Just got NHL 10

[FirstTimer]

The Hawks have a lot of money tied up on D, Brent Sopel is certainly the odd man out as a 3rd pair defenceman earning 2nd pair money. It would not surprise me at all if he was traded in a salary dump at deadline time (March) However due to the tricky situation the Hawks are in they are unlikely to get value for him.

Chicago has probably got to move a forward as well though. I think Patrick Sharp is the likely candidate to go. Although that would be a bitter pill to swallow, their other options; Byfuglien, Versteeg, Bolland are all talented and very young so that would probably be a bitterer pill.

Any deal Chicago makes will not work in their favour and its likely that any "prospects" they acquire as counter-balances will simply be career AHLers.

Chicago is in quite a hilarious predicament as they have drafted perfectly in recent years and now find themselves trying to keep all their assets. This likely wouldn't be such an issue if their handling of Free Agency wasn't so catastrophic, with Huet being an overpaid lead weight and Hossa being a self-indulgent signing. But I digress.

Agreed with all that you say. The Huet singing sucks sometimes but then has been playing lights out lately...then again Niemi has been too. Huet drove me crazy early this year.

I just wish the Bears drafted as well and had the problems that the Hawks have.

[dave]

The Huet signing may go down as one of the worst signings in recent NHL history.
Than again, maybe Brian Campbell's deal is.
The Hawks have had a lot of good fortune in the draft, but their free agent work is awful.

[wr50l]

The thing about Niemi is that to me he is evidence of how mediocre Huet is. Chicago is a powerhouse right about now, with Keith being the leader for the Norris Trophy imo. I would liken the situation to the Red Wings in previous years. You stick six good dmen in front of a goalie and watch him look like a world beater. The difference is Osgood/Hasek/whatever were getting paid about 1/3rd of what Huet is eating up.

[FirstTimer]

The Huet signing may go down as one of the worst signings in recent NHL history.
Than again, maybe Brian Campbell's deal is.
The Hawks have had a lot of good fortune in the draft, but their free agent work is awful.

Campbell just cracks me up because all I can see when I see that jersey skating around is this:

The thing about Niemi is that to me he is evidence of how mediocre Huet is. Chicago is a powerhouse right about now, with Keith being the leader for the Norris Trophy imo. I would liken the situation to the Red Wings in previous years. You stick six good dmen in front of a goalie and watch him look like a world beater. The difference is Osgood/Hasek/whatever were getting paid about 1/3rd of what Huet is eating up.

I would agree with this as well. I think Chicago panicked a bit with the Huet signing and now is stuck with Huet's bad contract, and two good young goalkeepers getting held back because of it in Niemi and Crawford.

[LC AAU]

Does the latest roster update have the contract extensions of Kane,Toews, and Keith?

[leaffan]

I think I'm the only one that thinks Huet isn't as bad as people make him out to be. This is a guy who played stellar like Halak is right now in Montreal.

His contract is a little too big but for someone to say it would be the worst signing in history... thats just a littttttle wrong.

Hell the leafs trading for toskala looks like an awesome move lol.

[dave]

I think I'm the only one that thinks Huet isn't as bad as people make him out to be. This is a guy who played stellar like Halak is right now in Montreal.

They gave $27M over 4 years to a guy who was their backup goalie.
They had no competition for Huet when he was a free agent.
They overpaid big time and already had a great goalie (Khabibulin).
Halak is playing great for Montreal right now (frankly, I think they should trade Price), but no way in hell do you hand Halak $27M over 4 years right now.

Huet did not have the resume for that kind of deal then or now.

[leaffan]

No they gave 27 mil to a guy who just came off a season who went 32 - 14, 2.32 GAA and .920 Save %, got a team (the capitals) into the playoffs by having an insane run at the end (11-2).

A guy who also showed fairly good playoff numbers when he played with the canadians and the year before when the young caps team got busted in the first round.

Huet was signed on the first day of free agency and real quickly I might add. Chicago was throwing out money to try and get a team going. Back then Khabib was playing allright but injury proned. Good thing they signed Huet as Khabib was injured for like half the year. They knew they weren't resigning him the next year anyways and at 36 years old why would they. He's playing real well in Edmonton isn't he lololol.

Both Huet and Khabibulin were paid the same amount of money over the same amount of years. Their numbers are pretty much the same (with huet having a bit of an edge in most categories)

[dave]

No they gave 27 mil to a guy who just came off a season who went 32 - 14, 2.32 GAA and .920 Save %, got a team (the capitals) into the playoffs by having an insane run at the end (11-2).

A guy who also showed fairly good playoff numbers when he played with the canadians and the year before when the young caps team got busted in the first round.

Huet was signed on the first day of free agency and real quickly I might add. Chicago was throwing out money to try and get a team going. Back then Khabib was playing allright but injury proned. Good thing they signed Huet as Khabib was injured for like half the year. They knew they weren't resigning him the next year anyways and at 36 years old why would they. He's playing real well in Edmonton isn't he lololol.

Both Huet and Khabibulin were paid the same amount of money over the same amount of years. Their numbers are pretty much the same (with huet having a bit of an edge in most categories)

Still overpaid him by a large margin. Even you can't deny that.
Has anyone ever mentioned Huet in a list of top 10 NHL goalies?
Thought not.

[leaffan]

BTW current terrible signings (this year anyways) includes:

Brian Campbell 8 years 7.1mil a year (lol free agency at the time. It was nuts)
Jason Blake 5 years 4mil a year (product of awesome season before)
Martin Havlat 6 years 5mil a year (2 goals, 9 assists in 30 games. Great signing so far)

Past awesomeness

Alexei Yashin 10 year 87.5mil 8.75mil a year (The islanders are still paying for his contract and it still counts against the cap. They are paying 2.2mil a year for another 4 or 5 years.

Bobby Holik - Ahh the rangers. They paid him 45mil over 5 years haha. He had 35 and 56 pts the next two years before the lockout.

There's more fun like Sergei Samsonov who was paid 7mil over two years and had like 20 points in two years.

There's more btw!

[leaffan]

Still overpaid him by a large margin. Even you can't deny that.
Has anyone ever mentioned Huet in a list of top 10 NHL goalies?
Thought not.

That remains to be seen. I won't deny or accept anything. I will wait to see how he plays in the playoffs this year since I have the hawks going far.

[dave]

BTW current terrible signings (this year anyways) includes:

Brian Campbell 8 years 7.1mil a year (lol free agency at the time. It was nuts)
Jason Blake 5 years 4mil a year (product of awesome season before)
Martin Havlat 6 years 5mil a year (2 goals, 9 assists in 30 games. Great signing so far)

Past awesomeness

Alexei Yashin 10 year 87.5mil 8.75mil a year (The islanders are still paying for his contract and it still counts against the cap. They are paying 2.2mil a year for another 4 or 5 years.

Bobby Holik - Ahh the rangers. They paid him 45mil over 5 years haha. He had 35 and 56 pts the next two years before the lockout.

There's more fun like Sergei Samsonov who was paid 7mil over two years and had like 20 points in two years.

There's more btw!

Yashin #1 ... that's true.

What a horrid contract.

And Mike Milbury acts like he knows something on Hockey Night In Canada.

The same guy who threw that money at Yashin, and gave up Zdeno Chara and Jason Spezza for him, and picked Rick DiPietro over Roberto Luongo.