Roster almost set

Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune updates us on how the roster is taking shape at this point:

The Blackhawks are still making decisions on their 2008-09 roster but a few things were decided Monday.

Jack Skille and Kris Versteeg appear to be the survivors of the battle for the open winger positions as the Hawks have sent  Troy Brouwer to Rockford of the American Hockey League, placed Joakim Lindstrom on waivers and sent Kyle Beach and Akim Aliu back to their junior teams. Decisions on Colin Fraser and free agent Kevyn Adams are still to come.

"It looks good for Versteeg and Skille," general manager Dale Tallon said. "They're quick, competed hard and just played with a lot of energy and skill."

On defense, Aaron Johnson has been placed on waivers while veteran Keith Carney and rookie Niklas Hjalmarsson are still in the mix.

Corey Crawford was also sent down to Rockford, leaving the Hawks with Cristobal Huet, Nikolai Khabibulin and Antti Niemi as the goaltenders on their roster.

Not surprised that Skille and Versteeg appear to have made it, I think they deserve it and will stick around, although Skille needs to play a physical game in order to stay in Chicago, and hopefully he does that to round out this game. Let's pray that Colin Fraser and Kevyn Adams do not make it, because there's no reason to keep around either of them.

I'm shocked that Keith Carney is still in the mix. From what I had heard, he was looking slow in the pre-season and it didn't sound like he would make it, but alas he is sticking around for now.

The article also states that the Hawks are still waiting on Khabibulin because they are still trying to negotiate a deal with the Russian team he looks to be headed for. Wednesday at 3 PM is the deadline for the rosters being turned into the NHL, so that is also a deadline for a deal with Khabby apparently.