Hockey: The moves made by Chicago are far from done, it seems. This has moved past preparing for a weekend to a court ordered house cleaning in preparation for the in-laws coming over. Chicago has not bothered to care about "the team that won the cup" and in the mode of ensuring there will be room and opportunity to start a post-cup win rebuild the year after rather than after 3 years of varying success.
The Big Buff trade went through last night.
Before the flushing of cap, Chicago was $234,164 below the cap and was technically an incomplete team. Unless Chicago is planning on filling the rest of the roster with rookies, the Blackhawks are going to need more cap room for resigning other players: Anti Niemi. The goaltender that won Chicago the cup, playing in every game (though not finishing every game), is still and unsigned RFA. Once Chicago is done dumping salary they are going to lock in Niemi. Unlike Montreal, Chicago is willing to deal away more replaceable features of their organization rather than the corner stones for long-term greatness.
Numbers, in and out:
IN: Jeremy Morin, $977,500
IN: Marty Reasoner, $1,150,000
OUT: Dustin Byfuglien, $3,000,000
OUT: Brent Sopel, $2,333,333
OUT: Ben Eager, $1,000,000
OUT: Akim Aliu, $875,400
(Subtotal from Atlanta trade: freeing up $5,081, 233)
OUT: Colin Fraser, $700,000
That's a freeing up of $5.7m cap. They aren't done yet. John Madden, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Jordon Hendry, Kim Jonsson, and Andrew Ladd are all unaccounted for. This group, on top of Anti Niemi.
Expect more to come.
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