The Puck Stops Here
Arbitration Sets Chicago Goalies
by PuckStopsHere on 08/02/10 at 04:09 PM ET
Comments (5)
When Niklas Hjalmarsson signed an offer sheet with the San Jose Sharks, it was clear that Chicago would have to further reduce the number of remaining Blackhawks from their 2010 Stanley Cup winning team. Gone already were Andrew Ladd, Ben Eager, Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, John Madden, Brent Sopel, Colin Fraser and Adam Burish. Cristobal Huet is presumed demoted to the AHL to save salary cap space. That huge list of players who are gone wouldn’t be enough. When Antti Niemi was given a $2.75 million arbitration award, it was clear that he would be the player gone. Chicago would try to defend their Stanley Cup championship with neither of the goalies who took them there.
Instead, the Blackhawks relied on the glut of unsigned UFA goalies to bring in Marty Turco on a one year $1.3 million contract. Their backup will presumably one of Corey Crawford or Hannu Toivonen.
In the past it has not been common for a Stanley Cup winning team to make considerable changes in the following summer. Things worked well in their Stanley Cup run and it is a reasonable expectation that if you keep your team together, things will work well again. The salary cap has changed this. Chicago pushed their salary in 2009/10 right to the salary cap limit and left a considerable amount for bonuses to be carried over until the 2010/11 season. That coupled with the normal raises due to a group of players who succeeded in winning the Stanley Cup meant that many of the 2010 players would not be back to try to defend their victory. In all likelihood, the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup defence was defeated before it began by the salary cap. Unfortunately that seems like the way of the NHL today. Good teams cannot be kept together and elite teams can never be formed.
The Hawks will go into next season with a 35 year old Marty Turco in their goals. He is not a bad goalie, though he has probably seen better days. However, his .913 saves percentage was marginally better than Niemi put up in the 2009/10 regular season. That said Niemi likely has a better upside. He will be 27 next year and in only his second NHL season. It is entirely possible that Turco will put up as good or better numbers next year, but as a long term hold, Niemi is your man.
When it comes to back-up goaltending, there is not much to count upon. Corey Crawford is 25 years old and has played in eight regular season games over the past five years. He has shown some promise at the AHL level, but has never been the top goalie at that level. Hannu Toivonen is 26 and has played 61 NHL regular season games with the Boston Bruins and the St Louis Blues. He was relatively ineffective in those games and has been out of the NHL since 2008. Either could be effective, but neither has shown it in the past and both have been given their chances. Most likely one will be a seldom used backup and Chicago will use Turco in 60+ games, if he stays healthy.
Effectively, Chicago chose to keep Niklas Hjalmarsson over Antti Niemi. Given their respective ages and the glut of proven free agent goaltenders, it is likely the right choice, but it is a tough strategic choice. The Chicago team will not be as strong next year as they were in 2009/10. I doubt they will come close to defending their Stanley Cup championship. They are probably going to be the most significant example of a “one and out” Stanley Cup winner to date, where they have no chance at a second due to salary cap forced roster moves. Is this the way of the future in the NHL? Do teams have to gut their futures to win a Stanley Cup now? It certainly seems as though Chicago did.
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Tags: Antti+Niemi, Chicago+Blackhawks, Corey+Crawford, Hanno+Toivonen, Marty+Turco, Niklas+Hjalmarsson,
Comments
Good teams cannot be kept together and elite teams can never be formed.
I won’t argue the second point here due partly in nature to the well-documented differences in our definitions of “elite” and due partly to a tendency to mostly agree with that statement (except I don’t like to say “never”) However, as tmoore pointed out above, the Hawks are (or rather will turn out to be) an example of how to make a one-and-done Stanley Cup winning squad, but they are not the norm. The Penguins, Red Wings, Capitals, and Canucks are all examples of good teams that can be kept together under the current system. While two of those teams exploited a loophole of the CBA that will likely be closed in 2012, I think it is possible to keep a good team together.
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 08/02/10 at 05:29 PM ET
Agree w/ JJ.
To point to Chicago’s nuclear dismantling as anything normal or indicative of the “cap era” is to ignore every other team that has gone to the Finals (won or lost) since the lockout. Sure teams will shed one or two guys, and the Pens/Wings losing Hossa was really an odd thing specific to that guy. But nothing like what we’re seeing w/ Chicago. I can’t remember a time in Detroit, EVER, where they turned over so much roster in one off-season. Or any team for that matter.
Chicago is NOT the norm. Chicago had a perfect storm of salary raises due to a lot of young players mixed with some overpaid veterans/bad contracts, and the whole deferring-bonus-pay problem. In short, they managed themselves into a terrible predicament and traded a solid future for a Stanley Cup. At least it paid off for them, but their fans are overly optimistic about their future given all the huge question marks they face now. The Penguins illustrated what a top heavy team looks like in the playoffs this past year.
Oh, and San Jose screwed them w/ that Hjalmarrson deal. Brilliant move.
Posted by awould on 08/02/10 at 05:42 PM ET
Also, agree that keeping Hjalmarsson over Niemi is the right choice, mainly because a solid D guy is solid gold in the NHL. Also, Niemi gave up a season’s worth of goals in the Cup Finals. His half-a-season of regular season starts was respectable but less impressive (in my opinion) than Jimmy Howard of Detroit, who put up similar stats in double the games (showing more consistency) and under worse conditions (Detroit/Injured, Chicago/Healthy). That said, I am wholly not on the Niemi bandwagon and remember a guy named Steve Mason in Columbus who was a total dog his second year. Niemi still has a ton to prove. Turco though, he’ll take them exactly no place past the second round (maybe).
Detroit’s path to another Central Division crown is paved with Turco’s contract.
Posted by awould on 08/02/10 at 05:46 PM ET
I agree with everyone. This isn’t the norm and with good management it won’t be. awould is right on, it was the perfect storm for the Hawks both their fault and not their fault. Eventually you’ll have a team like Detroit who had to let Hossa, Sammy and Hudler go (even though Hudler is back now) but look at Detroit now. One not as good year and they’ve got a better more solid team going into next year plus a core group of guys to build around for years and in the next few years will shed some salary when Lidstrom, Rafalski, Osgood and Draper retire. And while Lidstrom will be tough to replace they still have a good group locked up for a while.
The Hawks did sacrifice to get a Cup and luckily for them it worked. Imagine had Kane not scored with 13 seconds left in game 5 against the Preds. They could have been gone in round 1 and would still be having to make most of the moves they are right now. Niemi might be staying but that’s it.
Posted by tmoore4075 on 08/02/10 at 05:48 PM ET
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They are one and done because of bad management. Both with McDonough pushing for Campbell and Hossa, and maybe Huet for all we know. And with Tallon not filing the qualifying offers for the RFA’s on time last year. Campbell is hurting them more than anything.
Posted by tmoore4075 on 08/02/10 at 04:57 PM ET