| Nick Obergan. 27th June, 2011 - 2:15 pm
 After the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup victory in 2010, they immediately began purging their roster in an effort to elude reaching the salary cap ceiling. A year later, two more victims were had by the same predicament, as defenseman Brian Campbell and forward Troy Brouwer were sent packing in separate deals.
Campbell parlayed two All-Star appearances with Buffalo (2007, 2008), and a 62-point season into an 8-year contract worth just over $7.12M per season, an exorbitant cap hit for any team in the salary cap world, let alone a team with so many high-salaried long term contracts like Chicago does.
Of course, the long term deals to Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook were the work of current GM Stan Bowman; the contracts of Campbell and of Marian Hossa were the work of former GM Dale Tallon, who is currently the GM of the Florida Panthers. And it was the Panthers, now run by Tallon, that acquired Campbell in exchange for forward Rostislav Olesz.
Acquiring the contract of Olesz was no picnic either for what he brings, so good on Tallon to only maintain one bloated contract at a time. Even with Campbell, Florida only has $22M in committed salaries for next season, some $26M below the salary cap floor. Thus, acquiring a large contract like that of Campbell for the next five seasons is not nearly the burden it would be for most other teams.
Campbell is a top-four defenseman on a contender, but is a definite top-two guy on Florida. His experience (he is 32-years-old) and leadership (previously was an alternate captain in Buffalo) will help the young core of the Panthers greatly and give them a good puck mover from the blueline. He is an exceptional skater, one of the fastest in the league, and gives a much needed boost to complement the study stay-at-home guys currently on the Panthers.
Grade for Florida: A
Brouwer, meanwhile, was traded to the Washington Capitals for the 26th pick in the 2011 draft. The playoff failures of the Capitals are widely known, and one of the things they lack is gritty wingers, and Brouwer definitely brings an edge along with some added goal scoring (22 goals and 17 goals over the last two seasons respectively).
Additionally, Brouwer is a restricted free agent who made a mere $1M last year, and will likely cost around $2M for the next few seasons. This is important for Washington because it allows them to fill a void that will be left by unrestricted free agent Brooks Laich, a guy who will be very costly for the Caps to maintain (probably closer to $4M).
That being said, a 25-year-old forward who has never scored more than 22 goals or 40 points in a season is typically not worth a first round draft pick, but many of the gambles made by GM George McPhee have paid off, so maybe this will too.
Grade for Washington: B
The Chicago purge netted the team Olesz and center Phillip Danault (picked by Chicago 26th).
Olesz, the 7th overall pick in 2004, carries a cap hit of $3.125M for three more seasons. Unfortunately for Chicago, and Florida before them, Olesz contributes nowhere near that value to a hockey club (132 points in six seasons, averaging roughly 14:00 of ice time).
But there was no way the Hawks were going to get only draft picks and/or prospects for the horrible Campbell contract; they were going to have to take back a smaller bad contract. It is not ideal, but they still manage to save $4M in each of the next three years, plus two seasons of $7M in savings.
In Danault, they get a good prospect who is a former captain that contributed 15 points in nine playoff games as an 18-year-old in Quebec. It also comes with around $2M in savings from the future payday of Brouwer.
Together, that is an additional $5M in cap room for Chicago to use to make their team deeper than it was last year. Depth was their strength when they won the Cup in 2010, and this a step toward gaining that ability back. Chicago is now armed with around $14M in cap room for the upcoming season.
Grade for Chicago: B+
Nick is the NHL Feature Writer of RealGM. You can reach him by email nick.obergan@realgm.com or on twitter @NickObergan |
