JJ, first I dispute any young player let go, not due directly to a cap purge (Ladd, Byfuglien etc.) are or will be "superstars" in fact I can't see any being stars in the league with the outside chance of Leddy's offensive exploits. Leddy is a poor mans Mike Green or Kris Letang and neither of those guys would fare well under Q because of their erratic defensive play and neither is or will be a Superstar..

Other than that I agree 100% with your blog. If a player can't play or shows the potential to play a 200 foot game with skating ability and good hockey smarts, Quenneville has no use for that player. Pirri is a tweaner a guy who is a solid AHLer but is a borderline NHLer. J. Hayes was given some opportunities but he didn't have the skating ability or was willing to use his size while in Chicago. He is doing well for Florida, kudos to him. Morin is a spare part on a bad Columbus team.

Quenneville isn't in a position to be developing players other than how to play the style he wants. The Hawks aren't a rebuilding club, they are a perrennial contender. And considering that, the Hawks are in fact putting a rookie on the team almost every season. The "Q doesn't develop young players" nonsense has no basis in reality, it's about fans upset that the players they flagged as potential stars weren't able to make the team because of their own abilities, or lack thereof.

JJ, first I dispute any young player let go, not due directly to a cap purge (Ladd, Byfuglien etc.) are or will be "superstars" in fact I can't see any being stars in the league with the outside chance of Leddy's offensive exploits. Leddy is a poor mans Mike Green or Kris Letang and neither of those guys would fare well under Q because of their erratic defensive play and neither is or will be a Superstar..

Other than that I agree 100% with your blog. If a player can't play or shows the potential to play a 200 foot game with skating ability and good hockey smarts, Quenneville has no use for that player. Pirri is a tweaner a guy who is a solid AHLer but is a borderline NHLer. J. Hayes was given some opportunities but he didn't have the skating ability or was willing to use his size while in Chicago. He is doing well for Florida, kudos to him. Morin is a spare part on a bad Columbus team.

Quenneville isn't in a position to be developing players other than how to play the style he wants. The Hawks aren't a rebuilding club, they are a perrennial contender. And considering that, the Hawks are in fact putting a rookie on the team almost every season. The "Q doesn't develop young players" nonsense has no basis in reality, it's about fans upset that the players they flagged as potential stars weren't able to make the team because of their own abilities, or lack thereof.
- paulr

Q has a certain standard and young players often don't get the opportunity to develop The goal should be to put the best and healthiest team on the ice come playoff time that gives you best chance to win. If that involves developing a player that can be better than Rundblad or Zus or fill in if one of the regulars goes down.

Look at LA, they worked in Pearson and Toffoli into the mix last year.

But any new players that come up, rarely get the playing time in a game. They are lucky to get 10 minutes. And i am sure the players are not very confident or comfortable out there.

We sure could use a big guy with good hands around the net, Hayes?

Looking forward to the Canucks tonight. Still can't stand them. Not holding my breath on any trade deadline deals. Hope I'm wrong

Q has a certain standard and young players often don't get the opportunity to develop The goal should be to put the best and healthiest team on the ice come playoff time that gives you best chance to win. If that involves developing a player that can be better than Rundblad or Zus or fill in if one of the regulars goes down.

Look at LA, they worked in Pearson and Toffoli into the mix last year.

But any new players that come up, rarely get the playing time in a game. They are lucky to get 10 minutes. And i am sure the players are not very confident or comfortable out there.

We sure could use a big guy with good hands around the net, Hayes?
- Topshelf2010

Saad, Shaw, Kruger, Smith ......

Q has a certain standard and young players often don't get the opportunity to develop The goal should be to put the best and healthiest team on the ice come playoff time that gives you best chance to win. If that involves developing a player that can be better than Rundblad or Zus or fill in if one of the regulars goes down.

Look at LA, they worked in Pearson and Toffoli into the mix last year.

But any new players that come up, rarely get the playing time in a game. They are lucky to get 10 minutes. And i am sure the players are not very confident or comfortable out there.

