Chicago Blackhawks 2010-11 Title Defense/Capocalypse/Kyle Beach Murder Thread

[CT III]

Know what's worse than the Hawks' Cap situation?

The Flyers' Cap situation - they just gave Dan Carcillo a million bucks, they're $2MM over the Cap, and they don't have the privilege of putting a picture of the Stanley Cup on their program.

But they've got to trade Simone Gagne so...there's that.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2010/07/skille_hawks_agree_to_one-year.html

Skille takes a pay cut, the better to assure ice time.

Down to 1 year at $600,000 from last year's salary of $850,000 and a cap number of $1.275MM.

[Quality Start Machine]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2010/07/skille_hawks_agree_to_one-year.html

Skille takes a pay cut, the better to assure ice time.

Down to 1 year at $600,000 from last year's salary of $850,000 and a cap number of $1.275MM.

Once Bickell and Dowell are signed, along when Hendry, and the goaltending situation is sorted out, there's your Opening Night roster.

Beach will come up later on, once they accrue some cap space.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2010/07/skille_hawks_agree_to_one-year.html

Skille takes a pay cut, the better to assure ice time.

Down to 1 year at $600,000 from last year's salary of $850,000 and a cap number of $1.275MM.

Once Bickell and Dowell are signed, along when Hendry, and the goaltending situation is sorted out, there's your Opening Night roster.

Beach will come up later on, once they accrue some cap space.

According to CapGeek, Dowell doesn't go RFA until the end of 2010-11. Cap hit: $525,000.

So that leaves around $3.8MM for Bickell, Hendry and a starting goaltender. ($4MM if they go with Toivonen at backup over Crawford.)

[Quality Start Machine]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2010/07/skille_hawks_agree_to_one-year.html

Skille takes a pay cut, the better to assure ice time.

Down to 1 year at $600,000 from last year's salary of $850,000 and a cap number of $1.275MM.

Once Bickell and Dowell are signed, along when Hendry, and the goaltending situation is sorted out, there's your Opening Night roster.

Beach will come up later on, once they accrue some cap space.

According to CapGeek, Dowell doesn't go RFA until the end of 2010-11. Cap hit: $525,000.

So that leaves around $3.8MM for Bickell, Hendry and a starting goaltender. ($4MM if they go with Toivonen at backup over Crawford.)

Which means wither $2.6MM or $2.8MM for a starting goalie, since Bickell and Hendry will both land at $600K.

They play mostly at home for the first month, so they won't have to carry any more than 20 players, and they'll shuffle contracts on off days anyway.

[Waco Kid]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2010/07/skille_hawks_agree_to_one-year.html

Skille takes a pay cut, the better to assure ice time.

Down to 1 year at $600,000 from last year's salary of $850,000 and a cap number of $1.275MM.

Once Bickell and Dowell are signed, along when Hendry, and the goaltending situation is sorted out, there's your Opening Night roster.

Beach will come up later on, once they accrue some cap space.

According to CapGeek, Dowell doesn't go RFA until the end of 2010-11. Cap hit: $525,000.

So that leaves around $3.8MM for Bickell, Hendry and a starting goaltender. ($4MM if they go with Toivonen at backup over Crawford.)

Which means wither $2.6MM or $2.8MM for a starting goalie, since Bickell and Hendry will both land at $600K.

They play mostly at home for the first month, so they won't have to carry any more than 20 players, and they'll shuffle contracts on off days anyway.

So unless the arbitrator sides with Niemi for an insane amount, shouldn't that $2.6 -2.8MM be enough to resign him?

[Quality Start Machine]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2010/07/skille_hawks_agree_to_one-year.html

Skille takes a pay cut, the better to assure ice time.

Down to 1 year at $600,000 from last year's salary of $850,000 and a cap number of $1.275MM.

Once Bickell and Dowell are signed, along when Hendry, and the goaltending situation is sorted out, there's your Opening Night roster.

Beach will come up later on, once they accrue some cap space.

According to CapGeek, Dowell doesn't go RFA until the end of 2010-11. Cap hit: $525,000.

So that leaves around $3.8MM for Bickell, Hendry and a starting goaltender. ($4MM if they go with Toivonen at backup over Crawford.)

Which means wither $2.6MM or $2.8MM for a starting goalie, since Bickell and Hendry will both land at $600K.

They play mostly at home for the first month, so they won't have to carry any more than 20 players, and they'll shuffle contracts on off days anyway.

So unless the arbitrator sides with Niemi for an insane amount, shouldn't that $2.6 -2.8MM be enough to resign him?

Yep. I'm pretty sure the Hawks' number will come in under that. If Niemi's number is in the threes somewhere, it's goodbye to Reasoner and/or Kopecky.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

So unless the arbitrator sides with Niemi for an insane amount, shouldn't that $2.6 -2.8MM be enough to resign him?

Yep. I'm pretty sure the Hawks' number will come in under that. If Niemi's number is in the threes somewhere, it's goodbye to Reasoner and/or Kopecky.

Here's one unanswered question I have re: the CBA...

In MLB arbitration, players and teams both submit numbers and the arbitrator is obliged to pick between the two (rather than coming up with a compromise figure in the middle or something), the idea being (I assume) that this incentivizes both parties to submit figures they feel the arbitrator will deem fair.

