Blackhawks Beat Brent Sopel Out... to be Waived?

Blackhawks Beat Brent Sopel Out? to be Waived? December 11, 2008 by Terry Shilton Filed under Chicago Blackhawks, NHL Hockey In my last few posts I have reviewed a roster situation that will come to a head this Sunday with the return of James Wisniewski from knee surgery, he has been sent down to the Rockford Ice Hogs for a two game conditioning stint and will rejoin the team on Sunday against Columbus. His return creates an interesting dilemna for the Blackhawks who will soon find themselves with eight active defense man, the top four being Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, James Wisniewski and Brian Campbell. The four remaining are Cam Barker, Brent Sopel, Matt Walker and Aaron Johnson. What to do? As Tim Sassone mentioned in his blog today Dale Tallon has cleared the cap space for Wiz to return: GM Dale Tallon has cleared cap space for Wiz's $900,000 hit. Corey Crawford's return to Rockford created space as did Adam Burish going on long-term injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 26. The earliest Burish could return from his broken toe is Dec. 19 at Calgary since he must miss at least 10 games or 24 days. Once Burish and Aaron Johnson return from long-term IR, the Hawks are going to have some decisions to make on defense where they would have eight. As the problem arises when Aaron and Adam return from injured reserve the Hawks no longer have the available cap to carry both Cam Barker and Brent Sopel, I have continued to work sources for games after that date. One in particular stood out and that was the Canucks game on December 20th, one of the two players mentioned has family considerations in the area and sources tell me has been assured that he will be on the active roster and dressed for that game. Going back to what Tim Sassone of the Chicago Herald said the date that "Burish could come back is the 19th" now do I believe that team would give assurances to a player if it was based on holding over an injury or some roster shuffling and not based on a long term plan? In this case I don't which is why this is a great piece of information I received today. From what I heard today it appears Cam Barker is in the Blackhawks future plans and is not going to be sent down to the Ice Hogs at least not before the Vancouver game. So where does this leave Brent Sopel? honestly I am not sure, it's not like I am the first person to think aloud that Brent could be waived, it has been known for some time that he was available but as a stand a lone option no team is interested in him. Which likely leaves only two scenarios, the first package him with something desirable to make a deal but again any dealings at this point one would think Dale is looking to clear cap space via Martin Havlat or Nikolai Khabibulin to try and land Sundin. As I don't see either scenario playing out for us I am going to go on record and say based on the information at hand I see Bren Sopel getting waived or at least going into a rotation of "healthy scratches" with a couple other players as their are no real options for him via trade. I was going to post my post game of our victory over the Senators but got excited over the information I recieved so that post will come along in the morning, until then GO Hawks GO!!!! Until then Questions, Comments, Concerns visit terryshilton@sportstalkbuzz.com please feel free to email me I will get back to all of them. Like this post? Share it ?