Hawks look set to possibly lose Hjalmarsson after Dallas offer him a $14M 4 year deal. Hawks have 7 days to match the offer, quesion for me is whether he is worth that at present. If we do lose him then I will be pi$$ed after losing Versteeg, still it will give us more options regards to replacing Steegs or Buff on the cap.
Hopefully Jack Skille will now step up and make the grade ala Versteeg. Would be nice to see Hull lad Davy Phillips get a shot with the Hawks too as he did well in his first season with Hawks farm team Rockford.

I think even though Tallon was a big reason we won the cup some of the contracts he gave out (Huet,Campbell)have meant that it could be a couple of years until we challenge for the cup again unless some of the young players progress quicker than expected.

They are the two main reasons we ended up losing Buff & Steeg's. Hjalmarsson has now been resigned and Bowman noow concentrating on keeping Niemi whilst staying under the cap. He may in the end be traded which could be a worry, however it seems that Huet is being assigned to Rockford which cuts $5.6M off the wage bill, seems the Hawks no longer see Huet in their plans at all and will be trying everything they can to dump his salary and him.

Hawks let Niemi walk after arbitration. Niemi was awarded $2.75M for a 1 year deal but Hawks announced that they will let Niemi go and have signed Turco.

Have to say I'm disappointed but with Huet still hanging on with the ridiculous deal he's on then its looks as though Turco comes in as possible No.1 and to help support Crawford and Toivonen.

Shame but thinking about it Hawks would have the same issue next season if Niemi had another good season. Just need to get rid of the dead weight which is Huet as soon as possible.

I'm sure one team watching how the "hawks are handling their salary cap issues are the Avs. At the moment the Avs are below the minimum but still have to make deals with Mueller and Stewart which should take them over the minimum. Of course the other young stars like Duchene, O'Reily etc. will need upgrades next season then it will become more interesting here in Denver.
The Avs first two games this coming season are home to the "hawks then away to the Flyers.
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