Hawks Match Offer Sheet, Sign Kitchen, Re-Sign Haviland

And here I had this whole big post earlier about Kitchen replacing Torchetti and Haviland re-signing and the importance of it all. And then work got busy and my session timed out and I hadn't saved anything so it was all lost.  Stuff happens some times.  I'll see if I can recall most of it and post that tomorrow.  It might seem like some insignificant moves, but Kitchen and Haviland could really impact a lot of how this season goes.

In other news, the Hawks announced that they are matching the Sharks offer sheet, which will keep Hjalmarsson in Chicago.  He'll make $3.5 Mil per year for the next four years so now you can all go out and buy his jersey without fear.  This puts the Hawks in a bind with the cap, and I expect Niemi to be the one to leave.  There's some rumors that Campbell and Sharp are being shopped, but I'm pretty sure that was just made up by someone on Twitter.  Campbell would be very hard to move with his cap hit and No Movement Clause.  I wouldn't want to see him leave anyways. It would be very hard to replace his skill set.

I don't see Sharp leaving either.  He is such a versatile player at both wing and center and his cap hit is very good for all that he brings to the table.  My guess is the Hawks will get Niemi to lower his asking price or walk away from the arbitration award and sign someone on the cheap.  Niemi was the guy who proved that you don't need a goalie to be anything more than serviceable when playing behind some of the best defensemen in the league.  His success works against him in a way.  No matter what, it will all be very interesting to see how it shakes out.