Who do you think are the winners and losers of free agent freenzy (July 1st)?
Here is an interesting article on someones thoughts of the winners and losers.
http://www.hockeytraderumors.com/article11552.html
Here is a part of the article that claimed the blackhawks are losers on that day. I thought it was hard to believe, but he makes a good point.
Quote:
Chicago Blackhawks
While signing Marian Hossa to a 12 year deal where he makes only 5.2 million a year looks like a good deal by itself, it stops looking good when you look at the rest of the roster that GM Dave Tallon has. The Chicago team is very talented and only got more talented with this signing but Tallon backed himself into a very tight corner. The Blawkhawks have 17 players signed to 47.9 million dollars worth in cap space and they are left with roughly 8.9 million to sign 5 players neccesary to reach the 23 player roster. This leaves roughly 1.78 million per player needed. While that is doable it takes them very close to the cap and wouldnt even allow them to sign Barker, Versteeg, Eager or Brouwer (who will likely be looking for raises near, at or above that 1.78 million per player). This leaves Tallon with some difficult choices to make as to see who to keep and who to trade. And that is just this year. Next year they have roughly 31.9 million tied up in 9 players. If the cap stayed the same (its assumed it will drop but ill give them this) they have 24.9 million dollars to spend on 13 players. That's rouhly 1.9 million per player and they would still want to sign next seasons RFA's Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Adam Burish. Each player will likely be getting significant raises. Their is no way they could keep all or even half of them and the fact that Campbell and Huet are almost unmovable leaves them with little options but to trade one of Keith, Toews or Kane at the very least and maybe even have to move a player like Patrick Sharp or Byfugien just to be able to sign Keith and one of Toews and Kane. And that doesnt take into account that they will for sure want to resign Versteeg and maybe Brouwer and Eager this season too. This Hossa deal is a really bad deal for Chicago and could spell long problems for them. Chicago loses no matter what.
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