Almost immediately after Jonathan Toews raised the Stanley Cup the hyenas and vultures descended upon the team and began to picking away at the still warm body. Chicago’s cap problems was well known and every GM was waiting for the end of the playoffs to make a deal.
The Hawks have now traded Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel, Andrew Ladd, and Kris Versteeg and almost lost Niklas Hjalmarsson to the Sharks. John Madden is a free agent and won’t be re-signed. Antti Niemi is going to arbitration and will certainly receive a large raise from the $800,000 he made last year. If the contract he’s awarded is too large it is entirely possible that the Hawks will have to walk away and sign someone cheaper or trade another key player from the core. They may lose as many as 9 players from the Cup winning roster.
The Hawks will still be good but they won't be winning back to back championships with their depleted lineup.
So who will be the team to beat in 2011?
Well Detroit Red Wings are just a little too old. San Jose Sharks are everyone's favourite team at the start of the season but never go deep in the playoffs. Next year won't be much different. Penguins had their shot at it and don't have the depth anymore. The Devils may land Kovalchuk eventually but at a cost of several roster players. Lou Lamoriello is a master at working around the cap but he won't finding much interest in his overpaid players. And the incredible Martin Brodeur is pretty ordinary these days.
So my picks are Philadelphia and Washington in the East and Los Angeles and Vancouver in the West. Philadelphia has masterfully worked around the cap for years but seems to always ignore their big whole in net. Again this summer GM Paul Holgrem has juggled his lineup moving out Simon Gagne and picking up Nikolai Zherdev, Andrej Meszaros and Matt Walker. Yes they still have a weakness on the back end with Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher but there are plenty of quality goalies out there that can be signed on the cheap (which Chicago will soon figure out).
Then there is Washington. They have avoided the Chicago trap of signing expensive free agents and concentrated on hanging on to their young stars. So now they have Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, Niklas Backstrom and Mike Green signed up and some affordable veterans like Tom Poti, Mike Knuble and Michael Nylander which some cap space left over. They have youth in net but again, cheap veterans are available on the market.
Vancouver continues to build to their very strong lineup. Keith Ballard was picked up in a trade with Florida during the NHL draft last weekend.Then much sought after Dan Hamhuis was signed as a free agent on July 1. Then the team added some role players - Manny Malhotra and Joel Perreault, and Jeff Tambellini. Cody Hodgson has done everything there is to do in junior hockey and is likely to make the Canucks out of training camp. But likely the best move was to let Kyle Wellwood and Pavel Demitra leave through free agency. This team is ready to fly.
Finally the Los Angeles Kings are ready to break out this season even without Ilya Kovalchuk. Budding stars Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty are the next Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith. Add to that some decent players in Dustin Brown, Ryan Smyth and Jack Johnson. The Kings have two excellent young goalies Jon Quick and Jonathan Bernier. But I also think the GM Dean Lombardi will be making some deals to beef up his lienup. He still is likely one or two pieces away from a contender but it can happen.
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