What to do with Huet
Whether the Blackhawks want to admit it or not, they have a big problem on their hands in goal with Cristobal Huet.
This is a team that appears to have most of the pieces in place to win a Stanley Cup except for the most important one.
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville keeps reminding the media and the fans that it's early, but this is an issue that can't be ignored for too much longer.
Huet allowed 2 horrendous goals in Saturday's 4-3 loss to Dallas, a game the Hawks should have won. Huet spoke to reporters after the game and sounded like a goalie that has lost his confidence.
How can Quenneville continue to play Huet at home? The fans aren't stupid. They see poor play and don't like it. And for the prices they're paying ($5 for a small Coke?), they have every right to boo.
So what do the Hawks do next with Huet? They have some options.
1. Keep playing him and believe his game comes around.
2. Send him to Rockford and let him work out the kinks in the minors.
3. Keep Huet here to work on his game in practice, start him on the road and play Antti Niemi at home.
4. Trade him, but with his contract (two years left after this one at $5.65 million per year), this is highly unlikely.
Anyone who doesn't think the Hawks might send Huet to the minors doesn't see the big picture and should know better. It can happen, and it might happen.
Huet would need to clear waivers to go to Rockford, and he would because of his contract. The Hawks still would need to pay him that big salary, but the cap hit would be off the books, which is key.
As the year progresses, and if the Hawks come to decide they need to upgrade their goaltending in order to contend for the Cup, sending Huet to the minors is a way for them to clear cap space to pursue a top-end goalie - as long as they would be willing to bite the bullet and pay Huet more than $5 million to play in Rockford.
Maybe this is thinking way too far ahead. But maybe it's not.
Just random stuff: Huet's career GAA/SvPCT: 2.47/.915
Belfour's: 2.50/.906
Luongo's: 2.57/.919
MA Fleury's: 2.87/.907
Not sayin', just sayin'.
You could move Huet if exchanged for someone else's cancerous salary . . . but you still don't have an experienced netminder. Before anyone else shouts "Khabibulin," you don't know what kind of year he would've had last season were it not for Huet's presence. My point: who do you think would be your netminder right now if Huet weren't signed. Not that it matters.
Sub-question: I realize they're English-speaking, white Canadians, but no one's addressing the problems with Keith and Seabrook this season. Is it playoff hangover? Forwards will slip past you occasionally, yes, but some of the d-zone decision making has been appalling. Do goals scored late in games really give them that much leeway? I say Keith is now No. 3 behind Toews and Kane on the contract priority list.
The easiest move for the Hawks is to put Huet to Rockford. But as it was pointed out if someone claims him on re-entry then we are on the hook for half his salary. Now the problem with that is not that we are paying him to play elsewhere but that we take a cap hit. As we all know that is the main issue. So along those same lines we can't really buy him out either as that would count against the cap as well. We have to hope that he turns this thing around or that we can trade him.
I think he can be at least average. Unlike other players we have boo'ed, Karpotsev, Mironov, Korolev, etc, I think he is giving full effort. I also think all the extra effort he is giving is what is hurting him. He isn't relaxing and playing the game. He probably has all the coaching going through his head and thinking instead of reacting.
For the Hawks sake I hope he turns it around and plays well. He does have a short leash because we can't afford to give up points at any point in the season. Look at what confidence has done for Craig Anderson.
Believe me. He just needed to learn how to play under control and not overplay to one side or the other.
You're right, the best scenario for the Hawks is for Niemi to continue to show #1 type ability and for Huet to regain #1 form.
But the ONLY way (and it's REALLY unlikely) the Hawks will trade Huet is either he plays out of his mind and leads them to the Cup, or at the very end of his deal (two seasons from now) before the trade deadline when someone is desperate for an experienced goalie. OItherwise, his reputation is trashed, and no GM is going to stick his neck that far out for that kind of salary either.
They can only afford to carry him for the next to seasons if, at minimum, Niemi proves himself to be a legit #1, and Huet can at least perform like a good backup.
There are no other prospects in the system who appear even close to filling the #1 job.
So, a buyout or Huet getting claimed on re-entry, especially if he can't get it back together, might be the price the Hawks have to pay. At least then they'd have some dollars to play with to add another goalie.
