A Chicago Blackhawks Site
2012 Off-Season
End Of Season Reviews: Johnny Oduya
May 15th
Photo: Bill Smith/Getty Images
The 2012 NHL trade deadline was awash in armchair quarterbacking, as is usually the case; but this year, nobody could agree on what the Blackhawks needed to add to the mix. There were advocates for replacing nearly every position on the ice, including misinformed Moneyball disciples treating players like futures contracts and suggesting that “Jonathan Toews‘ trade value has never been higher!”
Please, go launch a hostile takeover or something. Come at me with that nonsense, I’ll implant your graphing calculator in your pancreas — the fun way.
As it turns out, Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman showed his impotence, failing to acquire the 2nd-line center that fans and media pundits had been unanimously clamoring for since 2010. He also added another “Who?” on the blue line, and unpleasant memories of The Chris Campoli Incident flashed before our eyes. Thank goodness Johnny Oduya turned out to be a far better bet, though his first 20 minutes in a Blackhawks uniform didn’t help to ease our fears one bit…
End Of Season Reviews: Michael Frolik
May 9th
Ever seen them in the same room together?
We should have seen this coming. Specifically, we should have taken Florida Panthers’ fans seriously when they echoed our, “Ha-ha, you got Skille!” chants with, “Ha-ha, you got Frolik!” Apparently the scouts on both teams had mad cow disease when doing the assessments on these guys. Like just watching them play wasn’t enough to make them walk away for good.
But at least Florida regained its common sense in the off-season. Whereas Jack Skille got re-signed at $825K, our intrepid StanBow somehow thought Michael Frolik was worth nearly double his salary from the previous two years, and on a 3-year contract to boot. Once the ink dried on that deal, it was very obvious who got the better of this trade.
And then the 2011-12 season started…
Blackhawks fire Mike Haviland
May 8th
A Blackhawks coach is leaving Chicago, but it’s not Joel Quenneville – yet.
The ‘Hawks fired assistant coach Mike Haviland on Tuesday in a surprising move few saw coming. It’s pretty safe to assume the first head on the chopping block would have been Mike Kitchen, given his responsibilities with the horribly bad special teams.
Al Cimaglia wrote recently he heard Haviland had an “unwritten promise” to succeed Coach Q, but that sure doesn’t seem to be the case now. I’m assuming Haviland was just as surprised as we are.
Then again, the Blackhawks needed a fall guy for another disappointing playoff “run,” and rather than Kitchen, Q decided to let go of supposedly his right-hand man.
So, in a matter of months Haviland went from being a finalist for the Winnipeg job to unemployed. Seems like a tough break.
We’ll be back with an update once we hear from those who made the decision.
End of Season Reviews: Patrick Sharp
May 8th
There’s plenty of discussions regarding the Blackhawks’ financial situation and the money tied up in either under-performing players or long contracts currently on the roster.
But along with Jonathan Toews, some of the Blackhawks’ most wisely spent money is being given to Patrick Sharp – and he proved it once again with another solid season.
The Handsome One underwent an emergency appendectomy in the offseason, welcomed his first child into the world Dec. 10 – then scored the next night against San Jose – missed eight games because of a broken wrist suffered against Detroit on Jan. 8, played through the break the rest of the season, and still finished with a team-leading 33 goals.
He may have had a rough playoff series, but what Blackhawk didn’t?
End of Season Reviews: Jamal Mayers
May 1st
Photo: Chicago Tribune
When the Blackhawks signed veteran winger Jamal Mayers in the off-season, I thought it was the best acquisition they made. 12-year veteran, decent size, decent speed, enough grit and gristle to be useful. Sure, past his prime. But for the price we signed him at, he might chip in for 10 goals and 15 assists and provide some veteran leadership on the 3rd or 4th lines.
Those totals didn’t materialize (6G + 9A, and zippo in the playoffs), but we got a healthy dose of what Mayers was made of in the first 15 games of the season. Before the campaign was a month old he had 2 goals, including a game-winner, plus 2 helpers; and was getting an average of one shot on goal each night. He also took it upon himself to beat the crap out of no fewer than 5 guys. He was the only Blackhawk who registered a fighting major until Daniel “CarBomb” Carcillo went nuts during the Vancouver game on November 6th. Mayers was doing all of this while logging an average of only 10 minutes of ice time a night.
So now the season is over, and Mayers is a free agent. He was, arguably, the best investment Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman made — dollar for dollar — in the 2011 off-season. Hard not to pass on that kind of success again…
End of Season Reviews: Duncan Keith
Apr 30th
Over the next few weeks the CtA staff will be looking back at the 2011-12 campaign and doing our personal evaluations of individuals players. We begin with one of the guys who wears a letter for this team and generally spends about half the game on the ice, Duncan Keith.
Unfortunately what he'll be most remembered for in 2011-12
26:53.
That’s the first number that I went and researched because it’s probably the most obvious place to start. For three seasons we’ve monitored Duncan Keith’s ice time because the Blackhawks have been unable to field a third pairing that can skate 10-12 minutes a game. Twenty six minutes and fifty three seconds is the average amount of time that Duncan Keith spent on the ice for the Blackhawks this past season. He did that in just under 31 shifts a game at about 50 seconds each. Only former Blackhawk Brian Campbell was in that range. In fact, the number is exactly the same for Campbell. It’s unfortunate that Duncan Keith will be remembered for what is pictured above because there’s far more to talk about with #2′s season than that. Much of the discussion will take the same tone though.
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