With the free agency frenzy coming to an end the Blackhawks must be satisfied with the way Day 1 went for the organization. The first acquisition of the day, Cristobal Huet, was a bit of a head scratcher because the Blackhawks have Nikolai Khabibulin who is currently in the final year of his deal that will pay him $6.75 Million this season. With the acquisition of Huet, who's deal is four years worth $22.5 Million, the Blackhawks now have nearly $12.4 Million committed to net minders. When asked if the Blackhawks planned to trade Khabibulin, Dale Tallon responded that the Blackhawks planned to enter the season with this " goal-tending tandem." The real story of the day was the Blackhawks signing of defense-men Brian Campbell to an eight year, 56.8 million dollar deal. Campbell gives the Blackhawks what they desperately needed, a puck moving defense-men who can play the point on the power play. Although they may have had to over pay for Mr. Campbell the Hawks really addressed an area of need for team. But with the good news of the opening of the free agency season there came some bad news. We found out that fan favorite defense-men James Wisniewski would have to have ACL surgery and should miss a good chunk of the 2008/09 season. With this latest development the Blackhawks will be in the market for a good, stay at home defense-men who can bring a physical edge, a possibility is Matt Walker formerly of the St. Louis Blues. At the end of the day the Blackhawks look poised to make a run at the playoffs in 08/09 and possibly a Cup run in the next few years.
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3 months ago
I didn't follow the Blackhawks very much last year other than Toews and Kane. How has Khabibulin been doing? I really like him and Huet and I'm not sure how that's going to work. Well written article and I'm excited to see Campbell joining that group of forwards.
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