While many have expected the Blackhawks to make a splash following last week’s trade of Marian Hossa, that may not necessarily be the case. Speaking with reporters, including Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times, GM Stan Bowman alluded to the possibility that instead of adding more help this summer, they are comfortable carrying their cap room into the season:
“It’s an option if we can find the right player or the right situation. We certainly have more options than we did before. I wouldn’t say we have to do something. Having cap space is an asset in and of itself, so things will come along maybe in the summer, maybe in the beginning part of the year.”
The Blackhawks have been linked to several notable players this summer including Carolina winger Jeff Skinner and defenseman Justin Faulk plus Montreal winger Max Pacioretty but clearly, they haven’t been able to find the right trade just yet.
Elsewhere around the league:
- The Hurricanes announced that they have hired Dean Chynoweth as an assistant coach. He replaces Steve Smith, who resigned to join Buffalo’s coaching staff last week. Chynoweth spent last season as an associate coach with Vancouver of the WHL but has three seasons of NHL experience behind the bench with the Islanders from 2009-10 to 2011-12. He rounds out a new-look coaching staff with Rod Brind’Amour taking over for Bill Peters as head coach and Jeff Daniels, who was hired as their other assistant earlier this summer.
- The Devils have inked center Yegor Sharangovich to an entry-level deal, his agent Dan Milstein announced (via Twitter). The 20-year-old was New Jersey’s fifth-round pick (141st overall) in last month’s draft. Sharangovich spent last season with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL, collecting four goals and eight assists in 47 regular season games while finishing second on Team Belarus in scoring at the World Juniors. He also suited up in seven games for Belarus at the World Championships.
- The Wild are expected to name Tim Army as their new AHL head coach, Mark Divver of the Providence Journal reports (Twitter link). He served as an assistant with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season but also has 15 years of NHL coaching experience under his belt between Anaheim, Washington, and Colorado.
The best move the Hawks could make is fire Bowman. This guy is a joke and if his last name wasn’t Bowman he wouldn’t be the GM. He inherited almost all the talent from Talon and then straddled the Hawks with terrible contracts. His trade record is abysmal at best.
Until he is fired the Hawks will never return to the glory years. The Blues were better last year and just killed it with F/A and trades the last 3 weeks.
Oh Lord this again? Should they also discard his 3 cups?
Boi have u seen those contracts? The Blackhawks are going to set records with how terrible they’ll be.
Doesn’t matter. That’s the price you pay to win championships. You think if you asked the fans and players if they’d trade those three cups for a few seasons of cap hell they would say yes?
Yes Anthony we are starting this again. Why can’t people realize bowman is a terrible GM who has had his core group of players handed to him.
Because most fans would take an aging, overpaid, and unmovable core group of players if it meant 3 Stanley Cup wins in the past decade.
He is terrible and inherited his core all his rings should be on Tallons fingers
Yup. Even the Kings fired their architect of the stanley cups. Bowman didnt even get them their core guys
You can credit Tallon with orchestrating the first one. But Bowman navigated for the following two. The problem right now is having paid “the core” for what has already been accomplished and not for what they hope to obtain again in the future. At least people are complaining about losing again though. It’s a testament to how this organization has changed the culture and expectations over the last decade.
I agree with moving Bowman.If this year is a bust then it’s probably time for Q to move on as well.The contracts are what they are.Time to move on from that noise.