At noon eastern time Tuesday, the NHL Free Agency signing period officially began; and signifying a commitment to winning in the new era of Chicago Blackhawks hockey, GM Dale Tallon set off on a spree of signing two of the best available players. In shoring up two areas of need, the Hawks acquired defenseman Brian Campbell and goaltender Cristobal Huet. Campbell, who was traded to San Jose from Buffalo at last year's trade deadline, signed for an astounding 8 years/$56.8 million. He is self-described as a complete player, but is known for contributing on the offensive side. He will add a perfect dimension in quarterbacking the Blackhawks power-play attack (which was weak last year), as well as adding depth to a young, defensive core on Chicago's blueline. Huet, meanwhile, signed for 4 years at just over $5 million/year. He was one of the league's top goaltenders last year for both Montreal and Washington, to whom he was traded at the deadline. Had had 32 wins last season, including 9 straight wins to help the Capitals make the playoffs. Hawks GM Dale Tallon stated that his intention right now is to have Huet split time with current Blackhawk netminder Nikolai Khabibulin (who is being paid over $6 million in the last year of his deal). In regards to the day's events, Dale Tallon had this to say:"Habby and Cristobal give us great goaltending to go with a really good defense. We scored goals last year. We were in the top 10 despite injuries. But our goals against was too high and our power play was not very good, so shoring up our defense and goaltending will help get us to where we want to go...There's only so much money that goes around. We paid a lot of money for the services of these players. We have to be careful now and give our young players an ability to come in and play some of those other positions."
Now, the Hawks are $3 million over the salary cap for the coming season and seemingly have some good talent going into this season, but some big names still remain for the taking in the NHL Free Agency pool. Among them are Marian Hossa, Brendan Shannahan, and Jaromir Jagr. I believe that it would be an outstanding move if the Hawks could somehow sign one of these players to add to the top offensive lines, and give them another lock they could count on to produce big numbers. Another signing I'd like to see by the Hawks: Pens-UFA enforcer Georges Laraque. He's done a nice job protecting Sid the Kid and the rest of Pittsburgh's young talent, I believe he'd be a good addition to do the same in Chicago with Kane/Towes and the rest of this young roster. The Hawks could be looking for an enforcer-type now that David Koci signed with Tampa Bay. One player in the system, however, who could fill this role (and much more) sooner, rather than later, is recent 1st round draft choice Kyle Beach. Beach is not only a tough guy, but also was rated as the top 2 or 3 forward in this year's draft with great offensive talent.
Here's some links to articles about today's Blackhawk signings, as well as some overall NHL rumor/news sites:
In some other, marquee news from today's NHL signings, a goalie-shuffle transpired as Jose Theodore signed with the Capitals, pushing Olaf Kolzig to sign with Tampa Bay, and Andrew Raycroft replaced Theodore in Colorado. Minnesota sniper Brian Rolston signed a deal with the Devils, and D Wade Redden signed with the Rangers. We now keep an eye out in the coming days to see where superstars Jagr, Shannahan, Hossa, and Sundin end up!
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