2011 Blackhawks Off-Season Thread

[Severs]

I cannot believe that Blackhawks fans seriously want to trade Patrick Kane. I am even more surprised paid professional sports annalists in Chicago like the idea of trading Patrick Kane.

Patrick Kane is one of the most dynamic offensive players in the league when he has the puck. He is only 22 years old and has produced at a point per game pace for his entire career. He is by far our most dynamic offensive player and without him you would notice a severe lack in offensive production from this team.

If Patrick Kane is being traded I better be getting a player on the level of Evgeni Malkin in return.

[Boom!]

^^^ agreed completely. The guy is a point per game player.

If you compare him to Toews, of course he is going to look bad. Most people will. Kane plays a style of game that very few can, and every year he has improved on his offense.

[SensandRaps]

if you guys trade brouwer what would you be looking for in return? i think he would be a good addition to sens with all the different things that he does so what would be his asking price?

[Severs]

^^^ agreed completely. The guy is a point per game player.

If you compare him to Toews, of course he is going to look bad. Most people will. Kane plays a style of game that very few can, and every year he has improved on his offense.

Patrick Kane is a far more dangerous and dynamic offensive player over Jonathan Toews. Don't get me wrong Toews is a more complete player and I he is the last player I would trade from this team but Patrick Kane is a very rare player in terms of his vision, hands, and creativity in the offensive zone.

People have far too short of a memory. Patrick Kane has been either #1 or #2 in scoring for this team since he entered the league. The kid was 1 point short of being the scoring leader for us en route to the Stanley Cup last season and scored the most important goal in team history.

Trade him now and cry when he reaches his full potential for another team, which could be a 100 point per season player.

[northsider]

Yeah we would be bat **** crazy to get rid of Kane. He is so important on our offensive side especially when it comes to handling the puck and getting defenders out of place. He is very good at avoiding defenders and getting the puck around the net and finding guys to get it too. I would be all sorts of mad if we lost him and his mullet.

[Dagwood]

There's no legitimate call for Kane's head, just an awareness that he did not play well. He let hits take him off his game, and lost awareness of situation and location on the ice. We need a whole lot more from him that promise to be a successful team.

It's easy to give Hossa/Sharp/Toews/Froli a pass when they aren't scoring because their effort on the back check is relentless and noticeable. Yet, when Kane doesn't produce in the offensive zone he typically meanders over to the bench for a change.

We're looking for effort, not talent from Kane. We know that he has one of those qualities, unfortunately only one of the 2 is necessary for the other to be tangible. Effort exponentially increases talent.

[Severs]

Marty Reasoner would be a perfect fit for this team next season.

- Adds much needed depth for us at center.
- Can be used in a shutdown role as well as a faceoff specialist.
- Is capable of contributing offensively in a limited role.
- Good veteran player who brings leadership to the locker room.
- He is not going to command a large contract helping our salary cap.
- Adds a good penalty killing forward to lessen the load on Hossa and Toews.
- Helps bring a physical presence to our bottom six, he is not an enforcer type but he is strong along the boards, hard on the forecheck, and makes life hard on the opposing team.

Reasoner would not be a "sexy" signing by any means but I really think he would fill a lot of needs on this team and bring great value to help us get back to where we want to be.

Combine Reasoner with my idea of bringing in Simon Gagne at a 1 year 3 million dollar deal and I think we become heavy favorites for the Cup next season.

Gagne - Toews - Kane
Frolik - Sharp - Hossa
Morin - Bolland - Smith
Bickell - Reasoner - Beach

Keith - Seabrook
Campbell - Hjalmarsson
Leddy - Campoli

Crawford
Salak

Simon Gagne had a down season but picked up his play later in the year, he is capable of having a bounce back season and putting him along side Toews and Kane on a 1 year deal could reap huge benefits for us. Also keeping his contract to 1 year would not effect the cap space needed to resign Patrick Sharp.

Kyle Beach would be the only question mark on that lineup for me. Beach needs to make big strides this summer to improve his game to the NHL level but we really could use a gritty physical player like him in our bottom six. We could look at Aaron Asham type player to play in that spot if Beach is not ready or look at keeping Troy Brouwer.

[blams1989]

You love Reasoner

[Severs]

You love Reasoner

I have no feelings toward Marty Reasoner, simply the way he would fit our team next season is almost too perfect. It can be any other player that fits this criteria...

- Centermen
- Physical Player
- Good PKer
- Faceoff Specialist
- Defensively Reliable
- Can Contribute 30 Points with 4th line minuets
- Veteran Player who can be had for 900k or less

Think John Madden that can score and handle more minuets and more situations. Or think Ryan Johnson if he was not out of position every second of his shift and had actual hockey sense. *I would not mind retaining Ryan Johnson on a minimum contract simply for his speed, faceoff ability, and his high compete level. But lets be honest outside of that he is down-right bad*

We have cap space this off season but realistically we are not going to be in the market for any marquee players after you take into account the raises our RFAs will get and Seabrooks new contract. We need high value players that can contribute on low value contracts.

[blams1989]

I agree he'd be a good addition. I'm just pretty sure you posted a very similar post a while back.

I feel like it was an identical post, as if I've read it before

[DanTHEman9990]

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Patrick Sharp ($3.900m) / Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Patrick Kane ($6.300m)
Jeremy Morin ($0.886m) / Jason Arnott ($2.500m) / Marian Hossa ($5.275m)
Bryan Bickell ($0.541m) / Dave Bolland ($3.375m) / Michael Frolik ($2.000m)
Brad Winchester ($0.600m) / Jake Dowell ($0.600m) / Ben Smith ($0.812m)
/ / Ryan Johnson ($0.500m)

DEFENSEMEN
Brian Campbell ($7.142m) / Brent Seabrook ($5.800m)
Duncan Keith ($5.538m) / Niklas Hjalmarsson ($3.500m)
Nick Leddy ($1.116m) / Chris Campoli ($1.800m)
Jordan Hendry ($0.600m)

GOALTENDERS
Corey Crawford ($2.666m) / Alexander Salak ($0.612m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $63,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $62,368,004; BONUSES: $780,000
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $631,996

I feel like this is a pretty reasonable possibility and a pretty decent lineup. Lebrun tweeted the other day that the cap may go as high as 63M the other day. Even if it falls short there is .63 mill of wiggle room there as well as .78 in bonus cushion at our disposal. I felt I was pretty reasonable in salaries to Arnott, frolly and campoli to the point where I highly doubt they get more than that and wouldn't be surpised if they got less.
Another option I feel is worth looking into would be dealing brouwer with dman prospect to montreal or NYI for a pacioretty or a comeau if we think we can get them signed for around 1.5. Both bigger guys who play physical but have a little more skill than brouwer and will come cheaper

[DanTHEman9990]

^^ Like a brouwer + leddy for Pacioretty + rights to sopel (if we can sign him to a shade under or at 1 mill that would be awesome for the PK and our blueline. I'm sure he'd give us a bit of a discount)

Picks/Viktor Stalberg can be added to either side of the deal if it needs balancing, I personally do not know how much montreal values pacioretty but i feel like leddy + brouwer is a pretty good package.

I like Leddy and brouwer but we are very deep on the blueline in prospects, we already have plenty of puck movers and brouwer will probably ask for around 2 mill which I'd rather use else where.

[Moosethehawkfan]

Just throwing this out there but i had a recent convesation with my step father about trading kane for tyler myers straight up. I was almost wishing it happened.