Chicago Blackhawks: An Open Letter to GM Stan Bowman

Dear Mr. Bowman,

I understand that you did get the Blackhawks out of cap purgatory this offseason by trading Brian Campbell to the Florida Panthers, and I respect that. However, you had a mountain of cap space and did nothing with it. Our big acquisitions were Andrew Brunette and Sean O'Donnell.

Since the beginning of January, the once-vaunted Hawks are a measly 5-9-3, and sit dangerously low in the conference standings, currently the sixth seed, and slipping. It wasn't very long ago this was one of the best teams in the whole NHL. Now, they are a fragile team that gives up far too many goals.

This offseason, we were promised a big, physical answer for the #2 center job. Since then, we've had Patrick Kane, Marcus Kruger, and now Brendan Morrison there. None of them seem to be the answer, and forcing Patrick Sharp into that role simply diminishes his value to the team.

Then, there is the defense. Sure, Niklas Hjalmarsson looked good skating with Brian Campbell. I'm fairly confident Quenneville would still look like a serviceable NHL defenseman if his D partner was someone of the caliber of ol' Soupy. Nick Leddy may one day be at Campbell's level, but he's nowhere close, and belongs on the third pairing, if not back in Rockford.

Now, sure, you and the PR department will continue to sway the "One Goal believers"—to steal a term from Hockey Buzz's John Jaeckel—that everything is just fine.

It isn't, and you know this.

You are a bit handcuffed because of the contract given to Cristobal Huet and your idiotic decision to not cut Rostislav Olesz in time for the U25 rule to come into play. In case you're unfamiliar with said rule, it distributes 1/3 of the cap hit over twice the length of the remainder of the deal. By some reasons that I believe have to do with salary vs. cap hit, the Hawks would have received a cap bonus, and the cap hit never exceeding $800k.

Alas, you decided to see what Olesz could do. When you discovered it was nothing, you put him on waivers and proved to everyone who followed that trade at all that you picked wrong when Olesz cleared waivers and has been mildly productive for the IceHogs. Maybe he'll turn into something besides a burden yet.

Some fans may say that the last time the Hawks dropped six in a row was March of 2009, and they went to the Western Conference Finals that year! However, the team had a world-class goaltending tandem in the aforementioned Huet and Nik Khabibulin, and it's safe to say that Crawford and Emery are hardly that.

The team on the ice this season seems to lack heart and soul. Guys who should be counted on as leaders seem to just make the skid worse (I'm looking at you, Duncan Keith). Nobody can be counted on for anything at this point.

It's obvious some sort of move has to be made. The offense is struggling, the defense is atrocious, and neither Emery nor Crawford can stand on their head and carry a team like this. Get on the phone, make some calls. There are enough teams out of the race by now. The pipeline is stocked, and there isn't going to be room for all these prospects.

Pull the trigger. Get something done. This team has too much talent to just get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Don't let that happen, Stan.

Sincerly,

Jim Weihofen