The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Along with SBP punching doll Bryan Smolinski, the Sens dealt Martin Havlat to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Tom Priessing, Josh Hennesy a prospect and a 2nd round pick in next year's draft. Martin Havlat quickly changed his mind about wanting to pursue the free agent market next year by signing a 3 year, $18 million dollar deal with the 'Hawks.

As a fan, I'm hoping this move is used to sign someone else as a bunch of cap room just became open. With this move, about $5 million of salary cap room was made available. If they don't sign someone else, they could have easily kept Zdeno Chara and not lose him to Boston for nothing. So, we'll see what happens (if anything) in the next few days.

I'm not terribly impressed with Martin Havlat right now. I guess if such a big contract was offered to me, I'd probably sign it, too. But once the season was finished he essentially declared he had no interest in playing for Ottawa anymore. Make no mistake, he could have stayed in Ottawa if he wanted to, and would have made more than the $2.6 million he made last year for the 30 games he played. He can rot in Chicago. They will not make the playoffs again next season if they are pinning their hopes on this 25 year old. The deal he signed is the sort of money you'd figure he'd make later on in his career, but not now. The NHL must loathe this contract, and you have to wonder what the lockout accomplished when an injury prone player with only 5 seasons experience is already making $6 million a year. And as someone else pointed out to me, you'd figure Chicago would learn something after signing big money deals to Khabibulin and Aucoin last year.

Martin Havlat was an exciting player to watch, and he was a potent offensive weapon when he was on. But, no one plays for the same franchise year after year anymore. For that reason, perhaps this trade isn't all that surprising. That's pro sports for you.