Shedding parts – large or small – of a roster after a successful Stanley Cup run is a fact of NHL life. You know it’s coming. I know it’s coming. The players know it’s coming. The front office definitely knows it’s coming.
It’s a part of the game that’s understood if not exactly loved by fans who grow accustomed to various players skating in their jersey, only for them to be shown the door due to salary cap constraints.
Sport, in North America as much as anywhere else in the world, is a business. Look at it from that perspective, and you begin to understand it a little more.
At least, that’s how it worked for me. To the point that, these days, I watch the final handshake line after the Cup-clinching victory and try to guess which of the players celebrating a championship will be with the franchise when the puck drops for a new season in October.
It seems that players are hoisting Lord Stanley one day and calling in the removalists the next. It’s the ugly side of winning a championship, and it happens to pretty much every team who scales the mountain.
At least Chicago fans aren’t strangers to the concept. In 2010, after winning their first Stanley Cup in this dynastic – there’s that word – run that’s seen them net two more since, with basically the same core of players, they shed some pretty big names, including playoff heroes Dustin Byfuglien and Antti Niemi.
It was such a massive fire sale that coach Joel Quenneville, speaking earlier this week, admitted that he would lose so many, and gave Blackhawks fans reason to not dread the process so much this year, predicting that there wouldn’t be the same volume of forced departures.
So, who goes?
We’ll start at the top with Patrick Sharp. He’s a 10-year veteran in Chicago, an associate captain, and a fan favourite who’s been present for all three Cups. Earlier in the season there were rumours about a trade for Sharp, who was fingered in some circles as being a guy bringing a level of discontent to the locker room.
Sharp is a great player, and he’s going to be pretty popular in the market. I mean, what team wouldn’t want a three-time Stanley Cup winner with a bunch of good years left in his career? Moving Sharp on means the Blackhawks don’t have to deal with his $5.9 million cap allowance. That’s going to ease things up a lot, and probably help pay some of the surely large salary that’ll be given to promising young forward Brandon Saad.
Letting go of Sharp won’t go down real well among the Chicago fan-base, but if it helps them fend off big-money offers for Saad, then it’s the right move to make. Sharp is towards the back end of his career, but Saad is very much just beginning, and will be a long-term servant for the team. It’s a good move for the future, and I’m sure most Blackhawks fans will admit that, however quietly.
It’s likely that two more favourites in Chicago, Kris Versteeg and Bryan Bickell, will be let go. The team simply doesn’t have the money inside the cap limit to pay these guys what they’re owed. It’ll be the second time Versteeg, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, has departed. He left for a few seasons, including the Blackhawks’ 2013 triumph, and returned to claim his second championship ring. Like Bickell, he’s an honest, hard-working player: exactly the sort of guy fans love.
Chicago are likely to go in opposite directions to a crop of unrestricted free agents. Topping that list is Antione Vermette, a deadline acquisition this year from Phoenix who scored two game-winners these playoffs. He was effectively a rental, brought in to bolster strength for a Cup run, and Vermette did his part. It was a shrewd move by general manager Stan Bowman and the Hawks front office, and it paid rich dividends.
It’s unlikely that defenceman Johnny Odouya, who skated alongside Nicklas Hjalamrsson as the Blackhawks’ second-string defensive pair (behind only the Duncan Keith/Brent Seabrook combination) will be gone, along with injured defenceman Michael Rozsival, who missed the Western Conference decider and Stanley Cup Final.
Also probably jetting out of the Windy City is veteran forward Brad Richards, who did played his role in Chicago on a one-year deal worth peanuts – he’s now a two-time Stanley Cup champion, 11 years apart – and enforcer Daniel Carcillo. On that: enforcers are featuring less and less in the NHL as the year’s progress. A lot of the aforementioned players are favourites inside the United Centre, and their loss will definitely be felt.
Yet, all is not lost in Chicago. The offensive core of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa is still there, as is two-time Stanley Cup champion goalie Corey Crawford. And star minute-eating defencemen Keith Seabrook and Hjalmarsson. All those guys, aside from Crawford, have been present for all three Cups, and with such a roster, number four might be coming along pretty soon, which will really support the argument that the Hawks are creating a dynasty.
Then, there’s fresh talent coming through, guys who’re set to really blossom in the next few years. The likes of Saad, gritty pest Andrew Shaw and young Fin Teuvo Teravainen are already making waves – and big plays – on the ice. The future is bright, especially with a crop of highly-touted prospects playing in the AHL, junior hockey in Canada or NCAA hockey in America.
A little short-term pain will result in long-term game, and, even with the players Chicago will likely be losing this summer, they’re probably going to be serious contenders again next year.
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