Hawks Sign Soderberg For $1M

[KBIB]

Highmore might end up as the average 4th liner but then again the 24yro had a pretty nifty postseason(3gls to Kaners 2) and looked to belong in postseason action. I'd rather see if he or a 25yro,solid defensive Kampf(57.6FO% in the PO's) can handle a bigger role than bring in a 35yro. We already had three forward vets in Smith,Shaw and Carpenter and they'll all want minutes too.
Trim Smith? Please tell me how that 3.25M is trimmable.

LTIR

 

[Bigfoot]

I do not mind the signing. I know it looks like it blocks some of these younger guys, but Soderberg is a good 2 way guy. We need forwards who can help out on D especially with the goalies we plan on rolling with

 

[Diehardfan]

I think that is Stan’s biggest issue and has been for the last 5 years. The future should be the main focus here, but in his mind, he has this mentality that adding these vets will somehow or another fool Toews, Kane, Keith and Seabs that this team is building on the fly. It is just another sign of Bowman being a bad GM, he wants to sit on the fence and play sides, and that’s because he doesn’t have the balls or brilliance to build his own team. I would respect the guy more if he followed his own path instead of thinking he his fooling people with these mindless moves.

Well, he appears to be fooling some of the people in this forum. People that don't want to accept the beat downs that a rebuild will produce. They will bitch about every loss but those losses can be productive when the draft rolls around.....if the GM is worth his salt. And therein lies the problem....

 

[gopher72]

If Stan thinks his future depends on the Hawks winning now then this acquisition makes sense.

 

[KBIB]

Well, he appears to be fooling some of the people in this forum. People that don't want to accept the beat downs that a rebuild will produce. They will bitch about every loss but those losses can be productive when the draft rolls around.....if the GM is worth his salt. And therein lies the problem....

I don't think anybody on this forum thinks the Hawks are a playoff team.

Not with that goaltending and defense.

I see this team shaping up like a team from the dead puck era. A dump and chase, keep them pinned in their own zone because there's a really strong chance if they get into the Hawks zone the other team will score type of team.

In a 56 game season this year will be lucky to win 15.

 

[Granada]

If it wasn't already obvious, this move makes it all the more apparent that Bowman's goal next year is to simply "tread water." This seems to be his main goal. All that guff about a "rebuild" was bull shit. It's another rebuild on the fly and his goal is to somehow limp into the playoffs this year. If the Hawks don't make the playoffs, Bowman is prepared to treat it as just another throw-away year -- in my opinion, because he knows he can and because he knows his job isn't in jeopardy. It's beyond sad.

Soderberg was signed because Dach will be out for a while and Strome is gone. I suppose the only good thing about this move is the term/salary. I'm having flashbacks of all the other "solid" veterans who Bowman signed over the years, only for them to suck and/or retire. Guess we'll see if he guessed right this time, but I'm not prepared to bet on it. Bowman has that uncanny ability to sign a guy in his last year, one season after his last good season.

At the end of the day, this is just another signing of a player who is better suited for a bottom-six role, but who will be assigned a top-six role. This is a player who would be perfect for a Cup contending team, which the Hawks are not.

 

[hawkinmontreal]

If it wasn't already obvious, this move makes it all the more apparent that Bowman's goal next year is to simply "tread water." This seems to be his main goal. All that guff about a "rebuild" was bull shit. It's another rebuild on the fly and his goal is to somehow limp into the playoffs this year. If the Hawks don't make the playoffs, Bowman is prepared to treat it as just another throw-away year -- in my opinion, because he knows he can and because he knows his job isn't in jeopardy. It's beyond sad.

Soderberg was signed because Dach will be out for a while and Strome is gone. I suppose the only good thing about this move is the term/salary. I'm having flashbacks of all the other "solid" veterans who Bowman signed over the years, only for them to suck and/or retire. Guess we'll see if he guessed right this time, but I'm not prepared to bet on it. Bowman has that uncanny ability to sign a guy in his last year, one season after his last good season.

At the end of the day, this is just another signing of a player who is better suited for a bottom-six role, but who will be assigned a top-six role. This is a player who would be perfect for a Cup contending team, which the Hawks are not.

Well said Granada, happy holidays.

 

[Granada]

Well said Granada, happy holidays.

Thanks HIM, you too

 

[Raskolnikov]

Turns out Soderberg was Toews replacement. Makes sense. We are in some real shit now.

Suter-Strome-Kane
Cat-Soderberg-Kubalik
Janmark-Carp-Walmark
Shaw/Smith-?-Kampf

Season hasn't started yet and we are sifting out the pecking order for Highmore/Pirri/Kurashev/Entwhistle

Highmore earned it for now? Pirri gets a look at some point seems to be the idea?

 

[hawkinmontreal]

Turns out Soderberg was Toews replacement. Makes sense. We are in some real shit now.

Suter-Strome-Kane
Cat-Soderberg-Kubalik
Janmark-Carp-Walmark
Shaw/Smith-?-Kampf

Season hasn't started yet and we are sifting out the pecking order for Highmore/Pirri/Kurashev/Entwhistle

Highmore earned it for now? Pirri gets a look at some point seems to be the idea?

Fuck that’s one ugly lineup

 

[Raskolnikov]

Maybe Suter-Kurashev-Kubalik/Kane could be a thing.

 

[hawkinmontreal]

Maybe Suter-Kurashev-Kubalik/Kane could be a thing.

At this point anything goes.

 

[Diehardfan]

Fuck that’s one ugly lineup

Yes it is. But that's the point....I mean the team gave everyone fair warning on what's coming. Which makes Bowman's dumbass signing of a 35 year old player even more perplexing. You already got Smith, Carpentar and Shaw taking up space...why in the world do you need to bring in another player on the downside? All four of these clowns need to be launched in order to allow anyone in their system to play some NHL hockey. Would that be ugly? Hell yes it would, but wouldn't be any worse than playing 4 guys that are on their last legs. Maybe one of the kids you play surprises....it's happened before.

