Stan Bowman is a good general manager. He inherited an awfully nice situation when he was named general manager in Chicago, but he’s more than proven himself, navigating the salary cap carefully and keeping the Blackhawks core together and competitive.
So I find myself surprised to be writing that a tone-deaf trade-deadline performance could well end up costing his team the Stanley Cup.
It’s not just that Antoine Vermette has been a curiously bad fit in Chicago. The Blackhawks paid a lot in assets to acquire him and he hasn’t really delivered for them. But the desire to add the two-way centre was understandable since he was performing splendidly at the time of the deadline. So far, the deal hasn’t worked as hoped, but it was a reasonable gamble.
The real question is why Bowman opted to pay a major price in assets for Kimmo Timonen, a 40-year-old defenceman who hadn’t played a single game this season before the Blackhawks coughed up a second-round pick and a conditional pick that could also rise as high as the second round.
Not everyone saw the deal as a negative. Randy ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
Will Blackhawks’ Failure to Add Better D-Man Than Kimmo Timonen Cost Them a Cup?
May 18th, 2015 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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