I was talking with my dentist this morning (who is Canadian and, obviously, a hockey fan) about the Hawks' chances of repeating next year. Training camp hasn't even started and I can single out the two people primarily responsible for the Hawks' inevitable playoff exit next year.
Some may say that Dale Tallon, the Hawks GM who signed both players deserves some of blame, and that may be true. But folks have to remember that after the campaigns throughout most of the 00's the only way players would come to Chicago was by being overpaid. Tallon did what he had to do, and in many respects it paid off. The Hawks won the Cup, but local opinions about an embryonic dynasty are premature. The problem with Campbell and Huet is just how egregiously overpaid they are.
Campbell was the cream of the defensive crop in the free agent class on 2008. His cap number is over $7M and he's signed through the 2015-2016 season. Clearly, the cap his is one problem, another is the way that his contract is structured. He's going to make $7,142,875 every year of his contract, virtually making him impossible to move. Campbell has only played in 75 or more games in four seasons out during his professional career, and for an offensive defenseman has only eclipsed 50 points once (in 2008-2009 he was 7g, 45a, 52pts). His career statistics are not that impressive so someone making so much money. He's been a decent player, but he's not worth what he's being paid. Campbell is the Blackhawk's albatross. Is it too soon to make comparisons to Alexei Yashin's deal with the Islanders here? To his credit, Campbell is a solid player, perhaps in the $4-5.5M range, but no where near $7+. If you're not in the Norris mix annually you don't deserve Nick Lidstrom or Scott Niedermayer money.
While Campbell's signing illustrates throwing money at a player's potential, the Huet signing demonstrates poor scouting and delusions of rehabilitation. Seriously. Huet won more than 30 games once, during the 07-08 season and that was with two different teams. He won 26 for the Hawks this past season, but eventually lost his starting role down the stretch and played all of 20 minutes in the playoffs. Two things about Huet: 1.) He's streaky. He always has been and always will be. He wins games in bunches but seems to lack the mental fortitude to push past obstacles when he's not getting the bounces. This also makes him impossible to trade because no one wants to take on a $5.6M cap hit for a back-up goalie; 2.) As a result of #1, it's clear that Huet is not a bone-fide starting goalie. Huet's cap hit is over $5.5M and he's making $5,625,000 for the next two years. (To put this in perspective, Martin Brodeur, arguably the best goalie in the history of the game makes $5.2M/year.) Fortunately, his contract length is not as bad as Campbell's, but that just means that the Hawks will lose more players in the short-term that they could otherwise lock-up at reasonable salaries before they earned huge pay days. Given Heut's past, he's best suited for a tandem goalie system, much like what the Hawks did this year, which is probably why he won 26 games. However, in a tandem goalie system a team should be spending $5-6M on both goalies, not just one. Huet's poor play has all but eliminated the possibility of keeping Antii Niemi, who actually has some upside potential, very difficult. It should be interesting to see what the outcome of Niemi's arbitration is.
Only time will tell if the speed with which the Hawks' won the Cup after new management took over will be a blessing or a curse. Certainly, hockey is back on the map in Chicago, but the vast majority of those people are band wagon fans. The question is will they stick around when the Hawks aren't winning with the same regularity that they did during the 2009-2010 season?
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