Campbell to Chicago
The first big tree falls...Chicago signed defenseman Brian Campbell to an eight-year, $56.8-million contract.
This goes along with the Blackhawks possibly moving Nikolai Khabibulin, but there might be several teams interested...
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
This will be the Penguins of the West.
Maybe even a dynasty.
Every position is stacked.
I wish we had a GM with balls.
Can they possibly keep 'Bulin with Huet and Campbell signed for so much $$$$?
Pretty much expected something in that area. Huge overpayment but that's the way it goes these days.
What other teams could be interested in Khabi?
The dude hit the lotto with the Hawks. 7.1 mil. wow!
I can't imagine several teams having interest in Khabibulin.
Anaheim has Giguere and Hiller.
Atlanta has Lehtonen and Hedberg.
Boston has Thomas and Rask and Fernandez.
Buffalo has Miller and now Lalime.
Calgary with Kiprusoff and one of their many young prospects to serve as backup.
Carolina has Ward as their starter.
Colorado with Budaj and now Raycroft.
Columbus with Leclaire and Norrena.
Dallas has Turco.
Detroit has Osgood.
Edmonton is set with Garon and Roloson.
Florida with Vokoun and Anderson.
Minnesota has Backstrom and Harding.
Nashville has Ellis.
New Jersey with Brodeur.
The Islanders have DiPietro.
Rangers have Lundqvist.
The Sens now have Gerber and Auld.
Flyers with Biron and Niittymaki.
The Pens have Fleury and Sabourin.
Sharks have Nabokov.
Blues have Mason and Legace.
Tampa Bay has Smith and Kolzig.
Toronto with Toskala and CuJo.
The Canucks are set with Luongo.
And the Capitals now have Theodore along with Johnson.
How many of those teams could take on over $6M for a goalie? I don't see many teams that would be interested.
With Chicago over the cap, maybe they can trade for Seabrook, he will be making 3.5 / yr for the next 3 yrs
Ok Anthony--let's pretend you are a GM with balls.
What would you have done this offseason to make us the Penguins of the West?
When is Anthony's computer going to crash??!!!
If we get Khabi, that means no Ersgerg, which means our best goalie will not be on the team.
Not good, but it is the Kings way.
Personally, I still think that Campbell is overrated.
I'm just glad Campbell's not a Shark.
The Hawks are now sitting on two contracts they would like to dump. Both Khabibulin and Havlat are signed to deals for over $6 million per year. They need to lose at least one of those contracts for the Campbell signing to make any sense. I would be fine taking either of them on a one year deal if a number one pick comes back our way.
supposedly, commodore to columbus. 5 years, 18.75 million...
IF the Kings get the Bulin Wall, I don't think we should assume Labs would be the backup. For one thing, he might be dealt to Chicago. For another, he might be dealt somewhere else before camp to be someone else's #2.
The reason DL is interested in NK is that he needs to increase payroll in a way that doesn't affect seasons beyond this one. Therefore, it's logical to upgrade Labs to NK since we MUST spend the money anyway, so it costs us NOTHING. Underline: we MUST spend up to the floor. To those who say, "why not spend the money on something else on our shopping list, like Orpik, etc.," that's certainly something DL would do for the right player with the right length contract. Presumably, Orpik would want a long contract. Is DL willing to give him one? I don't know. For Orpik, probably. For someone else (e.g. Stuart), maybe not.
Quisp:
You are exactly right. At this point I think it would be a smart move to take Khabibulin and send Labarbera back. This way, we have gotten closer to the cap floor by taking on his 6Mil salary which will subsequently be 0 next year, and we give Chicago their backup. Khabibulin is a definite upgrade to Labarbera and it allows us to give Bernier another year to develop before asking him to take the reigns. Even by taking on NK's 6 mil, we would still need to spend about 4-5 Mil. MORE just to reach the minimum floor which I assume some, if not all, will go to Mr. Blake as much as it hurts. Makes total sense to me...anyone else?
How about Mike Smith being sent to Chicago in return for Khabibulin and a pick.
That's Mike Smith from Tampa who Tampa traded for late in the season.
I don't think Blake will get THAT much (4-5MM). I hope not. But what do I know? I assume it would be a one year incentive-laden contract. I wouldn't be surprised to see Blake sign for about 3MM and Burtuzzi for 2MM or something like that. Of course I'm talking out of my ass. I have no idea if DL is interested in the likes of Burtuzzi. But he will be affordable this year and useful to someone. The guy is like nine feet tall and, as we know, mean.
Yep, I wish our GM had the balls to dropped closes to 80 mil on 2 guys.
Your getting WAAAAAAAAY ahead of yourself even bringing up the words DYNASTY and CHICAGO in the same sentence. Last time I checked, the hawks made the playoffs how many times in the last 6 years?
Hey Quisp,
Might DL try to front load a long contract for JJ and Kop. It would in the best interest of the team and players to push as much money as possible into the up coming year of a new long term contract for both. Just a thought.