HockeyStan Bowman has red-hot summer

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Stan Bowman still has salary cap problems to solve. But the Chicago Blackhawks 37-year-old general manager has enjoyed as good an off-season as any of his counterparts in working out a trying state of affairs.

The San Jose Sharks didn't help matters when they signed defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson to a four-year, $14-million US offer sheet last Friday. The Blackhawks matched the offer on Monday, but Bowman hoped for a cheaper deal for his top-four, 23-year-old Swedish defenceman.

With Hjalmarsson officially signed and in the fold for the Stanley Cup champions, Bowman has 15 players under contract with a payroll of $59,351,590, which is a shade under the $59.4-million salary cap.

There will be a $5.625-million savings when the Blackhawks bury backup goalie Cristobal Huet in the minors or find a spot for him in Europe, but Bowman still has to sign eight or nine players to fill out the rest of the roster spots, including goalie Antti Niemi, who could end up taking his team to salary arbitration.

With Niemi and others to sign, the speculation has been that defenceman Brian Campbell and his hefty $7.143-million paycheque or Patrick Sharp ($3.9-million) will be moved for further salary cap relief. Another option for Bowman would be, after Niemi, to sign seven or eight players at or near the minimum the minimum salary of $500,000 and hope a cheaper player can beat out Marty Reasoner ($1.15-million) for a spot on the fourth line. But this is best-case scenario for Bowman.

For example, Jack Skille, 23, is a young forward expected to make the Blackhawks this season. The 2005 first-round pick (seventh overall) has scored five goals in 30 games over parts of the past three seasons for Chicago. But his NHL salary was $1.275-million. Can Bowman get him signed in the $700,000 neighbourhood?

Still, Bowman has done a magnificent job in moving out Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Brent Sopel, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser and Adam Burish, who signed with the Dallas Stars. Unrestricted free agent John Madden also will not be back. In return, the Blackhawks stockpiled draft picks and added plenty of prospects, including Jeremy Morin, who in his rookie season with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL scored 47 times in 58 games last year.

The Blackhawks also gained a first-round pick, two second-round choices, a sixth-round selection, Viktor Stalberg, Reasoner, minor-leauge forward Joey Crabb, prospects Chris DiDomenico, Philippe Paradis and Ivan Vishnevskiy in their summertime transactions.

The Blackhawks still appear to be the team to beat in the West.

The Sharks haven't improved their roster and instead have lost Rob Blake to retirement and goalie Evgeni Nabokov to the Kontinential Hockey League in Russia. The Detroit Red Wings primarily have the same lineup back. The Vancouver Canucks did a good job in adding defencemen Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard, but they still don't have the depth up front that Chicago boasts.

The Red Wings were the last team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. When they followed up 1996-97 with a championship in 1997-98, there was minimal turnover with their roster. But this was a team highly motivated because their teammate Vladimir Konstantinov had been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life after a limousine accident less than a week after the 1997 Cup win.

The Blackhawks will have plenty of fresh faces in the lineup. They will be hungry to sip from the Stanley Cup, too. Stan Bowman's father Scotty always stated there has to be turnover for teams to repeat in order to wipeout the internal complacency.

He should know since he not only steered the Red Wings to those back-to-back titles more than a decade ago, he also replaced Bob Johnson in Pittsburgh and managed to guide the Penguins to a second successive championship in 1991-92.

Here is a glance at what the Stanley Cup-champion Blackhawks lineup could look like in the fall:

Forwards (left-centre-right)

Troy Brouwer-Jonathan Toews-Patrick Kane
Viktor Stalberg-Patrick Sharp-Marian Hossa
Bryan Bicknell-Dave Bolland-Tomas Kopecky
Jake Dowell-Marty Reasoner-Jack Skille

Defence

Duncan Keith-Brent Seabrook
Brian Campbell-Niklas Hjalmarsson
John Scott-Jordan Hendry

Goalies

Antti Niemi-Corey Crawford

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