...HAWKS are off to an awesome start to the season. We should all take a lesson from HUET's teammates. Stay positive - have his back - and watch as he works his way through this funk. He is an NHL caliber goalie and will come out on the other side of this funk.
BELIEVE.
Stay positive.....leave the negative energy at home. Come out to the rink to cheer on the HAWKS. Giving HUET the raspberries at our own rink serves no purpose other than to ruin his fragile confidence. I understand that as a fan your entitled to boo whom you see fit & deserving. However, the way I see it...I'm a HAWKS supporter and want them to win; booing our goalie at home is counter productive. Support HUET and if he continues to fail management will fix the problem in due time. Until that time - he IS our guy and WE should have his back. !!!!
Go HAWKS Go
Let's Go Cristobal........I'm a believer !
Well he wont be Going against the Canucks.
Niemi to get the start.
Were coming, Willie Mitchell.
Do you guys think that their is a possibility of getting a goalie at the trade deadline.
Just looking at goalies whose contracts expire following this year:
Turco 5.4
Toskala 4.0
Lehtonen 3
C. Mason 3
Goalies whose contract expire year after next
Giguere 7
Vokoun 6.3
Bryzgalov 4.5
Anderson 2.125
Osgood 1.1 This would be weird
You forgot Nabokov.. He is a very interesting candidate since SJ has been rumoured to want to shed salary.
Other than him, I'd take Bryzgalov.. the year the Ducks won the Cup, he backstopped them the first round and some of the second when Giggy's son had health problems.
Something has to be done about Huet before any of these options are tried though
As I said in other posts play Huet more on the road until he gets going. He is pressing and the booing is not going to help matters. Yes, fans pay top dollar and have the right to boo a poor perfomance and we have seen a few too many from him. When something like this starts it just snowballs to the point that every goal is his fault no matter who coughed up the puck in front of him. I think he would benefit by more road games. He was ok against the Preds.
Some posters have suggested that Chicago fans are becoming more like Philadelphia fans. I disagree, I think Chicago has the most forgiving fans. After all we have put up with the likes of the Cubs,Sox and Bears for all these years. You watch, if Huet makes a few fantastic saves or puts together a couple of shutouts the crowd will be chanting his name. I hope he pulls out of this funk that he's in. He is not as bad as he has been playing.
First off Jacukel, great points on your topics, could not agree more. Who is talking Brian Campbell? How can anyone take issue with him? I think he is playing well so far and doing what he does which I think has been a positive to the team. He makes what he makes, we paid him before we were a real Hockey team. Nobody blogging on here saw the Hawks coming on this fast and this hard so as far as that goes I can't see how people take issue with it. Huet is an issue in my book and it I do not care what date in October it is. He was bad last year most of the time and when it came time to picking his playoff goalie, Quenville mulled more over what candy bar he was pulling out of a vending machine then he did picking Khabby to be the guy. He had a chance to make this his team in the month of October and make everyone forget we have suspect goaltending and he did just the opposite. He crapped the bed in front of the home fans and made everyone start thinking that this is the 1 big issue we have. However, being a season ticket holder who is at the games a lot, I will hold true to my long standing Rex Grossman philosophy that if people in the building truly care about the outcome of the game then booing and jeering is not the route to take. I had my head in my lap when the crowd gave the sarcastic cheer when Huet stopped a dump in. I do not like him either but will never understand how that is the best option for a fan to take when you are there cheering for THE BLACKHAWKS. The players do not like it as they expressed in the post game and to me it only puts Huet deeper and deeper into panic mode about giving up another one..Sorry but I will never accept home town fans booing unless a guy is dogging it and not trying his best. But, as the great line in the movie the Rock was uttered by Sean Connery, "Losers try there best, winners go home and &*^k the prom queen! And what we need is a winner between the pipes in this town and that is definately NOT Chrissy boy Huet!!
Totally agree with what you said about the fans booing. Definitely doesn't help.
Tim, I believe Stan Bowman is continuing to work on the process of trading Huet that began last March.
Despite his quality play in Washington and Montreal, Huet does not seem to have been able to handle the pressure of playing in Chicago, which is enormous.