 

[Probie2429]

Yes it is. But that's the point....I mean the team gave everyone fair warning on what's coming. Which makes Bowman's dumbass signing of a 35 year old player even more perplexing. You already got Smith, Carpentar and Shaw taking up space...why in the world do you need to bring in another player on the downside? All four of these clowns need to be launched in order to allow anyone in their system to play some NHL hockey. Would that be ugly? Hell yes it would, but wouldn't be any worse than playing 4 guys that are on their last legs. Maybe one of the kids you play surprises....it's happened before.

Soderberg is a stop-gap. This team is likely to be Detroit level bad this year. You don't want to force younger players into this environment if you don't have to. It's better to let a younger player to continue to develop in the AHL instead of throwing them into the NHL where they become overwhelmed and damaged goods (see Nylander as an example). Soderberg is also a prime candidate to be traded to a playoff team at the deadline which makes it a solid, low-cost move that helps in acquiring long-term assets.

 

[Probie2429]

In addition, there is no guarantee that Shaw and Smith are capable of playing right now. Hawks wanted to buy Smith out but couldn't due to being injured. Shaw's concussion issues might force him to retire. Signing Soderberg is actually a necessity at this point to fill a roster spot.

 

[JimAKABlkhwks918]

If it wasn't already obvious, this move makes it all the more apparent that Bowman's goal next year is to simply "tread water." This seems to be his main goal. All that guff about a "rebuild" was bull shit. It's another rebuild on the fly and his goal is to somehow limp into the playoffs this year. If the Hawks don't make the playoffs, Bowman is prepared to treat it as just another throw-away year -- in my opinion, because he knows he can and because he knows his job isn't in jeopardy. It's beyond sad.

Soderberg was signed because Dach will be out for a while and Strome is gone. I suppose the only good thing about this move is the term/salary. I'm having flashbacks of all the other "solid" veterans who Bowman signed over the years, only for them to suck and/or retire. Guess we'll see if he guessed right this time, but I'm not prepared to bet on it. Bowman has that uncanny ability to sign a guy in his last year, one season after his last good season.

At the end of the day, this is just another signing of a player who is better suited for a bottom-six role, but who will be assigned a top-six role. This is a player who would be perfect for a Cup contending team, which the Hawks are not.

Doesn't matter if they don't, Stan the GM's boss, the president of hockey operations, thinks Stan is the shit, and doing a bang up job! A+++ performance review!

 

[LordKOTL]

What rebuild DOESN'T need a 35 year old? Seriously?
If this move doesn't show a FO that's still not ready to be bad enough to get a good pick,then the two other vet forwards brought in prove it for sure. It's OKAY to be bad this year because of the 'letter' right? Then see what Entwistle or Kurashev have or sign a still 23yro Strome for one year and give him a big role. I doubt it's Strome playin' hardball here and a big role for him would tell us what we need to know,oh........and who cares if he fails if losin' is the objective.

Bring in more vets and this team will never know what the fuck it has with it's younger players!

Andy Green's still available!

On one hand I agree...let the kids play.

On the other hand, as @Granada said, if Bowman the Beancounter is simply trying to tread water and will likely be deplying guys like Soderberg in a top-6 role to fail instead of being deployed in a bottom-6 role and letting the young-ins in the top-6 roles to likley fail, but learn from the failure (as players like Keith, Kane, etc. had).

If the 'hawsk aren't going to give the young players the opportunity to learn a top-6 role at an NHL level and fail while they try--and just defer to vets who already are proven they can't play the roles (ever or anymore), or vets on the wrong side of the development/career curve, we might as well have the kids in Rockford getting those minutes/deployment even at a lower level rather then them getting 5-10 minutes per night in lower level roles on the 'hawks when we're going to lose anyway.

As for Soderberg...meh. I'm fine with/without. Even if we had Dach/Toews/Nylander-the-effortless I still think the team is a bottom-3rd team. No matter how you slice it I still think we're there.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Well, he appears to be fooling some of the people in this forum. People that don't want to accept the beat downs that a rebuild will produce. They will bitch about every loss but those losses can be productive when the draft rolls around.....if the GM is worth his salt. And therein lies the problem....

What are you talking about?

RACHAL and all these Europeans make a perfect zombie army of cold calculating machines to mindlessly perform JCs and Stans late night road trip secret analytics parties where they re-invent hockey based on billiard probabilities.

I dont see the problem.

 

[HSBOB]

In addition, there is no guarantee that Shaw and Smith are capable of playing right now. Hawks wanted to buy Smith out but couldn't due to being injured. Shaw's concussion issues might force him to retire. Signing Soderberg is actually a necessity at this point to fill a roster spot.

Fearless leader says Shaw's ready to go......

Ben Pope on Twitter: "Tidbits from Stan Bowman on @NBCSBlackhawks podcast today: - Andrew Shaw is ready health-wise for training camp - Jonathan Toews has experienced his symptoms for quite a while, not just the past few weeks - Bowman “can’t predict” if Strome contract will be done in time for camp" / Twitter

 

[hawkinmontreal]

Fearless leader says Shaw's ready to go......

Ben Pope on Twitter: "Tidbits from Stan Bowman on @NBCSBlackhawks podcast today: - Andrew Shaw is ready health-wise for training camp - Jonathan Toews has experienced his symptoms for quite a while, not just the past few weeks - Bowman “can’t predict” if Strome contract will be done in time for camp" / Twitter

Then the Hawks are set, that’s the ticket to success. Watch Stan go and give the bank to Strome due to Toews’s illness.