We sure could use a big guy with good hands around the net, Hayes?
- Topshelf2010

I wouldn't say "any" new players but likely ones that have bigger holes in their game (Pirri, Morin, Hayes, Olsen, etc.)

After the first Cup team Saad, Shaw and Kruger played regular minutes. Smith has worked his way into the lineup. Unless Nordy gets traded he seems to have Q's trust and Smith played his way into the lineup last year. TVR's mins were ramping up before he got hurt.

I will subscribe to Q giving some of the younger players a longer leash. If the Hawks had Toffoli and Pearson, I think Q would have worked them into the lineup too. I think those guys are still a year away for the Hawks (Danault and McNeil) and even then not sure either have Toffoli's offensive ability. Don't know, don't get to see any RFD games.

If Hayes had skated and played how he does now he probably wouldn't have been traded. That said, they got Versteeg for him and the Hawks should have him back tonight or next game form the sounds of it.

Looking ahead, maybe one of you cap savvy guys can answer this question. What effect will Saad's new deal have on the current cap situation? I know he is going to want his pay day.

Looking ahead, maybe one of you cap savvy guys can answer this question. What effect will Saad's new deal have on the current cap situation? I know he is going to want his pay day.
- nickmo2699

The Hawks have RFA leverage, I don't think Saad can apply for arbitration? Basically he has to take what the Hawks offer within the guidelines of the CBA. On the other hand the Hawks want to keep a good relationship with him. The prevailing thought is the Hawks will have to unload a big contract this summer to open up cap space for Saad, among others.

Ladd, Buff, Frolik, Wiznewski, Niemi, Brouwer.

Complete list of active players I'd have make the Hawks roster over a current player.

All the baby hawks we traded away... don't miss 'em. Bowmans and Q know what they're doing.
- busmaster

Niemi has been pretty bad (or inconsistent depending on who you ask) in San Jose.

The person who writes for the Sharks here isn't the biggest fan. Pretty telling stats.
http://www.hockeybuzz.com...harks-vs-Flames/214/66102

The dude who does Fear the Fin (solid twitter follow if you do that thing along with Jen LC who is a fancy stat wiz) seems pretty indifferent towards him.

Not at the same level as Crawford in this point in his career, especially with a defensively deficient team.

Looking ahead, maybe one of you cap savvy guys can answer this question. What effect will Saad's new deal have on the current cap situation? I know he is going to want his pay day.
- nickmo2699

There are a couple issues with the cap for next year.
First Toews and Kane are both getting around 4 million, per year, raises. That is an increase of 8 million to the Hawks Cap total.
The cap, at most, is expected to go up 4 million form this year (could also go up just 2 million).
Hawks will lose the cap hits of Richard (2 million), Roszival (2.2 million), and Oduya (2.8 million).

That should give the Hawks between 9-11 million in cap space for next year (Toews and Kane take 8 million of that away immediately).

The issue begins with the RFA's the Hawks will want to re-sign. That would be Saad (currently makes 760k), Kruger (currently makes 1.3 mil), Erixon (makes 600k), and Rundblad (makes 700k). They will all probably get marginal raises and Saad should get a big raise. The Hawks have 1-3 million available to increase their salaries, not to mention they need to sign guys to replace Richards, Roszival, and Oduya.

Calculations would suggest (unless you have a majority of the team on minimum salaries) that the Hawks would need around $5 million to re-sign the RFA's and another $2.5-5 million to replace Rishards, Oduya, and Roszival. That would suggest the Hawks need to open up $6-$8 million in cap space. Hence why people mention moving Sharp (who is being utilized as a 3rd line winger when everyone is healthy (has a cap hit of $5.9 Mil) and Bickell (who has a cap hit of $4 mil). That gives the Hawks about $10 mil in relief and thoughts are their replacements would be current Icehogs.

Regardless, the Hawks will not be in position to bring in a big name free agent nor are they in position to trade for players adding to the cap now or in the future. Any trade to bring people in would have to trade a player on our current roster that makes the same $ (similar to the Morin for Erixon trade). The Hawks will be trading these guys for prospects/picks. Hopefully we can get some high end prospects for Sharp (like a Dal Colle or a Reinhart type of prospect)

Saad, Shaw, Kruger, Smith ......
- paulr

Hammer, Crawford, even Leddy...sure he's gone now but in the 4 seasons he was with the Hawks he got better every year.

