teams - especially skille and bickell

so while in essence yes its a raise from their icehogs/khl earnings they are still taking sizeable cuts - especially skille

i think bowman is selling these guys on the fact that these guys can be an nhl dyansty starting in the 2011-2012 season...especially since bickell would have been much better signing a 1-year deal and increasing his earning power next off season (especially since i think hes gonna be pretty great this year)

in regards to jeissman (caop geek also reporting weve re-signed nathan davis) that 03 draft was probably one of the best of all time from what i recall...MAF, vanek, phanuef, parise, getzlaf, kesler, seabs...geez

if you put makarov, jeissman, john scott, bickell and beach on the ice youll have a bunch of big dumb animals out there

ive been using capgeeks calculator and heres what i have for next year...about 1mm over if we dress 13F and 7D

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Patrick Kane ($6.300m) / Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Marian Hossa ($5.275m)
Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) / Patrick Sharp ($3.900m) / Tomas Kopecky ($1.200m)
Viktor Stalberg ($0.850m) / Dave Bolland ($3.375m) / Jack Skille ($0.600m)
Bryan Bickell ($0.541m) / Jake Dowell ($0.525m) / Kyle Beach ($1.170m)
Igor Makarov ($0.552m)

DEFENSEMEN
Brian Campbell ($7.142m) / Duncan Keith ($5.538m)
Brent Seabrook ($3.500m) / Niklas Hjalmarsson ($3.500m)
Shawn Lalonde ($0.773m) / jordan hendry ($0.600m)
Ivan Vishnevskiy ($0.821m)

GOALTENDERS
anti niemi ($2.500m) /Corey Crawford ($0.800m)

CARRY-OVER BONUS PENALTY: $4,157,753

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $59,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $60,949,090; BONUSES: $610,000
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): -$939,090

so ladd only signs a 1 year deal...could we see him on the hawks again???

arbitration today...and looks like hawks are in early talks with turco and theodore right now

2.75mm to niemi (right in the 3yr 8mm offer he got from the hawks supposedly)...right in that iffy area over 2.5mm....leave him get turco and go after andy sutton

Heh, unless you're a Chicago fan this has been the most boring offseason in forever.

buh bye anti...and hello marty

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...alie-turco.html

tsn is reporting hes signing for 1.3mm....great job by stan on that front

Durn, too bad the Sharks already signed Niittymaki...

they still may well sign him...i could totally see the caps or canadiens gettin him tho

Habs won't be able to afford Niemi after they sign Price. They have something like 4 million in cap space to work with. I think.

im saying instead of signing price

Nah, Price will be signed. He's gonna hardball them before they do, though.

ANd Captain "taves" said that the Hawks couldn't win another cup w/o Niemi.

i didnt buy that as anything more than showing support for your goaltender

next year the hawks could be faster (and younger) than last years team

think about it - you drop sopel and buff - easily your two slowest players

you add beach whos not only going to be your "power" foward but has pretty decent speed for his size...you trade a fast steeger for an even faster vishnevsky

you add turco who is the best puck handling goalie - esentially adding a 7th dman back there who can handle the puck...this will lead to lightning fast transition game AND will make teams much less hesitant to dump the puck and change lines - leaving lots of tired hockey players on the ice or neutral zone turnovers

those who want to rebuke this team as done are insane - we are going to put 2 O lines and 2 D lines of all start caliber players out there - not many teams can say that...and im not trying to take anything away from his performance last year but part if not most of niemi success can be attributed to the players in front of him

will we be the obvious favorites we were last year? no...but we will be damn good

the first 3 months of next season will be quite interesting as Q will get lineup change happy and try out a myriad of 3 and 4th line combos bringing up tons of guys form rockford

i wont mind it this time though as we really need to evaluate the depth of our farm teams (which is pretty great) and either make some deals or let the kids play

Fernando Pisani signs with Chicago. Quality guy, a good mucker, but he's one of those veterans who had to be weeded out of the Oilers so they could make room for their bumper crop of rookies.

this is not a bad pick up to find a guy who can eat up PK minutes that sopel leaves behind...im rooting for the guy cause he suffers from ulcerative colitis just like me...

this signing makes me think beach or skille are the odd men out...beach more than likely cause of his contract

but methinks with how line up happy Q is, we wont see any consistency in the 3rd and 4th lines til Jan 2011

niemi to the sharks - 1yr 2mm...less than the hawks offered

he needs to fire his agent tomorrow....

sharks boards are going apeshit mad right now...ha!

good luck playing next year behind dan boyle and dany heatley!

dont know if anyone watched the first preseason game last night...

pisani looked good...im really rooting for him since him and i both suffer from ulcerative colitis and its great to see someone be able to get back out there and do what they do best

turco looked good and his passin from the D zone is going to be awesome come the regular season

makarov looked just OK despite all the hype this off season

going to the game on sat against the wings - cant wait to see the hell on skates that is kyle beach - really hoping he plays well enough to make the club this year

If anyone wants to go this Saturday, I have two Standing Room tickets that I need to sell.

$75 for the pair.

PM me

^ If I were around, I'd definitely get on that. Unfortunately, I need to figure out a way to watch games in England. I'm assuming it's gonna be tough to get NHL center ice over here.

you can find it online...if you hop in secondcityhockeys game day threads the guys on there usually know a link to grab it online

Gracias. I've been there, and those guys have given me some pretty solid gouge about finding it online. What I really want to figure out, is how to record the games. Playoffs, detroit games, weekends, I'll probably tough it out and watch the game at 2am. For the rest of them, I'd love a chance to watch them at a normal time. Either that or I'll just watch the highlights.

This was pretty great tonight:



Pretty much do or die time. I hope this two day "win streak" starts a serious win streak.