Well I picked a bad night to have a pinched nerve, take a flexeril, and go comatose. Much happening and some ground to cover this AM.
First, kudos and congrats to Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin for riding in to the NHL Awards banquet last night and riding out with a lot of hardware.
As a Hawk fan, I ask the rest of you: do those compare with a Stanley Cup and a Conn Smythe?
Right.
There are a couple of conflicting rumors out there this morning. As most of you know, I "endeared" myself to most of Western Pennsylvania day before yesterday, by tweeting that the Hawks were in talks with the Penguins about Evgeni Malkin, with Marcus Kruger and Artem Anisimov being two names I'd heard connected.
John Jaeckel @jaeckel Jun 21
Hearing from a good source: Malkin rumor HAS legs. Hawks discussing Kruger and AA in possible deal.
Yesterday, Chicago Tribune writer Chris Kuc tweeted that Kruger is being "shopped."
Last night, Pat Boyle of CSN Chicago, tweeted this:
Pat Boyle @CSNBoyle 9h9 hours ago
Pat Boyle Retweeted Chris Kuc
On this front...Despite his 9.5 cap hit.. Hearing Hawks continue to look for a way to acquire Evgeni Malkin
So, magnanimous sort that I am, I don't resent either per se for jumping on my rumors. And I genuinely feel bad for Boyle when he looks at his Twitter notifications this morning. Penguins fans take things kinda . . . personally.
But all that said, what's going on here?
It is really hard to tell. Boyle is a former ESPN host with lots of connections. Both he and Kuc have "access" to team sources—and possibly those who want to get certain stories out there.
I heard from another source this AM—a new one who I don't know that well mind you:
"Kruger's not going anywhere."
There is another rumor, much quieter, that the Hawks are in fact looking to shuffle the deck down the middle—at the center position—and possibly acquire another bottom 6 center to complement Kruger. And the "Kruger being shopped" rumor is a trial balloon to gauge the market and offers other teams will make for a lower line center.
I don't know. It all makes my brain hurt. Along with my back.
I feel the need here to reiterate something I have said on the message board recently: I will argue for the plausibility of a trade rumor—the logic of why I could see it happening, if I see that logic. I will also argue for the integrity and accuracy of some of the sources who feed me said rumors.
But that doesn't mean they're trades I want to see actually made.
Which leads me back to this Malkin thing.
Reading through responses to Boyle's tweet, I saw some tame versions of some of the blowback I got: "makes no sense," "can't have $30 million a year locked up in 3 guys," Etc.
So yeah, the logical argument against the feasibility of a Malkin trade is clearly there.
But I think that falls apart if you are prepared to believe that the Hawks may be at least exploring doing some major re-engineering this summer.
And to that, I will add this opinion.
The gradual drib-drab of selling off higher-paid or due to be higher paid players and filling in from a depleted farm system is just going to be a slow slide back to the pack for this organization. I felt—and said so on the message board thread and in a few blogs—that the team might need to make some big, and unpopular, moves this summer to break the inertia of said slow slide, shake things up a bit, and maybe extend this run a bit longer.
A risk for sure—but the "safe way" almost definitely leads back to mediocrity.
So if you assume the Hawks might, theoretically, package three to four players and deal for Malkin and be done for the summer, leaving a top-heavy cap structure with no depth, don't. I suspect the Hawks would have 1-2 other moves in mind as well. And, no, I don't know what they would be.
I'm not arguing for dealing for Malkin. I'm not even sure the Hawks have any serious interest in Malkin. I think they contacted Pittsburgh the other day—I stand by that.
But I do think the Hawks are exploring a lot of angles and what's getting out in the press is not necessarily the Gospel. Maybe just a small part of the overall picture—enough to leave everyone scratching their heads. Or maybe some diversions and trial balloons.
And maybe we'll know more 24 hours from now.
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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