Blackhawks fans have long been frustrated by average to poor goaltending, and they are--as can be seen from the comments and the boos--merciless.
Huet's confidence is damaged. Knowing that, Bowman is looking for a trading partner. There are teams who can take on Huet's contract and who have a need for a veteran 1A, which seems to be a more comfortable role for CH.
LA is one such team, and Huet is an ex-King. The Kings have contract issues with Frolov and Jack Johnson, two players who might be of interest to Chicago.
Nashville has two quality goalies, but they need scoring help badly. The Hawks have a surplus of quality forwards. Swapping Huet and a forward for Rinne, for example, might have some logic. While Nashville is a division rival, they aren't realistically challenging the Hawks...but they can hurt the Red Wings, Blues and Jackets.
Not an easy situation to manage. There are options, though.
Waiving Huet means he can be lost to a team when he is re-called--like Detroit, who previously showed interest. Which is not something Bowman wants to have happen.
In the meantime, the official line has to be that the team stands behind Cristo. You can't talk down about an asset you're trying to sell.
It's a Catch 22.
There is not a snowball's chance in hell the Hawks could move Huet right now, except maybe to one team (Toronto) for one goalie (Toskala) that would be just as bad or worse.
The only way the Hawks will be able to deal Huet this year or in the offseason is if he turns his game around and consistently regains his 07-08 form. because that's what his contract is based on.
If he does that, why trade him?
I mean, he has played what? 5 games... Take a look at some other goalies around the league that are struggling. Do you think Vancouver is going to send Luongo to the AHL? Hawks do need to wait a little longer before making any decisions that will have huge impacts on their playoff chances. Even with soft goals, this team is great and winning more often than not. Start looking at the options, but they don't need to over-react.
However, to compare Luongo and Huet is a stretch. Yes, lots of goalies are off to slugglish starts, but Huet has never played a full season. Saturday night was a flash back to last year, which is why I don't have a lot of patience for this guy.
He got beat by a back up goalie who clearly outplayed him. He let in very soft goals at the worst possible time, and was the SOLE reason the Hawks didn't get 2 pts. They outplayed Dallas.
I'm not saying you trade him today, but at the same time, with the compacted Olympic schedule, grueling schedule in November and January....you can't give up points at any time. Not to mention, it would be nice to get a lead on Detroit and Vancouver who are bound to be battling the Hawks for the top spots in the conference.
Have you seen this clown play? Huet is no Luongo. If you think he can lead us to the promised land, you must be crazy! He hasn't even won a playoff series! This is no knee jerk reaction....get him out of here ASAP. Hawk fans want the Cup, and he could be the main reason we won't get it!
Huet and Luongo have one thing in common, zero Stanley Cups.
...I think they'll assess whether he has turned it around, or whether they need to do something a bit more drastic like Rockford. This will also be about the time Hossa is coming back, which would allow them the ability to trade some scoring for a guy they think can help them in the playoffs.
My biggest fear with Huet, is he starts to play better and the Hawks decide to ride it out with him, and then he starts to tank again at the end of the year or playoffs. There is something about this guy that leads me to believe he lacks the ability (mental toughness) to play well for extended stretches.
This is really the last issue you wanted to have (a good team, with a below average goaltender), and is something that can really be a cloud over them in crunch time and cause the other guys to press.
Third Man In had a great couple of points.
1. If you send Huet down to Rockford and he performs well enough to come back, but then comes back on re-entry waivers, there's a chance Detroit or St Louis (both struggling in goal) might grab Huet at Half Price (re-entry claims are only half the salary; Hawks would pay half of Huets contract to play somewhere else.)
What if Huet finds his form and leads Detroit through the Playoffs (remember Washington)...? The Hawks would be paying their foe to have a decent goalie play against themselves??
Then What? What Cup-Worthy Goalie is out there??
you can fool yourselves to thinking "Huet sucks, use Niemi" but the reality is, the only real option is to give him the rope until he hangs himself....
