Pool Outlook for Chicago

Well, here you have it... your Stanley Cup Champions for the 2010 season, the Chicago Blackhawks!  The last of the Pool Outlooks for the Spring gives us an overview of the Blackhawks regular season that led to their Cup drive and a look forward to see whether or not they have enough to do it all over again and repeat as champs in 2011.  It's a tough act to follow, but you would have to think with the maturation process undergone to win it all, the young superstars should be able to drum up some more to do it again.

During the regular season, it was Patrick Kane who led the way for the Blackhawks, scoring 30 goals and 58 assists in all 82 games, going over a point-per-game during the year.  His 88 points were good enough for 14th in pool scoring throughout the league, 9th among forwards and it will make him a pretty safe bet as a high pick in next year's pool draft.  As the player that scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal on Wednesday night, he may have had his stock rise even further than just 14th best.

The Blackhawks depth up front was pretty impressive in 2010, as they had plenty of interchangable parts in their line-up throughout the year.  Jonathan Toews led the remainder of the group with 68 points (25 goals and 43 assists) in 76 games, while Patrick Sharp had a good year with 66 points (25 goals and 41 assists), Marian Hossa missed some time to injury, but still picked up 51 points.  Those three and Kane all finished in the top 100 forwards in scoring in 2010, which makes for a pretty good year.  Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer, Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien all chimed in at key times during the year, giving the team plenty of scoring depth and help them to the number two spot in the Western Conference.

Quite possibly more impressive than the team's forward lines was their blueline corps, led by Duncan Keith, who finished 2nd in defensemen scoring with 69 points (14 goals and 55 assists) in all 82 games, which plotted him 46th in league scoring.  He'll be a very hot commodity in next year's hockey pool draft.  Brian Campbell had 38 points in 68 games, ranking him 29th, while Brent Seabrook had 30 points in 78 games, ranking him 50th among defensemen.  Those are three top end defenders that would look good on any one's team and the Blackhawks were fortunate to have all of them signed on for their Cup run. 

For everyone looking upon the Blackhawks, the biggest concern for them was going to be goaltending and who was going to step up to be the guy.  Antti Niemi, a relative unknown, really took the bull by the horns during the year and made the Blackhawks crease his own.   Niemi finished the year with 26 wins, 7 shutouts and an assist for 67 points in the pool, ranking him 14th among goalies and he only split the time in the crease with Cristobel Huet, who also finished with 26 wins and 4 shutouts for 60 points.  Goaltending really didn't turn out to be an issue at the end of the season, as Niemi was good enough to backstop the Blackhawks past the Predators, Canucks, Sharks and Flyers.

2011 Season Outlook
There is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the newly-crowned champions, as they will have some serious finance concerns when it comes to the salary cap number for 2011.  When the number is eventually announced to the public, then the outlook for the team can really be determined fully.  Thankfully for the Blackhawks, the real core of the team is locked in and should be very easy to build around, which has to be pleasing to the ears of many.  When you're up at the top, the only way you can go is down, if you can't stay the same.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Patrick Kane	Duncan Keith	Cristobel Huet
Jonathan Toews	Brian Campbell
Patrick Sharp	Brent Seabrook
Marian Hossa	Brent Sopel
Kris Versteeg
Troy Brouwer
Dustin Byfuglien
Tomas Kopecky
Dave Bolland

As you can see above, there are a lot of big names on the list of players above and they don't come cheap these days.  The 14 players that you see up top, nine forwards, four defense and a goalie, come in at pre-bonus total of $57.4 million against the cap.  There was a tweet from James Duthie suggesting that we may be able to add another $1.3 million to that total for Toews' Conn Smythe Trophy bonus, which will hurt the team even further.  Kane will also be hitting a number of bonuses as well, which also challenges the salary cap ceiling.  That would take up almost the remainder of the cap space, meaning that the Blackhawks will likely have to shift some money out of town before they can add more players to their active roster.

Unrestricted free agency will likely be a benefit to moving players out, but those players don't count towards the total written up above now, but the likelihood of any of them returning does seem slim to none.  John Madden, Kim Johnsson, Ben Eager, and Adam Burish will all likely be looking for new homes, unless they can somehow be fit underneath the cap with small-ish deals.  Madden and Johnsson should be a couple of nice prizes for some team that is in the market for some good defensive veterans.

Restricted free agency will be very interesting for the Blackhawks, as they will have to deal with Antti Niemi, Andrew Ladd, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Jordan Hendry, just to name a few.  Niemi will likely see some good offers coming his way, which may mean that Cristobel Huet is on the market as a number one goalie.  Ladd and Hjalmarsson will be interesting deal breakers for the Summer, as they were big pieces in the Cup run as well.  Lots of intrigue surrounding these players, for sure.

The Blackhawks, unlike their Cup Finals opponents, do have a few names sitting in the reserves that might just make an appearance in the line-up, due to salary cap constraints, while there might be one or two that might not make it for the same reason.  Jack Skille tops the list of players in the Hockey News' Future Watch, he made it into six games for the Blackhawks in 2010 and will be looking for a new deal as an RFA, but that may work to the Blackhawks' advantage, if he wants to play next season.  Back-up goalie, Corey Crawford, will also likely make an appearance on the bench, if the team can deal one of their goalies away for cost saving measures.  Kyle Beach may get another year in the minors, waiting his turn with an entry-level cap hit over $1 million, so I don't think we'll be seeing him full-time soon, possibly as a call-up when injuries happen.

The Blackhawks, thanks to winning the Cup, will pick 30th in the opening round of the Entry Draft this year and I think it will be business as usual down there, taking the best available player at the time.  The pickings will be slim for a top end defenseman, so I think it's a pretty good bet that Chicago will be looking at the best forward available.

What I had said at this time last year: "It's fair to say that the Blackhawks have plenty of talent to draw from right now for their fantasy pool teams, as Kane, Toews, Keith, Sharp and Campbell should have immediate pick mentions, while Huet will wait for Khabibulin to sign or not sign to be considered a number one goalie or not. Chicago should be a good place for fantasy players, it will just be a matter of how they fill in the blanks to tip the scales one way or the other, in terms of total production."

Well, I can't say I was wrong at what I had mentioned about the Blackhawks last year... they were a great team to pick from at the Draft, except for maybe Huet, who did hold out long enough to be considered the number one goalie going into the season, but seeing him fall to Niemi was not foretold.  I was kind of hoping that I had mentioned that I had them considered to be a Cup favourite at that point, but that wasn't to be, because that would have been really sweet.

For 2011, I could probably offer some guesses as to who would be out the door to make room for others, but I think I will save that for my rumours blog and I might just do that for all of you.  Yes, the Blackhawks will be systematically taken apart by only small bits, but what the core is made up of will remain and be good for poolies across the continent.  I'm expecting to see some more dominance from the Blackhawks, likely using those young legs to another good playoff run.  I think the Penguins are a good example of being able to make those runs for a couple of years in a row.  Make the Blackhawks a priority for your regular season draft and likely your playoffs pool as well.