To keep Oduya at $4M and Kruger at $2.5M, we have to move $10M… that's Sharp/Crawford and Bickell, assuming no salary comes back.

1) If we retain even $1M on Bickell (who also has a NTC…), then we have to move Versteeg and fill the spot with an ELC. I assume Versteeg will be moved, just to squeeze that extra $1.275M in savings out.

2) If they hand the reins to Darling, then moving Crawford, Bickell w/ $1M retained, and Versteeg get the Hawks to be cap-compliant.

3) If a cheaper NHL goalie comes back in the Crawford deal, they still have to move Sharp and Bickell…

Any way you slice it, keeping Oduya and Kruger will cost the Hawks a lot, given the probable returns on all the other trades… I would bet that Kruger takes precedence over Oduya given Oduya's age… Perhaps feelers have been put out on Ehrhoff, Schlemko, etc. in the event they can't keep Oduya.

Three of the last 4 Stanley Cup Champions (excluding the 2013 Hawks) have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that all you need to do is make the playoffs. If the Hawks keep Kruger and let go of Oduya, getting to the trade deadline and just being in the playoff picture has to be the goal, given what will be a weaker defense. Then maybe someone else gets moved at the trade deadline for a true #4D, even if that D-man is a rental… This could be Sharp, if he's still here (and has recovered some sort of scoring form), or it could be Crawford if Darling is given more of a look in the first half of the season and proves to be a true #1…

Bowman has made some great moves in tough situations (especially the Saad situation), but he's got to realize he must start selling much higher. And stop handing out the NTC's and NMC's like they are candy...
- DMChi2010

U have brought this up a few times about NTC-NMC...

Can't fault Bowman as it is a big part of doing business. Don't think he is any more guilty than others...
I would say at least 80% of contracts over $4 mill and and over 3 years have some sort of trade clause attached.

So what's the difference - Major Junior pays the kids a crappy $60/week and the NCAA views them as pros and ineligible and Jr. A pays them 0$ so they are eligible?
- RickJ

Also, for every "year" you play in Major Junior, you get a year of school payed for at a Canadian university or college. (Year could be as little as one game)

ITS ALL HAPPENING!!
- TTtime

At the Zoo.

I do believe it.

I guess the artificial snow maker was a non starter.

Why do I have this sinking feeling that when everything is said and done - Stan gets a 3rd rounder for Sharp and has to retain $1M, then he has to package Stephen Johns with Bickell in order to get Bickell traded and meanwhile Oduya has moved on and Kruger signs an offer sheet that Stan can't afford to match. But hey ... Stan almost got a 1st rounder for Sharp before the draft.
- EbonyRaptor

I would say it's because you are impatient and thinking worst-case.

If it dies, it will probably be because Sharp wouldn't waive. He had a specific concern that Tallon likely would have had to get complete organizational buy-in to reassure Sharp on it. Guessing they wouldn't do it—if it is in fact dead.
- John Jaeckel

Is that concern extending soupy?