It's official per TSN. While the CBA called for only a 5% increase to about $62.4MM, it appears the good revenue year and the new TV deal with NBC/Comcast/Versus brought an unforseen windfall. I suspect a few signings will come shortly.

This should give StanBow and friends enough cap room to build a team to make a serious run for the Cup again.

Note to Stan: Can we please sign Campoli, Frolik, and get a second line center for Hossa?

TSN's Bob McKenzie is reporting that the Hawks have let Cam Barker go to Minnesota for pending UFA defenseman Kim Johnsson and the Wild's first round pick from last year, defenseman Nick Leddy.

We lose a defensive liability and gain an experienced all around skills guy who can score on the power play, as well as a nice prospect, while dumping $3MM in salary. Nice move Stan and company!

This sounds exactly like what the doctor ordered  to me.

And Niemi to start tomorrow night.

via media.canada.com

Lots of good news on the offensive side of the puck for the Hawks. 

But we need deeper and better defense and goaltending to get to the next level. Great teams are built from the crease outward - not the other way around.

Playoff hockey exposes team weakness in a way the regular season never can. The Hawks lost the series to Detroit due to a lack of defensive depth. No goalie, no matter how talented or lucky, can carry a team so weak beyond Keith and Seabrook on defense - Khabi came as close as anyone could have and now he is gone. We cannot ask Keith and Seabs to play 20+ minutes every game all year and expect them to have gas in the tank for a Cup run.

So I ask, with the Five Hole as our number one goalie, backed up by two youngins with little NHL experience, where have we solved our core problem of thin defense? We haven't. Furthermore, the specter of huge long term contracts for a questionable number one goalie, and a questionable defensive defenseman in Campbell, makes good moves in this area even more difficult.

I would argue that we are actually worse off right now than we were before. No amount of backchecking by forwards will come close to compensating for the desperate need we have for grinding, skull splitting defensemen who can clear a puck out of the defensive zone, win battles on the boards, and keep a puck in the offensive zone.

Please, oh please, sign Beauchemin or Scuderi before they are gone as well. Our quest for a Stanley Cup will be the brightest before we have to worry about signing our young superstars, and not afterward. If we have to put our faith in Five Hole to clean up after our weak defense, 2009-2010 will be a long and heartbreaking season.

via d.yimg.com

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