The Hawks have re-acquired Kris Versteeg from the Panthers, per Chris Kuc.

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Jimmy Hayes, Dylan Olsen sent packing.

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4th line?

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Glorious!!!

About time something positive happened with this team.

This horrible start is about to piss me off.

right CH?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Does he really think they are off to a horrible start?

They are 12-2-4

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Man, I liked Versteeg. I don't care. Maybe he'll play better than he had played in Florida under terrible coaches.

I just can't believe Tallon got rid of his surrogate son.

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The deal doesn't look too bad. He did some good here...but he did some bad too.

Jeremy Morin can't get ice time because he's not responsible enough, loses roster spot to Kris Versteeg. What a world.

EDIT: Sounds like Florida is retaining 50% of Versteeg's contract. That's a great trade. Hayes was tumbling down the depth chart. I still had hope for Dylan Olsen on the stay-at-home side of things, but Bowman knows his pipeline better than I do. And that'll do it for Tallon's failed first rounders. So long and thanks for all the fish.

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Yeah.

But he was also negative on them all the way to the Victory Parade last year.

It is what he does.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I've actually been quite enthusiastic about this year's team since they turned the corner big-time and came close to leading the league in goals. They were iffy to start the year but have mostly played very well since the win against the Wild.

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I haven't followed him at all in TOR, PHI or FLA but if still goes overboard with his cutesy dangles shit he can fuck off.

That being said he had a knack for being at the right place and snapping off nasty wristers.

Get a 20 goals a year guy for the 3rd or 4th line and have Florida be responsible for half of his cap hit....

We were already repeating this year but now this is just getting too easy.

Ah its cool, CH. You are still a good read, I just like to give you a hard time.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Toronto moved him to the Flyers when they were out of the playoffs. Flyers traded him to Florida because they thought he was too dumb. For the Flyers. He had a great 2011-12 on a line with Tomases Kopecky and Fleischmann but was hurt most of last year. He was giving zero fucks this year and eventually became a healthy scratch for a few games before Dineen got fired. I'm sure he's perfectly happy to get out of there.

As for losing Dylan Olsen, I just remembered that Stephen Johns is coming out of Notre Dame pretty close to fully formed, and there's your next defensive specialist. I guess there's a slight risk that he might use the Justin Schultz rule to wriggle out of the Blackhawks and play for his hometown Penguins, but are these Blackhawks really an organization you want to wriggle out of?

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Yea, seems like every commenter at CI is terrified of Johns pulling a Schultz. Ahhhhh, to have a 6-4 physical stay-at-home defenseman would just be so nice.

Local team with Crosby and Malkin is as close to a lateral move from two Cups in four years as you'll find. I can't suppose I'd blame him too much if he bailed, but it would certainly suck to lose a prospect like that. I wonder if having a Notre Dame star would help solidify the Hawks fanbase out Michiana way.

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The hits keep on coming: pride of the south suburbs Alex Broadhurst is up from Rockford to replace Mills/Handzus. He was scoring quite a bit in Rockford. He's a former London Knight like Bolland and Kane, the Knights generally regarded as the best organization in junior hockey. Cool.

6th round pick from the 2011 draft. That draft, I tell you.

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Toews is his surrogate son.

Hayes was never going to fit in here. I like the move.

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Yeah, I'm just not seeing the downside to this move either.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

This to the both of youse

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Bickell-Shaw-Versteeg will be a nasty third line. I'll never be 100% sold on Shaw at center because I really want him coming in on the wing and hustling to the front of the net, but I really like the way this roster is shaping up after the Hayes/Nordstrom/Kostka experiments.

I'm bummed that Morin just can't make it work here, though. I'm not holding the unsportsmanlike against Bollig too much because you can give a ref shit about a call 9 times out of 10 with no consequence, and go fucking figure the 10th is when you're playing the team whose largest creditor is the office of the commissioner, but it is a little strange that he could put the team on their awful kill for four minutes after a blown two-goal lead and really suffer no TOI consequences. I hope Morin can prove himself down in Rockford, again, because I still maintain that he has more to offer than Bollig, or Ben Smith, whom I once heralded as a "premium fourth-liner" but is looking more like a replacement-level guy. It's looking more and more likely, though, that his future is elsewhere, and he'll be part of a package to Tallon, Bergevin, or Cheveldayoff for another big rental.

But let's be happy! Bring on Hockey Stupid! Florida fans are like "oh you don't know what you're getting, he sucks," but I think we know exactly what we're getting! Won a damn Cup with the guy! Yeah, he's gonna suck as the first-liner on a dead-ass team in a dead-ass market, but now he's back to a contender and playing behind Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa. I think he'll be just fine.

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As far as value, it's a home run. Trading away two guys who likely ran out of chances in Chicago for a guy who upgrades the 3rd line while paying half his salary.

DUMP THE FUCKING PUCK STEEGS!!


That felt good.

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Team Cutler.

Would Versteeg have remained with the team after 2010 if Tallon hadn't derped the RFA tenders? If so, for how long? Discuss.

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Yeah with him and Bickell that's a lot of pucks going back the other way from no / bad dump ins

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Awesome!!! I always liked him. Hopefully Kaner can keep it in his pants now that his party boy bro is back. Hopefully he cut that god awful hair as well.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

LOVE this deal! 3rd line looks amazing now. Actually all 4 of our lines look amazing.

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http://video.blackhawks.nhl.com/videoce ... 88&lang=en

Funny video made to welcome back Kotter on Blackhawk TV.

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Yep, no lose in this deal. Likey.

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Not a mult.

So am I reading this right...they have him under contract for the next 3 seasons at half price??

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That's my purse! I don't know you!