Rivals Become Teammates

More information about who will be playing on the Chicago Blackhawks team:

The Chicago Blackhawks landed Marian Hossa today today with the free-agent push in Chicago once again coming from team president John McDonough, who was the driving force behind last year's two prominent free-agent signings, Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet, neither of whom provided good value for the money.
Hossa should be a much better buy - less money against the cap and a far better track record than either Campbell or Huet who, one year after the fact, are problems for the team going forward.

Campbell, at a $7.1-million annual salary-cap charge on one of the most expensive contracts in the NHL, is virtually untradable, as is Huet, at $5.625-million. Thankfully for the Blackhawks, they'll get one more year of high-end production for reasonable dollars from their young nucleus - Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane - and two more from Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. When they all need to get raises, in the next 12 to 24, that's when the problems will ensue.

Swapping Hossa into Martin Havlat's place on the roster won't be quite the issue that the Campbell and Huet signings because Havlat knocked down a $6-million salary-cap charge last year. Hossa's number will come in just a shade over $5-million on the sort of 12-year contract that is becoming all the more common in today's NHL.