A Sad Day...

It seems like just yesterday I was standing in the mirror at Hawk Quarters (since renamed) trying on a Large Red #52 Dustin Byfuglien jersey.  I was in love, I was ahead of the pack, I was about to buy a jersey that no one had yet, I found a player who I adored that I envisioned becoming a superstar in the years to come.  Unfortunately my bank account was empty and I was having visions of my Dad’s reaction when I would tell him that I put it on my credit card.  I settled for a jersey t-shirt instead.  I didn’t need the official sweater… as long as I could turn on the TV and see Big Buff flying around as a Hawk I was satisfied.

If anyone has read the hockey headlines today it is fairly obvious that my personal satisfaction does not rank very high on Stan Bowman’s agenda.  In what Pierre LeBrun is calling a ‘Blockbuster’ deal the Hawks are sending  Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, Ben Eager, and prospect Akim Aliu to the Atlanta Thrashers for as far as I’m concerned absolutely nothing. 

I’m not even sure that words can describe how disappointed I am in this deal.  Yea the Hawks have a salary cap crisis, but this is the route they take in handling it???  Say what you want about my man Big Buff but without him it’s the Vancouver Canucks who are in the Western Conference finals the past two years.  Not only that, would the Hawks have even lifted the Cup this season if Buff didn’t have 3 Game winning goals against the Sharks?

But that’s fine, I’m just bitter.  It easy to replace a 6’4’’ 270 lb power forward who skates better than guys half his size and can also play defense.  Those guys are a dime a dozen….Ha.

And what about Ben Eager?  A fourth line enforcer who has enough skill to play on the top two lines when necessary…I guess that type of guy is easily replaced as well.

I can’t even formulate my thoughts because there are so many issues I have with this deal.  What good are 2 draft picks?  The Hawks are built to win NOW!  With a couple tweaks here and there I truly believed the Hawks were going to be a dynasty over the next 5-6 years.  How the hell can you trade away key pieces to what was becoming a beautiful puzzle for a couple of rookies who may be good in 5 years?  Does anyone care about 5 years from now?  Has any Bulls fan ever complained about the state of the franchise since they won 6 Championships in 7 years (maybe not 7 years but I’m too angry to even go on Google and check).  If the Hawks won 4 of the next 5 Stanley Cups there isn’t one person in Chicago who would care if Donald Brashear was the best prospect we had in our system.

I’m no hockey expert, but I think Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg are 999 million times more replaceable than Dustin Byfuglien.  Neither one of them is even close to having the ability to single handedly take over an entire game, or in Buff’s case an entire series.

I was super excited for this off season because as a Hawks fan I was being blessed with the opportunity to see the Bowman’s in action.  So much for that, now I’m just pissed off.  I was ready to say goodbye to Sharp and Versteeg.  I was ready to watch Madden, Burish, and Ladd walk.  I was ready to send Huet and his 6 million dollars to Rockford to sign Niemi for half the price.  Hell, I was even excited at the thought of trading rights to Hjalmarsson.  I figured that a ‘genius’ GM with all of those options could easily land 2-3 solid NHLer’s while still getting his team where they need to be in terms of salary cap.  Eager and Buff were the last two guys on my list in terms of being sent elsewhere this summer.

To me, considering Dustin Byfuglien not to be part of the Hawks core is ludicrous.  Kane, Toews, Keith, Seabrook, Hossa, Bolland, and Byfuglien.  That’s the core if you ask me.  If you disagree watch the playoffs from the past two seasons and make a case.  I would be more than willing to take a look at it.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll turn on ESPN to see that the Hawks traded Dave Bolland for 10 picks in the 2035 draft.  Then we can talk about how our franchise will be above average for the next 25 years but will never pack the punch to win another Cup.  Ask the St. Louis Blues how fulfilling it is to make the playoffs for 30 straight years and never win anything…

Maybe now with 8 million off of our books we can resign the great seasoned veteran John Madden again so he can score 2 points and be -2 in next year’s playoff run.  Maybe he’ll even get naked in a limo again with some 17 year old girls and flex for the cameras.

All of this sarcasm is making me nauseous so I’m going to stop hating for now…  Maybe the Bowman’s have some tricks up their sleeve that will open my eyes to this deal.  I just think there was so much more potential out there than to pull the trigger on this trade.

I’m going to end tonight with what I wanted to see done with this Hawks off season (this was what I was planning on covering today but unfortunately I was thrown a curveball).  This means very little now that a deal has already been made but I’m going to give it a shot anyway:

Cap goes up 2.5 million, Huet gets sent to France, Sopel traded for some used hockey skates.  There’s 11 million in cap space.  Madden and Burish walk.  There’s another 3.5 million, now were at 14.5. 

Sign Niemi, Hjalmarsson, Ladd, and Eager for around 8 million.  Were still 6.5 million to the good. 

Bring up Bickell and Beach for around 2 million.  4.5 to the good.

Trade Versteeg for picks and prospects like they did Byfuglien today.  3 million gone and up to +7.5 million total.

Sign Mike Modano for around 2 million dropping the total to +5.5 million.

Now the Hawks look like this:

Byfuglien-Toews-Kane

Ladd-Sharp-Hossa

Eager-Bolland-Bickell

Beach-Modano-Kopecky

Seabrook-Keith

Campbell-Hjalmarsson

Hendry-Whoever

Niemi

Whoever

Although this still may need some tweaking in terms of money I like the thought of this much much more than what we will see after today’s trade.  Trade Campbell for Kaberle and that will drop another 4 million off of the cap.

I don’t know, I’m going crazy; I don’t get paid enough to care so much about this.  I’m going to bed.

I look forward to hearing back from any of you readers out there with your opinion.