On Friday, we all learned that the San Jose Sharks put a little bit of pressure on the Blackhawks by signing restricted free agent Niklas Hjalmarsson to an offer sheet of 4 years and $13 million in total. On Monday, the Blackhawks made it known that they won't need all seven days given by the offer sheet to match, doing so only after the weekend was completed. Although the deal isn't finalized, the word came from the general manager's mouth, so we'll take that as a solid base to build upon.
Hjalmarsson was definitely highlighted as one of the Blackhawks' more unsung heroes in the playoffs, leading up to their Stanley Cup win, but he was definitely useful in every situation. His regular season was quite good also, picking up 17 points in 77 games for the Blackhawks, ranking him 110th among all defensemen this past year. Since he won't be moving from underneath both
Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook or
Brian Campbell, Hjalmarsson may not be the best player to take too early in your fantasy pool draft. He might have some new attention brought upon him, but that shouldn't translate into more points.
| Forwards | Defense | Goalies |
| Patrick Kane | Duncan Keith | Cristobel Huet |
| Jonathan Toews | Brian Campbell | |
| Patrick Sharp | Brent Seabrook | |
| Marian Hossa | Niklas Hjalmarsson | |
| Troy Brouwer | John Scott | |
| Tomas Kopecky | | |
| Marty Reasoner | | |
| Dave Bolland | | |
| Viktor Stalberg | | |
The plot does thicken a little bit more in Chicago, who are still dealing with their cap issues, despite this new wrinkle in their system of re-signing Hjalmarsson to a bigger contract. Now, I'm keeping my list as thin as possible for most teams, including the Blackhawks, but that doesn't seem to want to help them at all. With 15 players signed on above and a big penalty for bonuses past the salary cap ceiling, they currently have $59.2 million (rounded, of course) already taken up against the cap, leaving in the neighbourhood of only $200,000 for three forwards, one defenseman and a goalie (at the very minimum). That isn't going to work. How much more can be taken away from a Cup-winning team like this?
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