And whats even more amazing is that just a year and a half before he played his first game with the Hawks, he was playing high school hockey!!!

Looking ahead, maybe one of you cap savvy guys can answer this question. What effect will Saad's new deal have on the current cap situation? I know he is going to want his pay day.
- nickmo2699

By the way thefourthperiod.com has salary cap charts much like capgeek had(per player). It doesn't have the armchair gm nor current cap hit for each team, but it is the closest to anything else I have been able to find.

Hammer, Crawford, even Leddy...sure he's gone now but in the 4 seasons he was with the Hawks he got better every year.

And whats even more amazing is that just a year and a half before he played his first game with the Hawks, he was playing high school hockey!!!
- dsav123

Yet this nonsense about Quenneville not giving young players a chance will not go away! I'm guessing some posters want to see a lineup comprised soley of players 20 years old and under?

Yet this nonsense about Quenneville not giving young players a chance will not go away! I'm guessing some posters want to see a lineup comprised soley of players 20 years old and under?
- paulr

My only issue is that he treats Roszival and any young defensemen (Erixon, Rundblad, Leddy, Dahlbeck, and Clendening) completely different. If, sorry when, Roszival makes a mistake (mainly being out of position) he still gets lots of minutes. If a young defensemen, doesn't matter who it is, makes a mistake or, sometimes, is just on the ice for a goal against they get relegated to 3-5 minutes for the entire game.

If he was consistent on his benching policies I would not have a problem.

My view has always been, in any sport, that if you have a young player play them or move them to the minors where they can play a lot of minutes. I am just tired of seeing young players, under the Q regime, constantly being the healthy scratch or sitting the bench for 95% of the game.

BTW, it is not just defensemen..... Versteeg and Handzus were God awful last year, but they played every game and played lots of minutes in the majority of those games. While young players were delegated as healthy scratches/very limited minutes.

i disagree, leddy could have done with hammer what he does with boychuk. was rozy serviceable or did leddy carry him? pretty valid argument imo.

not playing protected minutes and leading the islanders in relative corsi which is pretty cool stuff.

i buy the money argument but otherwise i think the islanders came out way ahead

oh well.
- fattybeef

On the did Leddy carry Rozy argument...was it the other way around? How much better did Rozy look at the beginning of the year with a guy that seemed lto get his defensive responsibility from the first shift of his NHL career in TVR vs how long he played with Leddzo.

Also, I'm sure some will mistake this as me wanting them to resign Rozy, but other than Tarasenko blowing by him, he's looked pretty decent of late.

Rozy isn't the first or last guy this will happen to regarding Vlad.

No it doesn't, actually. The Hawks had to move someone because of cap issues. They moved a bottom 6 d-man that Q had no intentions of ever moving up - mostly because he never trusted him. And on top of that, the Hawks front office did not want to deal with his agent - so there was some animosity there as well.

This move made all the sense in the world, and we will have to wait and see what Pokka becomes for this organization before judging a move that had to be made anyway.
- dahawks8819

U make a lot of assumptions and watch you don't spill the Kool-Aid while typing.

Still working the Zus/Pirri narrative and upset that no one has proclaimed you right in this matter.

*yawn*

I know you're not a guy who lives life looking in the rearview or living life in the past so to speak, but apparently you're not averse from enjoying a nightly stroll down Memory Lane.

*bigger yawn*

Kick the bear? More like kick the bore.
- HawkintheD

I know debating actual facts and examining context are a big stretch for your groundhog day persona. But lets leave the big discussions to the big kids and stick with the pavolovian group think. See the topic was about Q's treatment of young players.

If you took a second to read and understand you will see that I don't care about that issue. What I point out is that there is an opportunity cost to decisions, which are fair game for debate and discussion. For example Pirri vs Handzuis Leddy vs Oduya.

What i find amusing is you and others like to pontificate as though the Hawks won the cup last year? Did I miss something?

Last I looked they are following a similar pattern to last season.