2. It's freakin OCTOBER 19th?!?
You guys kill me with the "what if's". What if he gets better, what if he gets traded to Detroit, what if he ends up back in our division". Who cares! You don't win the cup by making "safe" moves. And anyone who saw him play the entire season last year knows that even Huet's best is nowhere close to playing like an elite goalie from around the NHL. You had to hold your breath when he was tending during a penalty kill or when the game was on the line even during the course of his 20 wins last season. And Tallon took this guy that summer and paid him 5.5 million because he was the best goalie available that July? He would have done better to ask Darren Pang or Ed Belfour to sign, it wasn't worth it so he should have held tight and saved the money for Khabibulin. We have seen more than enough of this guy - it's just an extension of last year only he didn't have the pressure of playing regular back to back games and he was content with playing second fiddle to Khabibulin.
Where's Detroit going to get that kind of money?
Thats what we said about whacking Savard last year
I'd gladly take my chances that he'd play for another division team and take them to the promised land. Not going to happen! Now if this was Khabibulin and we were having this same discussion on October 19th, 2008 I'd say your right, there's a good chance we'll end up regretting it.
In one of your scenarios I would take a chance that somebody would claim him on re entry waivers, after all that is what we are trying to achieve here. That way Huet would be Detroit's problem and not ours at half price to remove him. Then we could approach other teams with a surplus tenders and trade for one of them. I believe some could be had that would work better than Huet. (Lehtonen, Roloson, Biron, Hedberg, Auld, Schneider, Giguere, Ellis or Rinne to name a few) Roloson or Hedberg would provide a one year fix while Niemi develops and if he is ready now Roloson or Hedberg would be a solid backup.
To me if Detroit claimed him would be no big deal because I do not rate him very high and obvioulsly he is not performing here. As bad a Ozzie is in Detroit, Huet would not be an upgrade! Note: Of the goalies I mentioned above I think Roloson would be the best short term fix, on a good team like the Hawks he could be a very good goalie. Last year down the stretch he was the best Oiler for the last 30 games standing on his head. As for Biron he has too much of a Huet potential and might want to stay clear of him. Lehtonen would be the real deal if he could stay healthy but that is a big question mark.
Can't figure the guy out. He gives up unbelievably bad goals but also makes some spectacular saves. Last two goals against Dallas were result of poor positioning. He should have had his body in front of both. Very bad glove hand lately. Don't send him to Rockford, send him to Wrigley and have someone hit him some grounders. Maybe the Hawks should fire their goaltending coach!
He can't be bought out until next June, so it's a waive since he'll likely not be traded. Plus who's out there to replace him? No one's answered that yet; too early in the season.
The near term solution is simple. Alternate Huet and Neimi 50/50 for the next week+. As Crawford comes around send Huet back to Rockford to work on his game. It's clear its all mental with him right now.
The 'Hawks need to evaluate Huet based on 25-30 games, not 8; at least through the circus trip. This evaluation time gives the organization a chance to figure out plan-B and plan-C.
Eating a contract is easy to say. It's more than money. The 'Hawks have to have a suitable player to replace Huet and it's clear at present they don't know who that is. Come June 15th, a buyout could be considered. It'll save the 'Hawks 67% of his salary for the next 2 seasons but cost the 'Hawks 33% of his salary for the 2 seasons after, when his contract would have expired. Courtesy: CapGeek.com
Both Niemi and Crawford are probably not ready for extended playing time! I dont feel confident in the next 20 games with either of them...hopefully im wrong but Niemi hasnt shown it to me yet!
Tim I could not agree more. I am really impressed with Hawks play and execution from the begining of the season. Great to see big improvements from Cambell, Big Buff and Troy Brower especially.
I really think Huet can be better however he will never be good enough to be a solid netminder for the Hawks. If he was a rookie netminder or second year player I would have to say there is a possibility of him getting better. However he is 34 years old somewhat past his prime in goalie years and has never proven to be a difference maker where ever he has played. I was not impressed with him in Montreal, thought he was the main reason Washington lost in the playoffs and really think he has gotten worse as a Blackhawk. He is making basic errors in positioning himself for angles, going down too early for a shot and giving up horendous rebounds. His handling of the puck behind the net is the only thing that is passable for him now. He is not ready to be a goalie in this league now. His confidence is shot and it shows by his play and his decision making. Huet needs to be demoted to the minors or released.
