Quenneville optimistic despite roster changes
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CHICAGO – Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville keeps repeating that he’s “excited” about the Stanley Cup championship team’s upside potential, even after shedding seven players to remain under the NHL’s salary cap.
Quenneville said he believed that goalie Antti Niemi was among those players with a bright future, even if Niemi becomes the eighth Hawk trimmed from the team’s roster because of financial constraints.
An arbitrator is scheduled to award Niemi a one-year salary figure no later than tonight, following a hearing in Toronto on Thursday. Niemi, a restricted free agent, filed for arbitration after his agent, Bill Zito, and Hawks general manager Stan Bowman couldn’t reach contract terms.
Niemi became the team’s top goalie last season and then backstopped them their first Cup in 49 years. The issue is whether Hawks can squeeze the 26-year-old Finn under the NHL’s $59.4 million salary cap in 2010-11.
“When he played regularly he just got better and better, and he’s very consistent,” said Quenneville on Friday before the opening of the Hawks’ annual fan convention. “He handles big games like any game, and he welcomes all challenges.
“His upside is still in place, and goalies usually mature later. He’s not a 20-year-old, but in goalie development stages, he’s still got a lot of good years ahead of him.”
The arbitrator’s decision will determine if the Hawks re-sign Niemi and keep him, walk away from the salary rendering him an unrestricted free agent, or accept the amount and then trade the goalie before the start of the season.
Many of the current Hawks attended the convention, but Niemi didn’t. Team officials said 10,000 tickets were sold for the event at a downtown hotel.
Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz confirmed Friday that the family-owned team lost money last season, despite selling out every home game at the 20,500-seat United Center. He said he didn’t expect the team be profitable for “four or five years.”
“Just because you fill the place up and win the Stanley Cup doesn’t mean you’re in the black,” Wirtz said. “But the nice thing is we have light at the end of the tunnel and we’re going to be there.”
The Hawks plan to increase ticket prices an average of 20 percent, team officials confirmed.
“We’ll modestly and judiciously look at our ticket prices every year,” Wirtz said.
Although his team has lost players and could lose Niemi because of the league’s salary cap, Wirtz said the Hawks would be worse off without the payroll limit.
“We took a year off (the 2004-05 lockout) for a reason, to drag down the salaries so they just weren’t just escalating out of control, and the Blackhawks are a good example,” Wirtz said. “We’d probably have our salaries up 40 percent if we didn’t have a hard cap.”
