Huet Heads to Switzerland

This was definitely one of the options the Blackhawks got to choose from with trying to find work outside the NHL for Cristobel Huet and fortunately, they were able to find a team in Europe to take him on loan for the 2011 season, which legally drops his salary cap hit from the books, allowing the Blackhawks a little more space to fill their roster with NHL-ready players.

The Blackhawks have loaned Huet to Swiss team, Fribourg-Gotteron, on a 1-year agreement, which concludes at the end of the 2011 season and will act as a minor-league assignment, dropping his cap hit from the books.  There is a second year remaining on Huet's contract, to which the Blackhawks have to own up for, but that bridge will be crossed when they get to it.

So, with this loan taking place, the Blackhawks will be dropping Huet's $5.625 million from the books, which will now update a number of the tables, installing Marty Turco as the number one guy, backed up by Corey Crawford, who only played in 59 minutes of action in 2010. These moves now bump the annual salary cap number for the Blackhawks to $56 million for nine forwards, seven defensemen, two goalies and the bonus overage penalty suffered from last season's numbers.  This leaves the Blackhawks roughly $3.4 million for four forwards, which is more than manageable with the forward core that they already have installed.

With training camp only a few weeks away, I think we can better gauge who would likely be a good candidate to fill those gaps.