When you're an organization that has a certain pedigree for winning, you can certainly accomplish a lot, convincing players to take a little bit less for a great chance at winning. The Chicago Blackhawks did more than that, bringing a former member of one of their Stanley Cup teams back, signing Brian Campbell to a 1-year, $1.5 million deal on Friday. The 37-year old defender just finished a very high price tagged deal, which had him with a $7.1 million cap hit in Florida, to bring him down below $2 million for another shot at a championship. A very shrewd move by both player and team with this deal.
Last season, Campbell was able to play in all 82 games for the Panthers, scoring 6 goals and 31 points, which certainly isn't big money numbers, but he was still a big part of the rise in the standings for those Panthers.
It will be a lesser role for Campbell in Chicago, since he's now going to be lining up as the fourth or fifth guy in the depth chart, but it is the right team to be on to do that. Some power play time and his ability to move the puck should at least keep him at the 30-point mark for next season, so I would expect him to be a key pick in the draft next season.
No comments:
Post a Comment