Well even with him out Toews still isn't taking every draw.

And if you believe the shift charts, Toews, Hossa and whomever and Kane, Panarin and AA are seeing the first and second highest quality of competition per minute and shift.

Even with what happened in the playoffs in the last Cup run for two series, it hasn't translated into the regular season.

You'd think that if his responsibility was increased his TOI would increase appropriately but that hasn't been the case. I'd expect him to be eating +16 minutes night.

It would be cooler if they used him more in that role, especially since Toews apparently seems to have some type of lingering if not chronic injury and just reducing his minutes with the way he plays the game is probably not a terrible idea.

He "can" play that role, and probably ought to, but he hasn't been deployed that way or taken a significant burden off the shoulders of Jonathan Toews in terms of defensive responsibility or minutes during the regular season so that is kind of a problem when you try to justify that 3 million.

Kind of weird when you look at it actually. Especially since they have struggled to score at times. You'd think Toews would have gotten more off matchups with Kooga in the line up just to "get him going" or hide the rookies better.

Whatever 3 Cups and a crap load of NHL games Q has won, what do I know.
- fattybeef

Agree 100% fatty, not always a fan of Q with his "way" so to speak, especially last year with Mash, etc but its hard to argue with success. Of course, the old argument whether its Scotty Bowman, Phil Jackson, etc is it helps to have great players and how much did they win with inferior or average talent.

Kind of like Joe Maddon defending his pitching choices in Game 6 and 7. He won, so "all is well with my decision". But at least in my book, the ends don't necessarily justify the mean. But what do I know.

http://www.icehogs.com/ne.../icehogs/?article_id=5468

I wonder why Rockford signed a goalie? Assuming we don't want to trade Schmaltz, Forsling our Debrinct or our 1st or 2nd this year. We really have very little of value. Pokka, Gus seem to have little value. Mcneal has none. What if somebody offered something of value for either Craw or Darling? IE a LW would you do it?

Crawford has been one of the most consistent and if not the best then certainly the second or third best goalie in the league over the last few years. He is that good. Just about every night.

With the amount of teams that have issues finding consistent (forget about good) goaltending, I don't think Crow is as replaceable as people think.
- fattybeef

I agree that he has been great. My point is, that of all the players mentioned who could be moved from the current roster to provide you enough cap relief, his position is the easiest to fill.

A Seabrook trade leaves you short a #2/3 defenseman, plus you lose his leadership and value in the locker room. A comparable defenseman is going to cost in the area of $5.5mil+, not a lot of savings there. Hjalmarsson may be one of the best deals in the league. not many defensemen in the league as good as him for that price except Josi.

Kane, Toews and Keith are going nowhere. The haul that the Hawks would require to trade for one of them makes it all but a moot point. They are not gonna dump Hossa's contract and risk the re-capture penalty on top of the fact that he is still a effective player and not as "done" as so many made him out to be.

There are goaltenders out there who have put up decent numbers and would come at a reduced cap hit from Crawfords $6mil, thats what makes him the most replaceable, and its not a knock at what he has done or how good he is currently.

http://www.icehogs.com/news/icehogs/?article_id=5468

I wonder why Rockford signed a goalie? Assuming we don't want to trade Schmaltz, Forsling our Debrinct or our 1st or 2nd this year. We really have very little of value. Pokka, Gus seem to have little value. Mcneal has none. What if somebody offered something of value for either Craw or Darling? IE a LW would you do it?
- kmw4631

Queue the Crawford trade rumors (kidding).

Johansson has been playing rather poorly since his stint in Chicago, however Carruth has played well. Maybe the team just wanted another option and the deal is just with Rockford, not Chicago. If there were anything bigger going on I'm sure the Hawks would want two goalies under contract in Rockford.