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I was told by an acquaintance yesterday that he'd heard TSN's Bob Mackenzie remark in the last couple of days how difficult it is to get information out of the Blackhawks' organization right now.
Unlike the previous several days, I heard nothing out of Chicago yesterday. All my rumors yesterday morning were coming out of Canada. The Hawks are on total information lockdown.
And yet there is much going on. There has to be.
Still, yesterday's news was a little puzzling: the Hawks signed Artem Anisimov to a 5-year, $22 million extension, which is all well and good, but I'm not sure what the rush was. Oh well.
Because meanwhile, Stan Bowman still has to sign (or trade) Marcus Kruger (soon), and move 2-4 players to become cap compliant (and that number is probably closer to 3-4, because Bowman also needs to take on some salary in the form of a passable #4 defenseman, not to mention any return he has to absorb in said trades).
He also signed Artemi Panarin's BFF, and former (2008) Arizona first-round pick, Viktor Tikhonov, to a one year, $1 million deal. Tikhonov has been playing for the last few years with St. Petersburg in the KHL, putting up decent numbers. This is the same club that Hawk Director of Player Development Barry Smith coached—while Tikhonov was there. Tikhonov, if you recognize the name, is the grandson and namesake of the former "Godfather" of Soviet Hockey in the 1970s. The younger Tikhonov is a lot like Anisimov, a two-way forward, well-schooled, not overly flashy like Panarin.
So Bowman keeps adding young and younger players with NHL experience (Anisimov, Tikhonov, Corey Tropp, Jeremy Morin, Marko Dano), while not subtracting many. And he has a cap problem looming larger with each passing day.
To his credit, all I'm hearing is that Bowman is exploring a lot of different trade scenarios involving a lot of different players.
Yesterday's rumors:
Patrick Sharp to Montreal remained hot; I heard something might be imminent yesterday AM, and I have continued to hear that conversations have been ongoing since before the draft. Later in the day, Eklund was chasing a rumor that Sharp was being discussed seriously with the Islanders—this also was something I had heard and reported last week.
Bryan Bickell was rumored by two sources to be going to Washington.
Kris Versteeg, I heard, was being discussed with San Jose.
Finally, there was a rash of rumors that Corey Crawford was being discussed with Winnipeg. I had heard this originally about a week earlier, but I was asked not to disclose the team, so I didn't. But yes, I originally heard that Stan Bowman approached Winnipeg quietly about discussing a deal. Eklund had it yesterday, and from one of his sources. I followed up yesterday morning with a writer who covers the Jets. He poked around and heard, yes, there is something to this.
Now before the Torch and Pitchfork Crowd starts going all Lynch Mob on Twitter, it's time to understand something about trades in the NHL, and the way Bowman apparently operates.
For every deal that goes down, there are probably 25 conversations minimum that occur between the GMs involved and those of several other teams. Scouts and accountants get involved. So sometimes do doctors. And agents. And families. Things get out. And yes, they come to those of us who chase rumors, whether you like it or not or want to believe it or not.
The temptation, Human Nature, is to shoot the messenger who brings you news you don't want to hear. And a fairly significant slice of the Hawk fan base doesn't want to hear the "Crow" might get traded. I get it.
But here's the sad reality for these fans. If Brandon Saad can get traded for wanting $6.5 million a year, Corey Crawford can get traded for being paid $6 million a year. In some ways, Bowman is up against the same wall with the 3-4 contracts he must move this summer as he was with Saad.
Get used to it.
But just because Bowman explores deals for Sharp or Crawford or Bickell or Versteeg or Saad or possibly Kruger, doesn't mean he is going to trade any one or all of those players. 2-4 of them, or possibly an Andrew Shaw, need to be dealt.
Another thing the previously mentioned Torch and Pitchfork Crowd often fails to grasp, is that other NHL GMs aren't exactly out there waiting to take on the Hawks' bad contracts.
There is concern across the league about Bickell's knees. If you can diagnose Bickell as having maybe lost a step on CSN game broadcasts, believe me, NHL scouts can. No one is taking on two years at $4 million per for a player who might not be able to get up and down the ice a year from now.
Sharp's a nice asset, but he's 33, pretty highly paid and Bowman has allegedly been asking a lot for him.
Versteeg, as Hawk fans well know, can be a bit of a mixed bag. What team MUST have Kris Versteeg?
NHL GMs are not playing with Monopoly money.
So it behooves Bowman to have contingencies plans, as I was told the other night he did in the Saad scenario. During earlier conversations with Columbus, about another player, Columbus had asked about Saad's rights. When it became apparent Saad was going to get offer-sheeted, Bowman got back to Jarmo Kekalainen, and the rest is history. Unless you prefer to follow some other line of reasoning. Your choice.
One of those plans, if rumors are to be believed, is Crawford.
I'm not going to make a prediction about Kruger. I had heard from a good source that negotiations were going well with he and Saad a few days ago—and maybe they were. Although the source lamented that even then they had no idea of the exact dollars Saad was asking for. I should have not made that assumption.
I will predict that some trades are going to be made. Today, tomorrow, this weekend, next week?
But they might not be, like Saad, what you expect or what you like. But, like Saad, they may be what the Hawks have to do in this market with the assets they have to move.
All for now,
JJ