Chicago Blackhawks' Team of the Decade

As 2009 draws to a close, it brings to an end for the Chicago Blackhawks one of the most eventful decades any professional sport has seen in the long history of this city.

There was a nice nucleus at the early part of the decade that made the playoffs, but then most of the decade was spent with teams hoping someone would score 50 points in the entire season.

Some great names have ended their Chicago careers this decade, and other great names have started writing their legacies on the volumes of Blackhawks' history books.

So, as the year concludes, let's look back from 1999-2000 through the present day to pick the best Blackhawks of the past decade.

Oh, and the ice girls... they're good every year!

Owner: Rocky Wirtz

You didn't really think I would mention his father somewhere, did you?

Coach: TBD

My heart says give it to Denis Savard, and the numbers scream Joel Quenneville, but we'll wait for the Hawks to win something significant before we hand out the Coach of the Decade.

Goal: Nikolai Khabibulin

As was the case I found at many positions when putting this list together, there has been a lot of crap in goal for the Hawks in the last 10 years.

Of course, the Hawks let now-Colorado goaltender Craig Anderson go a couple years back, and there were the now-Buffalo backup Patrick Lalime years as well.

But I'm going to take the Bulin Wall as the Hawks' Netminder of the Decade. He had some rough times for certain, but he took the Hawks to the Western Conference Finals last year. For that, he gets the spot.

Center: Alexei Zhamnov

This was an interesting pick to make. Steve Sullivan had a nice run in Chicago, but spent a lot of his time on the wing. The same case can be made for Patrick Sharp.

Both Sullivan and Sharp have had significantly better plus-minus ratings than Zhamnov as well, but their time at wing discounted their overall stats for the center position.

So it came down to the man infamously received in the trade that sent Jeremy Roenick packing against the current captain, Jonathan Toews.

Toews has 90 fewer points in 93 fewer games with the Hawks in the decade, so the nod went to Zhamnov.

Toews is the better goal scorer of the two, but Zhamnov averaged over 40 assists per season in his four Chicago campaigns.

Left Wing: Eric Daze

I could have taken Sharp into consideration on the left side, but his time as a center took away from the overall body of work here. It really came down to Daze and Kyle Calder for this spot, and Daze barely edged out Calder.

By "barely," I mean it came down to Daze scoring two points more than Calder in the decade.

Daze was by far the better goal scorer of the two, putting in an average of 29 goals per season despite two of his four years being cut to under 60 games because of injury.

He was also +12 for the decade, while Calder was -24.

Right Wing: Patrick Kane

I can't wait to get blasted for this selection...

There were some solid right wings that spent time in Chicago over the past decade.

It began with Tony Amonte's great Blackhawks career ending, and he passed the torch to Tuomo Ruutu before the Hawks (gasp) signed free agent Martin Havlat to resurrect the offense.

But Kane has been the best offensive right wing over the past decade.

There is no question that Amonte, who scored 104 goals in three seasons to begin the decade, was the best goal scorer of the group.

Indeed, his total is 41 more than Havlat, who was second. Kane has 56 so far, but would have to score at a Gretzky-pace to top Amonte's goal total.

However, Kane already has the top assist total, 119, of the four, 10 more than Amonte.

Overall, Kane has 50 games left this season and needs 39 points to pass Amonte for the top among these four wings. He won't catch Havlat's +48, but his +4 is five better than Amonte, who was -1 for the decade.

Defense: Duncan Keith & Brent Seabrook

Not even close on either of my blue line selections, and they belong together.

Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook have been great their entire careers in Chicago, and now that Keith is locked up long-term it's up to Stan Bowman to keep Seabrook here with him.

They are arguably the best pair in the NHL right now, and might be selected to play next to each other for Team Canada in the upcoming Olympics.

Throughout the early parts of the decade, the grab bag on the Hawks' blue line was almost laughable.

While every new face failed to measure up to the standard set by Pierre Pilote and carried on by the likes of Doug Wilson in the 1980s and Chris Chelios in the 1990s, these two have some in and been the perfect match for each other.

Keith is one of the fastest skaters in the league and is the scorer of the two.

Meanwhile, Seabook is the enforcer who will knock guys through the glass (as he did against St. Louis on Wednesday), into the bench (as he did in last year's Winter Classic) or into the next week, as he's done many times.

As long as these two are the top line in Chicago, Blackhawks fans can rest assured that the great defensive tradition of the Indian Head sweater will be alive and well.