I realize the Hawks have to do everything to attempt to get his confidence back and rightly are doing this with their comments to the press.
My biggest concern is that if this continues it will affect the dressing room. Teams can take a couple of bad games from a goalie and soldier on. Huet has not given them anything to cheer for and if their effort is going to result in losses players may not put forth that effort or will lose faith in management. The time has come to admit we made a mistake and move on. I really do not know if it was MacD or Tallon who pushed for this signing but everyone makes mistakes. It takes a good leader to admit a mistake and a great leader to cut the chaffe and move on.
The time has come for the Hawks to move on. Niemmi has played solid for the most part for the Hawks. I have no doubt that Crawford can at least be a solid backup. If things falter then we have to look at bringing in a goalie. Huet is not the answer and never will be. Most fans see that and those of us in the hockey world see this as well.
Commentators, scouts, former NHL players and coaches are all in agreement for the most part that this has to change. MacD you are up with the bases loaded lets see if you have the moxy to crank one out of the park. Demote or release Huet now before it is too late and we become another also ran in the NHL history books.
This is the year for the Hawks only one thing left to do. I would be very disappointed if they do not make a decision within the next two weeks.
Very good post Hawkeye1
I agree they need to send him down. As well as get rid of waite. His brother jimmy was never a great goalie and stephen wasn't either. Why could we not have Ed Belfour back as the goalie coach instead of St. Louis? Or like nomask said maybe even play
Everybody can point out the shortcomings of the rest of the team but you have to wonder if having a shaky goaltender makes them play a different game. When the Hawks use their speed in transition, they create a huge amount of chances. Look at their play when they go down a goal or two. They are flying. Put a true No. 1 goaltender in net for the Hawks and they start blowing teams out. Team McBowman cannot waste this talent. Now is the time to see what we have in Crawford and Niemi. Maybe one can emerge to be the next Backstrom, Mason, or Price. All young goalies forced to carry the load. If not, clear space and get someone. I would hate to see this team next year with a couple of our top 10 gone and Huey still here. Maybe the convention will be free, if it's even held.
>Send Huet to Rockford -- immediately
>Huet is untradeable right now -- and his problem is between his ears
>Hawks lead the league in allowing the fewest shots on goal
>Hawks need a reliable goalie that does not let in soft goals -- they do not need an elite goalie (Sure, it would be nice to have one)
>The UC is selling out every game and Hawk revenues are soaring -- Rocky sure as heck can eat a few million
You send him to Rockford.
You can't afford to be giving up soft goals that are cost you points early on in the year, at home, and get the fans against you. Plus, it's only a matter of time until these mountain of soft goals start to eat at this team and effect their play.
He goes to Rockford, and you pay him the 5 million. When Wirtz gets fired up, you look at McDonaugh and blame him for allowing this to happen. He would have had to approve this deal before it was signed. Maybe you get lucky, and a reengerized Huet lives up to his deal and boucnes back. If not, maybe you look elsewhere. JS Giugere is out there for 6 and 7 million the next 2 years, but it's obvious that goaltending is going to haunt this team all year.
Like I said on the previous blog, I do give Huet credit for assuming the blame and being a man about it.
There is very little downside to sending him to Rockford.
I do agree that the team needs an as good or better option to fill in. I don't think it's Crawford, but if you're going to ride Niemi, then meh.
Me? I'd sign Manny Legace to a cheap deal (two-way, if that's allowable under the CBA) and see what he's got left.
Then you have another vet option that cost you nothing. Steve's right, the building is full every night, this team is making money hand over fist.
Huet can play a lot better. And he has been a Marine about taking responsibility. Albeit, a French Marine. He also strikes me as a guy who is not going to get his shorts in a wad about going down to Rockford if he believes it's the best thing for him and the team.
He signed a tryout contract with the Wolves last week. He's sure to get several games in with the Wolves, having split his 1st 2 decisions against none other than the Icehogs last week.
It will be interesting to see if another team claims Huet on re-entry waivers after he's been in Rockford; should the 'Hawks choose that route.
I still say it's too early to make a move now. They need a quarter of the season plus before anything major is done.
