Make no mistake: what the Blackhawks do (or don't do) once the trade freeze is lifted and until the trade deadline on March 3 will have lasting and potentially powerful repercussions that will be felt throughout the playoffs, and possibly for years to come.

Pretty bold, eh?

It's also true.

Why?

We all know the Blackhawks' cap situation: they essentially need to trim $8-10 million from their roster to get under the cap next season.

There are the dollars to that equation. And there's the sense. The Blackhawks are a loaded team right now. And while they will be a very good team for years to come, with the likes of Marian Hossa, Pat Kane, Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell and Jonathan Toews locked up long-term, they will also be relying next year on a few more $700,000 a year players, a few less players of the caliber of Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien or possibly Patrick Sharp.

The Blackhawks will go into each of the next five seasons, barring the unforeseen, as a playoff, if not a Cup, contender. But they might have no better shot at a Cup than they do this year.

While owner Rocky Wirtz has recently scoffed at the notion that the Hawks' window will close after this year (and rightly so), Wirtz and the marketing-driven braintrust at 1901 W. Madison are well aware that this is a very critical year.

The team has literally saturated the airwaves with a smart, well-produced ad campaign, stressing the "One Goal" of the Chicago Blackhawks. Team executives constantly go on record that winning the Stanley Cup is the ultimate goal. Fans completely expect that the team will advance beyond it's Western Conference Final appearance last year.

If the team fails to deliver, especially if the perceived Achilles' Heel of the team— goaltending, is its undoing, Hawk management will be blamed for sitting on their hands between this coming Monday and Wednesday.

The Hawks made a good, possibly great, deal, sending Cam Barker to Minnesota for Kim Johnssson and prospect Nick Leddy. In addition to the hockey players they got back, they reduced their cap challenge by $3 million+.

And to be clear, getting good value while dealing another $8-10 million in salary over a short summer with multiple other tasks to attend to— a draft, restricted free agency (a trouble spot for the Hawks' front office last year), prospect and training camps— is no small task.

So if the Hawks push those decisions off to the summer, then fail to deliver, or have another administrative snafu (that sources tell me was not deposed GM Dale Tallon's fault), then there will be hell to pay.

There are largely good feelings between the Hawks and their fanbase, but there are some hairline cracks in the brand that could become huge crevices. Tallon's dismissal, as well as the stories and rumors behind it, have not endeared certain members of the Blackhawk executive team to the fanbase.

Now, some might say I'm presenting a counter-intuitive argument, that cutting salary now only hurts the team's chances this season. Hogwash. The Barker deal is an example of how the team can be improved, while trimming next year's budget AND adding assets for the future.

Some might argue that the goaltending really isn't that big of a problem, that the team leads the league in GAA. And with this, I tend to agree.

While some loud, self-appointed goaltending coaches in the Blackhawk fanbase have written Cristobal Huet off, and anointed Antti Niemi the savior of the franchise, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Huet, in fact, can be an outstanding goalie for long stretches. He was, by just about any measure, one of the best goalies in the league from 2005-2008. And he has been strong for stretches this season, though he remains inconsistent. Niemi is big, athletic and as quick as a goalie comes, but he (like Huet and 90% of the other goalies in the league) can be beaten up high. Niemi also gives up a lot of rebounds and can lose positioning (though he's much improved in that regard.

A recent, persistent rumor has the Hawks talking to Florida about a deal involving Huet and Tomas Vokoun, but also including assets like Versteeg and Rockford (AHL) goaltender Corey Crawford.

There are mixed opinions on the likelihood of something like this happening. Many cannot see how it would benefit Florida. Well, I have heard from two sources now that Florida GM Randy Sexton is very high on Versteeg as the kind of player he needs to rebuild his club around.

Some scoff at that, as though there are numerous other teams with young, talented assets like Versteeg to deal. Which is an incorrect assumption. In fact, just about any team that might be in the market for Vokoun is probably offering up higher-priced, less promising players than Versteeg. Why? Because no one has the depth of quality young players that the Blackhawks do. In that regard, the Blackhawks' 2011 cap issue is also an advantage, as long as they're willing to deal in 2010.

Further, Huet and Crawford are better regarded among scouts and coaches than they are among pundits and fans.

And the deal makes tons of sense for the Blackhawks. Not only would they be able to tell their fanbase that they made a big move to shore up a perceived problem area, but they would give themselves more cap relief (in all likelihood)— and, perhaps most important of all, they would put themselves in position to play hardball with Niemi, who becomes an arbitration-rights eligible free agent this summer.

Put another way, if they continue down the course they're going, with a $5.625 million per year backup goalie, and a 1st stringer going in to free agency, their cap and free agency problem becomes much larger at a time when they absolutely cannot afford it.

This, folks, is why the Hawks are likely to try very hard to pull off a deal of this nature with Florida or some other team.

And it's why these will be a couple of very interesting days, indeed.

Thanks for reading.



JJ

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