Thanks for dropping Mirtle’s post here, and you bring up an interesting question.

Unless someone else is traded, it appears that this is a barker or versteeg issue and that the hawks can only move forward with one of the two.

It appears to me that Barker and Versteeg have a similar ceiling at their respective positions, and both have some obvious deficiencies. Barker needs to focus on becoming much better in the defensive zone, and compliment those skills with his great shot, not the other way around. In my opinion, his ability to get the puck on net from the blue line is better than any of our other defenseman, especially when campbell looks like hockey’s version of Jim Furyk with that backswing. It would also be nice to see Barker develop a little bit of a semi-enforcer seabrook-esque mean streak.

I have mixed feelings about Versteeg. We saw him score some really spectacular goals this season, but his well documented inability to get the puck in deep just got ridiculous. I kind of see Versteeg’s career being similar to sharp’s, he’ll produce his fair share of points, but not at an elite level, while playing some respectable 2 way hockey. But watching versteeg hold on to the puck and try and make plays that only Kaner and JHC (oooo, too soon?) can make was irritating nearly to the point of causing an involuntary twitch as I watched it. I know Versteeg was only a rookie, but at times it seems like he may not have enough between the ears to fully correct some of these issues. Occasionally, when Versteeg was at his worst, it seemed like he was just flat out in the way.

The other factor is obviously depth in the system. I don’t know a ton about what’s going down or will be going down in rockford, but it seems that lately on SCH there has been alot more hopeful discussion about forwards than defenseman, Beach, Aliu, etc (Albeit with somewhat different skillsets than Steeger).

As you may have guessed from my post, if it is in fact one or the other, I’m going with Barker.

I’m interested to hear what everyone thinks about my points on the two players, and who everyone else thinks we should keep.

but the cap hit that Mirtle lists for us include all bonuses, and without those appended, especially in the cases of Kane and Toews, we have a great deal more room than the 4.486 suggested. And this is the case next year, of course—those bonuses can get pushed, as I understand it—as they only counted against the cap this year because it was the last year of the CBA. I actually have us at 9.71 mil available with 19 players signed, which leaves approx. 2.43 available per open slot. That’s perfectly do-able.

M.Samuelsson 3y/$7.5M to the Canucks.

Regarding these cap issues, I seriously get two strong senses of what came out of Tallon and the Bowmans’ meetings this year. First, that the WCF appearance, unexpected though it was, made a Cup appearance next year that much more tangible, so strapping ourselves cap-wise for a year might well be worth the risk. Second, and related to this, I wonder if their long term plans really include all three, especially considering Seabrook will be a due a fairly significant raise as well soon.

Toews and Keith are no-brainers; they’ll be signed at all costs. Kane, though? On the McDonough side of things, Kane is the marketing doll, obviously; but I wonder if that managerial meeting had him evaluated as highly on the hockey side. I’m not questioning his talent here, I’m wondering if in the cap world there is really room for so many market-value contracts on this team. The answer is no, I’d say. And so among all these blue chips, and considering we just signed a franchise right-winger in Hossa to a long-term “value” contract … well, of Toews, Kane, Keith, and Seabrook … who is the odd man out for whom we’d have no room???

I see on Mirtle’s blog that people tend to dislike front loaded contracts. But I don’t understand why. I guess it does help teams with more money, but then again, aren’t those teams then saddled with a larger cap hit later when the player is pretty much useless? Any clarification is appreciated. Insults will be tolerated, but may make me cry.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=283634

signed his extension @ 8yrs/$62.4 million with the Jackets. The cap hit will be $7.8M

is a little weird given the season has not even started yet. Kane had a stellar year, but how is he, or any of the kids for that matter, going to fit in with what the Hawks are trying to build? Looking at the grabs of Panda, his BFF and Madden, I see the Hawks trying to lay the groundwork for two way game plans. I don’t think that makes Kane odd man out at all, but I do think it means he needs to alter his game a bit and become a more complete player. I realize a lot of people have said that, but this year it might actually make a difference. Last season it was cool enough to go deep in the finals and watch the kids enjoy themselves as they stole game after game they should have lost for the mistakes they made. I don’t think that flies this year.

…all 6 RFA’s could be gone for nothing over Tallon’s qualifying offers were not in on time which could potentially make all 6 unrestricted and sign anywhere with the Hawks getting NOTHING in return.