Well I think the writings on the wall for Huet and it's time for action. Send him to the AHL,
bring Crawford up and make him (Huet) earn his way back up. After a couple of months reevaluate the situation and take it from there. This team needs stable goaltending which
they are not getting from Huet right now. The result of lastnight's game could really come
to haunt us in April.
Putting home games on TV and bringing back the "legends" was the easy part. Now comes the big question - is Rocky willing to eat a $5.6 contract to try and bring a Stanley Cup to Chicago? There are strong business and hockey arguments for this move.
Business - the fans have just come back. They can turn away just as quickly - especially in this economy. $5M lost now can lead to longer-term gains.
Hockey - obvious that Huet is not the goalie to lead a team to a Stanley Cup. Bring Crawford up for now, have him share time with Antti, and if there's a chance at getting a rent-a-goalie after January, they make the move then.
wow - Huet must go. Bundle him in a trade. It has to be done. YOu might lose a decent player in the bundle. But it has to be done.
Hossa is coming back in a month or two - - and who is the odd man out on offense? Goalies have it difficult - a few big time goalies have had rough starts. Thomas (Bruins) was benched, but has returned. Hiller and Luongo, Pekka R. have been pulled from games. Goalies do go thru rough spells, but Huet is consistently average or below average. And for 5.5 million, he is pathetic!!!!
I never believed in Huet and I was happy the Hawks kept Khabby for the playoffs. Huet is a decent goalie, but has three major flaws: he never steals a win for the Hawks, he can't make the big save and he always lets in a weak goal. I only saw a few good games out of Huet last year. The only problem, i don't think Niemi is the answer. If you are worried about Huet dropping early and leaving lots of space on the glove hand, then Niemi is not much better.
You mean it's not okay to have around $13M in cap space, a weak free agent crop, and then sign two guys just because they were the best available at their positions at the time? You mean a team can't afford to have $7M of their cap clogged up in a "specialist" defenseman? Sign a goalie to a $5.6M contract that hadn't proven a whole lot yet (I do love the posters who say, "Well, Detroit was interested, too" to justify the signing at the time), and then spent the entire playoffs on the bench until the soon to depart goalie got injured (or wait, supposedly had an argument with Quenneville between periods according to some of the "insiders" on here).
That's the real reason the fan-favorite Tallon was fired. He hamstrung them in a year they have a very real chance to win a Cup. Not some silly offer sheet fiasco as some cite as the reason he was canned, it was because he tried to save his job by making a decision for the short term, in a time when longer term thinking was needed. Unlike some suggest, they make the playoffs last year without the signings of Campbell and Huet, because they could have used that cap room to make moves once Scottie Bowman was here to advise. Some people act like the only moves they could have made last year was those signings, which is nonsense.
So now they're stuck. It will be interesting to see if Rocky agrees to send Huet down and essentially eat the contract. Most of the moves he's made so far (home games on TV, welcoming back the legends, hiring McDonough to market the team like most professional franchises were already doing) were no-brainers. This could be the first test to see if he's really serious about bringing a Cup here.
I'm not trying to be a cynical sh*t-stirrer, I have enjoyed the resurgence, last year's playoff run, and this year's start. I just really want to see a Cup raised here, not just come close, so it is frustrating to see this potentially huge problem they have in net and with the cap. It appears the best bet for the fans is to hope Huet rights himself at some point, and then they make a serious run.
But I think a bit overly cynical.
Tallon knee-jerked on Huet. There WAS a rationale for signing him, other teams DID want him, but he overpaid.
You slam the Hossa signing way too prematurely. See what he does on the ice, which I think will be substantial. I want to see the Cup raised at the UC, and I think this guy will have a lot to do with it. I also understand that his deal was specifically structured to be cap friendly for getting the kids signed.
Slam Campbell all you want, but without him, sorry, this is a bubble team or a 6-8 seed at best. They drafted Barker to be the PP guy and he is at best a complementary guy in running the PP. The PP is THAT important. Did Tallon overpay? Yes. But it's really hard to say how much.
