Blackhawk Trades & Buyouts

The next two weeks should give us plenty to ponder in terms of the Hawks roster, and who's on it. First and foremost, the defense is a pretty crowded unit right now. The Hawks return 8 defensemen, and that doesn't count Dylan Olsen. Now anyone can argue that Bowman has assembled a conglomeration of mediocrity, but every one of the 8 are veteran players with plenty of experience. Overlooking pairings for the moment, the Hawks could run out.......

Keith / Seabrook
Hjalmarsson / Oduya
Montador / Leddy
Brookbank / Rozsival

There is also the fact that they have some depth in the minors with Olsen and Bret Lebda. As Bowman took it in the shorts last year for never addressing or acquiring a true no. 2 center, I would guess that's gonna be the 1st order of business via a trade of one or more of those guys. Who goes, who's available, and if Bowman has the stones to make it happen all remain unclear.

Then there's the issue of the 2 compliance buyouts the team will have after the conclusion of this season. These buyouts were one of the more intriguing things to come outta this new CBA, and teams like Vancouver (if they can't unload Luongo prior) had to be doing cartwheels. On the flip side, since burying an NHL contract in the minors will count against the cap, one would guess Olesz's 3.1 mil would be the first buyout. After that there's nothing glaring that the Hawks are harped with, but a case can be made for either Frolik @ 2.3 for 1 year, Oduya 3.3 (2 years), or Montador 2.7 (2 years) could be options if they aren't traded before then.

With the Hawks sitting at 64 mil, and with all teams being allowed to operate up to 70 this year, they seem to be in good shape. Next year however, is when a fire drill of activity should happen league wide as every team scrambles to get down the the 60 mil hard cap. The team actually has about 4 mil in expiring contracts after this year (Stalberg, Mayers, Bickell, Rosival, & Emery), but it's getting creative with those amnesty buyouts that could enable them to pick up some space and land a free agent that just so happened to be bought out by another team trying to make the cap.

Time for the big boy pants Stan.