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Always trying to push the boundaries of bad blog titles, I unabashedly submit this, the lead-in to a brief take on the Hawks’ hiring of Jimmy Waite as their goaltending coach and the combined, 8-year, $168 million extension of The Wonder Twins, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
That’s right, $168 million. But yes, you can divide that by two and get $84 million. A piece.
Let’s face it, as far as salaries for star pro athletes go, meh, that’s nothing too spectacular.
There is some good in this. The Hawks have two great players locked up really for the meaningful remainder of their careers. A possible sideshow has been averted. And hey, the Hawks and many of their fans always love a p.r. party—and now they have something to celebrate at the upcoming Fan Convention. Something that’s sure to cut the aftertaste of not quite making the Stanley Cup finals a number of weeks back.
The impact of these extensions on the Hawks’ salary structure has now been discussed ad infinitum. I’m not going to belabor it further here, beyond saying the cynic in me sees another $8.4 million per year of cap space consumed to retain two existing assets—not add any. In fact, it will make retaining and/or adding other assets that much more difficult going forward.
So while the Hawks and True Believers in the blogosphere are convinced that the prospect pipeline will come through in the next few years’—perhaps because some online publications have ordained the Hawks’ prospect pool among the best in hockey—I will just offer the following:
Jack Skille, Dylan Olsen, Kyle Beach, Akim Aliu, Bill Sweatt, Igor Makarov, etc.
Remember them? Those were the hot prospects that made the Hawks’ talent pool “one of the best in hockey… just 4-5 years ago.
Point being, finding and developing NHL players is at best a crap shoot. And the best recipe for developing your own talent is scouting and giving prospects a lot of time in the minors to develop. The Hawks have the first. Now, due to severe cap constraints going forward, they have a lot less of the second.
That said, another answer could lie in selective subtraction of higher salaried veterans, like, say Patrick Sharp, who some could argue might be supplanted quite soon by the rising star of Brandon Saad. So all is not lost. But now we get to see how good this front office really is. The test is tougher. The stakes, some might argue, are higher—because the expectations rightfully are as well.
Yes, it is very likely a significant salary, or two, will get moved before the start of the season. However now, the Hawks have a little less leverage due to their obvious cap crunch.
Another factor in maintaining the success of this team is coaching.
Assistant Coach Jamie Kompon, a Joel Quenneville crony, is moving on to run the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL. Who his replacement will be could be interesting—another Q-o-phile, or perhaps one of Scotty Bowman’s protégés?
The good news in all this is Jimmy Waite, a former first round draft pick of the Hawks, joins the team as goaltending coach—and I’m told was essentially asked for by #1 netminder Corey Crawford. Crawford thrived under former coach Stephane Waite, Jimmy’s older brother. The team knows with $36 million committed to Crawford over the next six seasons, his success is critical.
All I have for now.
JJ