Black Hawk Down. The state of the 2010-11 Chicago Blackhawks

Marian Hossa is a major league screw-job. After losing in the Stanley Cup Finals in the past two season, Hossa is hoping the third time is a charm. Even if Hossa were to raise Lord Stanley this year, at what cost does it come to the Blackhawks, who gave Hossa a 12-year, $60+ million deal. I’m sure that Hossa’s whopping goal total this playoff run- which currently stands at two- was not what Chicago had in mind when Hossa laid his pen to paper.



The Hossa contract, coupled with the contracts they gave Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith (Raise your hand if you knew that Campbell and Keith had more lucrative deals than Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews), helps put the Blackhawks in one of the worst positions in relation to the salary cap that I have ever seen. The Hawks are nearly a million dollars OVER next years salary cap, and they still have to re-sign 6 guys! With a salary cap that is unlikely to drastically change next year, here is a list of Blackhawks that have over a $5 million cap hit for 2010-11:

Brian Campbell ($7.1 mil.) – who ranked 27th among defenseman in scoring. Woof.
Jonathan Toews ($6.3 mil.)
Patrick Kane ($6.3 mil.)
Cristobal Huet ($5.6 mil.)
Duncan Keith ($5.5 mil.)
Marian Hossa ($5.3 mil.)


An image of a Blackhawks fan come July.

Mind you, the current starting goaltender, Antti Niemi is NOT under contract for next year, not to mention the 3 forwards and two other D-men. And who knows whether any team will want backup goalie Cristobal Huet and his massive contract here in the off-season.

And people around here thought the Pens salary cap was in bad shape after last season.

If you’ve gotten down to this point in the post and are wondering “What the hell does this have to do with Pittsburgh?” Well…

At least we know who we WON’T be playing in the Cup finals next year.

To end, I will leave you all with my reaction to the Pirates getting shut out last night.