My hunch is that this is not the case in the NHL, but I'm not 100% sure of this and was curious if anyone knows.

[Quality Start Machine]

So unless the arbitrator sides with Niemi for an insane amount, shouldn't that $2.6 -2.8MM be enough to resign him?

Yep. I'm pretty sure the Hawks' number will come in under that. If Niemi's number is in the threes somewhere, it's goodbye to Reasoner and/or Kopecky.

Here's one unanswered question I have re: the CBA...

In MLB arbitration, players and teams both submit numbers and the arbitrator is obliged to pick between the two (rather than coming up with a compromise figure in the middle or something), the idea being (I assume) that this incentivizes both parties to submit figures they feel the arbitrator will deem fair.

My hunch is that this is not the case in the NHL, but I'm not 100% sure of this and was curious if anyone knows.

That is exactly the case in the NHL. I'm guessing the Hawks and Niemi pound something out next week. These guys give a good breakdown on arbitration rules.

[Internet Apex]

So unless the arbitrator sides with Niemi for an insane amount, shouldn't that $2.6 -2.8MM be enough to resign him?

Yep. I'm pretty sure the Hawks' number will come in under that. If Niemi's number is in the threes somewhere, it's goodbye to Reasoner and/or Kopecky.

Here's one unanswered question I have re: the CBA...

In MLB arbitration, players and teams both submit numbers and the arbitrator is obliged to pick between the two (rather than coming up with a compromise figure in the middle or something), the idea being (I assume) that this incentivizes both parties to submit figures they feel the arbitrator will deem fair.

My hunch is that this is not the case in the NHL, but I'm not 100% sure of this and was curious if anyone knows.

That is exactly the case in the NHL. I'm guessing the Hawks and Niemi pound something out next week. These guys give a good breakdown on arbitration rules.

Pause.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

So unless the arbitrator sides with Niemi for an insane amount, shouldn't that $2.6 -2.8MM be enough to resign him?

Yep. I'm pretty sure the Hawks' number will come in under that. If Niemi's number is in the threes somewhere, it's goodbye to Reasoner and/or Kopecky.

Here's one unanswered question I have re: the CBA...

In MLB arbitration, players and teams both submit numbers and the arbitrator is obliged to pick between the two (rather than coming up with a compromise figure in the middle or something), the idea being (I assume) that this incentivizes both parties to submit figures they feel the arbitrator will deem fair.

My hunch is that this is not the case in the NHL, but I'm not 100% sure of this and was curious if anyone knows.

That is exactly the case in the NHL. I'm guessing the Hawks and Niemi pound something out next week. These guys give a good breakdown on arbitration rules.

Source?

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Whoa...

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=328025

The NHL has rejected Ilya Kovalchuk's 17-year, $102 million contract with the New Jersey Devils on the grounds that it circumvents the NHL's salary cap.

The announcement was made just hours after a smiling Kovalchuk had been introduced by the Devils at a press conference.

Kovalchuk was slated to earn $95 million over the first 10 years of the deal and then just $7 million over the last seven seasons. That would translate to an annual cap hit of $6 million per year.

TSN Insider Darren Dreger explains that the deal was rejected due to the fact that the NHL does not believe that either Kovalchuk nor the Devils expected the 2004 Rocket Richard trophy winner would be playing near end of the contract and that it is a case of artificially lowering the annual average value of the contract.  The Devils must now either file the contract once again or the Players' Association can file a grievance.

Should the NHLPA decide to file a grievance, the contract would remain dead until an arbitrator determines otherwise.

While the NHL has investigated front loaded contracts in the past, most notably Chris Pronger's $34.9 million contract spread over seven years and the deal that Marian Hossa signed with the Chicago Blackhawks for $62.8 million over 12 years, all were eventually allowed as it proved too difficult to prove that they were not negotiated in good faith.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Via Twitter, a source has Niemi's arbitration coming in at $2.75MM.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nhl/news/story?id=5426100

If true, that would allow the Hawks to carry 21 players with Crawford as backup (and no raise for Hendry).

Or, if they went all-in on Finn with Niemi-Toivonen, 21 players with an extra couple hundred thousand left to play with.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

I'm seeing it said on the internet that Niemi and Zito turned down an offer from the Hawks of $8MM over 3 years at $2.67 per.

If this is true (and when has the internet lied?), whether or not that means Bowman would be willing to sign Niemi for a year at a touch more, I think it at least implicitly answers this question for me:

Here's one unanswered question I have re: the CBA...

In MLB arbitration, players and teams both submit numbers and the arbitrator is obliged to pick between the two (rather than coming up with a compromise figure in the middle or something), the idea being (I assume) that this incentivizes both parties to submit figures they feel the arbitrator will deem fair.

My hunch is that this is not the case in the NHL, but I'm not 100% sure of this and was curious if anyone knows.

I think it's fair to presume that the Hawks didn't submit $2.75MM as their number.

If Niemi and Zito previously refused $2.67MM per year for three years, I think it also stands to reason that they didn't request that figure either.

[Quality Start Machine]

Niemi coming in at $2.75MM makes it a no-brainer.

I still see in some places it's a one-or-the-other, but this is obviously a split-the-difference deal.

If Niemi was asking for 2.75, this never would have gone to arbitration.