CASHING CZECHS
The Free Agency period started at 12 noon, New York time.
While people in New York went out and ordered sandwiches, here in Chicago, Wings were on the menu.
The Blackhawks, for the second straight Canada Day, made the biggest splash in the free agency market, signing Marian Hossa for 12 years and Tomas Kopecky for 2.
What does this mean? Well, Martin Havlat gave us some thrills this season, but next time we see him, I expect next time we see him he'll be wearing the bleu, blanc et rouge of the Canadiens.
It also means Hossa is a Blackhawk for the remainder of his career. The contract is worth $62.8 million dollars, mainly front-loaded. The last 4 years are worth a combined $3.5 million, according to TSN.
Finally, between Hossa (#81), Kopecky (#82) and Kane (#88), the Hawks now have more players with uniform numbers in the 80s than the Bears do.
The first 7 years are worth over $7 million each, which sets the bar for negotiations for The Three (Kane, Toews, Keith). How the Hawks manage to finagle the cap (which will almost certainly fall next season) over the next couple seasons will be intriguing, to say the least.
This also means that, if you count Andrew Ladd, the top 6 forwards are Hossa, Toews, Kane, Dave Bolland, and Patrick Sharp and Ladd. Not bad.
Kopecky's signing probably means the man-love I've felt for Sammi Pahlsson will end in a tearful goodbye.
It's probably also a safe guess that some other players (Huet, Big Fugly, VERSTEEG!, Barker) are on the block, especially if Josh Mora's report that the Hawks are closing in on a 2-year deal for Nikolai Khabibulin are true.
Today means that anything less than the Western Conference Finals is a failure. The Stanley Cup finals are no longer a pipe dream.
As I said after the Campbell/Huet signings a year ago, Holy Fucking Shit.
Categories: Chicago Blackhawks
Tags: Tomas Kopecky Marian Hossa
Khabi signed with the Oilers for 4 years. So the next time you see effort from the Bulin wall will be in the 2013-2014 season.
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Well, Huet will be fine for the Hawks. The meatheads didn't notice that he actually played well last year. He'll be fine.
Don't sleep on the possibility of the Hawks re-signing Havlat for one year. That's still a possibility, but we'll see.
I'd still like the Hawks to get a little physical somewhere.
The Canadiens moves were interesting. Makes sense if he goes to Montreal to reunite with his good friend Robert Lang.
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Kopecky is pretty physical. Playoffs Byfuglien was physical. Did we re-sign playoff Buff or are we stuck with 3 mil/yr regular season Buff?
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