Look, Huet has sucked this year. He had moments last year. And he's played well before last year. They're putting him through a style change. He might come back and be just fine. But goalie is the real problem, regardless. Let's fix that and enjoy the rest of the season.
jacukel, sorry if I wasn't clear, I wasn't slamming the Hossa deal. I did like the deal, but anticipated there were / will be other moves to make to free up more cap space, to create some flexibility if there are injuries or situations like the blossoming Huet situation.
Just one more clarification on my thoughts on Campbell. I just don't think there was a reason to overpay for him, that there were other moves they potentially could made that wouldn't have had clogged the cap like Campbell's deal did. Campbell was one of the limited options available on the FA market, but if they saved the cap room there were deals that could have been made that would have made the same or had a greater impact.
I agree with you, though, no use slamming Campbell, hopefully they can fix the problem in net, and we all may be happy at the end of the year.
Look at Dan Boyle's deal, who's two-years older.
Yes, but then the question is does Boyle bring more to the table? That's a whole other debate I guess.
So you can read minds? (Tallon)
You slam other posters for unsubstantiated comments but than you make some yourself!
Brian Campbell might be in the same boat as Huet. The Dallas broadcasters made a point on how out of postion he was on the first goal. Plus, Scottie Bowman was nt to pleased with him in the playoffs. Getting Huet and Campbell off the books would help the 'Hawks in the salary cap for this year and next year.
Since when do we invest so much in what the Dallas announcers have to say? I know you've personally coached in the NHL for your entire career, but I gotta call you on this, hoss.
If $5.6M a year for almost 3 years is difficult to move, how hard is $7.1M a year for nearly 7 years?
Campbell is not the biggest 'Hawks issue by far. I'm not the biggest supporter since I compare almost every Blackhawk defenceman to Doug Wilson but Soupy has come around. He made some nice strides in last season's playoffs and this season isn't too bad. If he can continue to open it up inside the opponents' blue line and not be a 'Hawks defencive liability, I'm OK with that. It's a nice dimensional change compared to the hard hitting Seabs and always-in-control defencively Dunc.
Currently Campbell is +2 for the season which makes him one worse than Keith, Pronger, Lidstrom and other supposedly better defensive defensemen. He's also second among all defensemen in scoring. He's way down on the list of Hawk concerns at the moment.
Huet though is at the very top of the list and he knows it. I think we'll see a direction on him within a week or two. Unfortunately for him the next three games are at home where he is really struggling. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Campbell early last year when he was squeezing the sawdust out of the stick trying to earn his salary. Once he settled down and got hooked up with Hjalmarrson he's been a new man. I'm not sure what to think about Huet at the moment. The Hawks might just have to come to grips with the fact that he is best when he plays 35-40 games and isn't expected to be "The Man". That means he'll become thehighest paid backup in the league and maybe in history, but they can't just keep putting him out there with him struggling this way.
He's off to a pretty good start this season. He wasn't great defensively last night but I can't complain overall this season.
Barker is a MUCH bigger liability than Campbell. Barker can shoot and that's about it. Campbell is valuable to the break-out and a lot of people don't realize that. He uses his speed to create passes and get the Hawks up the ice.
There is NO WAY he is in the same boat as Huet. If he was making 4 or 5 mil instead of 7 no one would be complaining.
As for Huet, I think Q should start him against VAN (don't let him sit on that DAL loss for too long) and MTL (motivated to play well against former team?) and then go from there. If he's ok or better, you ride him until the wheels fall off, if he sucks, bench him/send him down.
If memory serves didn't Legace and Gerber go through this scenerio last year? Both wound up in the minors after being waived until Gerber was finally dealt to Toronto anyway Huet may end up with a similiar fate but for now I don't think i'd start Huet in any home games. We still don't know if Niemi can carry the mail either...Tough spot for the Hawks.
Is it true that Christobal Huet is actually Steve Bartmann? Tim, you laid out the options. Now let's see what the Hawks go. I know this much -- we cannot forge ahead with this kind of distraction on the squad. This whole mess is similar to da Bears in 86 and 87 when McMahon was hurt. Tomczak. Flutie. Fuller. You cannot have confusion at the most important position on the team. I've got two words in the form of a question: Eddie. Belfour.? He could make a triumphant return as part of a Heritage Night AND play in the game.