An old problem for a young team

Sam McCaig

• Last Updated: November 23. 2009 8:06PM UAE / November 23. 2009 4:06PM GMT

Chicago, what a town: the Bears and the Bulls and, of course, the Cubs and the Sox. Al Capone and 1960s mayor Richard Daley. There is a movie named after the Windy City and a great old rock ’n’ roll band, too. And if you have ever tasted deep-dish pizza, you know why people love the Chicago way.

The good news for ice hockey fans is the Blackhawks are finally back on that scene. The past decade has been forgettable, as evidenced by the fact the Hawks fell completely off the radar, barely registering in the local consciousness.

Fans stopped coming, the organ stopped rocking. That is what happens when you make the play-offs just once in 10 years

Even for an Original Six town, enough was enough and fans took their disposable income elsewhere.

All of that changed, and in a hurry, last season when a young and exciting Hawks team led by kid captain Jonathan Toews and the next American superstar, Patrick Kane, battled their way to the NHL semi-finals before bowing out to the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Detroit Red Wings.

The Hawks are back, so quickly and with so much star power, that fans are starting to believe the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL might finally come to an end.

If you were alive in 1961, you will remember the glory that Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita provided. But if you are a Hawks fan who is less than 50 years old, it has been a rough run.

The good news is, the Blackhawks are poised to deliver Cup-addled ecstasy this season. The bad news? If it does not happen this year, salary-capped realities might mean ripping apart the roster next summer.

That is what happens when the likes of Toews and Kane, as well as top-flight secondary support forwards such as Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd – not to mention young stud defencemen Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Brian Campbell and Cam Barker – all come into their own at about the same time. They need to be paid market value, but there is only so much salary cap to go around.

To make matters worse – on a financial front, that is – Chicago are on the hook for US$5.6 million (Dh20.5m) a season to goalie Cristobal Huet until 2012, and signed all-star winger Marian Hossa to a 12-year, $62.8m deal last summer. And while Chicago have reportedly locked up Toews and Kane for the next five years they have not been able to announce the deals because they need to figure out how to cut some salary, somewhere, somehow, to be in line with the NHL’s $56.8m salary cap (which will probably be lower next season).

Early this season it appeared as if the Hawks would waive Huet or send him to the minors, but he has picked up his play to the point where that is no longer a viable option.

So the next best guess is that the veteran defenceman Brent Sopel – and his $2.3-million stipend this year and next – will be traded, demoted or somehow eliminated (not in the Chicago way, hopefully).

If that does not happen, though, the decisions become tougher, such as unloading the versatile and valuable Sharp, or the man-child Byfuglien, who is still growing into the power forward role. Barker, a big, mobile defenceman who has youth and skill on his side, could also be expendable.

None of these are attractive options; no team wants to shed young talent, no team wants to lessen its skill level for the sake of a few dollars.

That is the price, however, the Blackhawks may be forced to pay in the NHL’s salary-capped world, for being too young, too good, too quickly.



sports@thenational.ae