Hockey Trade Rumors

The Chicago Blackhawks never seem to improve. This off-season many felt Roenick would return, or Brett Hull would come, or even maybe some kind of major trade would happen.
All fans got was Jon Klemm, Steve Thomas, Igor Korolev and a bunch of re-signings. Stephane Quintal was dealt back home to Montreal as well.

Chicago fans must be the most frustrated fans out there. Seeing Bryan McCabe traded to Toronto for Alex Karpotsev was a big lose to the team. McCabe is thriving in Toronto, and although Karpotsev has great talent, he hasn’t lived up to Chicago expectations.

Igor Korolev won’t really help much. As a Toronto fan I hated him in the playoffs and season. He doesn’t hit, score, pass. shoot, block shots or fight. He skates in circles and avoids the puck.
Jon Klemm will help defensively, but for $7 million over 3 years is too much. The hawks clearly overpaid for his services.

It seems most free agents who sign with the team never turn out well.
Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Kris King are 3 players who were signed and traded within a year of their signings. Kris King retired, while Clarke was bought out.
They miss players that they had and dislike the ones they have. This team has never been the same since they dealt Roenick. Who they get for him? Zhamnov! I don’t think I have to comment on that one!
The only real good pick up as of late was when they claimed Steve Sullivan off of waivers from Toronto. He is a great player who’s heart is twice the size of his body.
Another bad trade was when they dealt Gilmour to Chicago along with rising talent Dumont for Mikael Grosek basically. Grosek is currently with the Rangers farm system. Dumont is playing hard in Buffalo.

There’s many reasons for this teams bad performance. It starts with management. GM Mike Smith promised to make the Hawks a great team full of Russian stars. Well there are some Russians on the team, it’s not exactly a star team yet. They have deep pockets to improve the team, but they won’t open their wallets.
This year Steve Thomas was also added. Big deal. He scored 8 goals in the regular season. yes he had an injury, but still. He performed his best in the playoffs, but with this team he the only way he will see the post season is if he is traded.
They need management who care about the fans and not so much about their income.
The only time this team sells out its tickets is when the Wings visit, that says it all. No one cares in Chicago about the team as much as they did, and why should they. They need some major changes to get back in the playoffs, it’s a shame management won’t do it.

By: Chandler